Nancy Kay's book Speaking for Spot is a must have for all pet owners. Everything about this book is great, including the flaps on the front and back covers, which I like to use as bookmarks.
It's wonderfully laid out in an easy to read fashion. It's full of bullet points, shaded boxes, graphs and cute cartoons. It has many anecdotes which make it more fun to read than you would think a book about medical advocacy could be. Dr. Kay's sense of humour doesn't hurt either. In the section on prescription drugs she has a list of what should appear on your dogs RX bottle. "Shake well", Keep Refrigerated, and Don’t let your dog drive".
Speaking for Spot is a book that "helps you put into words that "huh" look your dog gives as he looks at you with those big pleading eyes. He's asking - is this necessary?" This book teaches you how to ask for your dog.
Dr. Kay really considers what's best for you and your dog in a personal sense, not "the client and the dog" in a clinical sense. She gives pointers for you to figure out what's best for your dog taking age, personality, life style, finances, and more into account.
Common sense advice from taking a friend ("a hired gun") to be an extra set of eyes and ears at a vet visit to how to ask for a second opinion complete with conversation starters for different communication styles.
As well as uncommon sense advice regarding specific diseases, what Dr. Kay calls "the vaccination conundrum", and the difficult decision of euthanasia.
In this book you'll find out how to make medical decisions, how to find the right vet, how to make the most out of a vet visit, the latest news on vaccines, testing, and cutting edge procedures and treatments that are available for dogs.
Although written for dogs, much of Speaking for Spot applies to cats as well. I wish every pet owner could read this book and most of all, after reading it, I wish Dr. Kay could be MY vet!
Nancy Kay also has an award winning blog.
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