There was a time when I wanted to be a veterinarian.  That dream was born in the afterglow of reading James Herriot's remarkable books, All Creatures Great and Small as well as All Things Wise and Wonderful. Heriot was the pen name for James Alfred Wight, a British veterinary surgeon whose books lent a certain romance and charm to the idea of being a country vet.

    My interest in the field led me to a farm in the small community of Grantsville, West Virginia during the summer of 1979, the year I graduated from high school.  I worked on the farm during the day and traveled with the local vet in the late afternoons and evenings. It was a first hand look at the not-so-romantic life of a country veterinarian.  Maybe it was just me, but I didn't find anything particularly intoxicating about having my entire arm up the business end of a cow searching for remnants of her afterbirth.  Nor do I remember Heriot ever performing surgery on a skunk to remove the "scent sacks" just to port and starboard of its rectum.  Apparently in West Virginia, once they are "de-skunked," skunks make wonderful pets.  Who knew?

    Much of our time was spent driving long distances between farms to perform rather mundane tasks: vaccinating a herd of cattle, giving medicine to horses, the occasional castration.  To be sure there were highlights: delivering a breach calf after midnight on a starlit West Virginia night, getting attacked by a hen after I got too close to her chicks.  Good times.

    In the end, though, it wasn't that summer which derailed my veterinary dreams.  It was biochemistry in my sophomore year at Tufts University.  I quickly realized that as an aspiring veterinarian facing a lengthy and complex science curriculum, I made a hell of an english major! Things seem to have worked out.  I may not be a country vet, but I do live in the suburbs and have a dog....and I'm a long way from the business end of a cow!

Editor's note: You can see Anthony living out some of his veterinary passions on an upcoming edition of Chronicle, or you can watch his stint as a veterinary technician by clicking on "Chronicle Extras" on the Chronicle section of thebostonchannel.com