A Triumph of Surgery
A triumph of surgery
Explain how Tricki was cured and why the title is ironic.
No food, only water. Herriot's surgery is also his home, full of his own dogs. 'For two days I kept an eye on him, giving him no food but plenty of water.' At the end of the second day Tricki starts to take interest. On the third, he whimpers when he hears the dogs in the yard.
Life with the pack. Herriot lets him out. Joe the greyhound and the others roll him over and sniff him, and Tricki follows them, 'rolling slightly with his surplus fat'. At feeding time he watches them eat; next day he pushes in for his own bowl. Soon he plays rough games and hunts rats with them. No medicine is given.
The happy period. When Mrs Pumphrey hears that Tricki is 'convalescing' (getting better), she sends:
- fresh eggs, two dozen at a time, so Herriot and his partners have two each for breakfast;
- bottles of wine, 'to enrich Tricki's blood', so lunch becomes a ceremony;
- then brandy, 'to put a final edge on Tricki's constitution'.
Tricki gets none of it. It is tempting to keep him as 'a permanent guest'.
Home again. After two weeks Tricki is 'a lithe, hard-muscled animal', racing with the pack. When Mrs Pumphrey comes, he leaps 'in a tremendous leap' into her lap, licking her face and barking. The beds, toys, cushions, coats and bowls go back unused.
'A triumph of surgery!' Mrs Pumphrey, in tears, calls the recovery 'a triumph of surgery'. But there was no surgery at all. The cure was simple: less food and more exercise. That gap is the joke in the title.
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