Fields and Pastures New: My First Year as a Country Vet Book

Fields and Pastures New is the story of John McCormack's first days as a practicing veterinarian in Choctaw County, Alabama. Fresh out of school, he moved to the town of Butler with his wife and two children in November 1963 to be the first trained vet in the region, where mule-drawn wagons shared the road with pickup trucks, where moonshine whiskey was still one of the major cash crops, and where all he had to do to find out what was happening in the county was get a haircut. McCormack recalls fondly the personalities, both human and animal, that made up the close-knit community of Choctaw County. The young vet meets and works with a host of colorful characters, including the local unlicensed veterinarian/taxidermist, a moonshiner with an inebriated cow, the "mama" of a particularly surly Chihuahua, and even the governor of Alabama. He learns that animals will do just about anything, that treating an animal often means treating its owner, and that a good pickup truck and dark-colored coveralls are the veterinarian's best friends. As the months pass, Dr. McCormack and his family come to love their new life and their new home. With warmth and humor, McCormack does for the American South what James Herriot did for Yorkshire.

Fresh out of veterinary school in 1963, McCormack moved to Choctaw County, Alabama, where he became the county's first licensed veterinarian. His evocaton of the rural South of 30 years ago, as portrayed in this charming, nostalgic picture of country life, is destined to become a piece of literary Americana.