2021-03-02
An SF author recounts his new life in Florida as the husband and business partner of an equine veterinarian in this memoir.
In 2014, 38-year-old Long (Inside the Machine, 2019, etc., under the pen name J. Boyd Long) lived in an Army town in Georgia. He despaired of ever finding the woman of his dreams—one who “doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t have or want kids” and is “not religious.” That was about to change when he filled out an eHarmony profile for the online dating site. He was notified of two matches. Enter Dr. Erica Lacher of Gainesville, Florida, all that the author was seeking and much more. After about nine months of long-distance dating, he moved to Erica’s farm, and an unconventional wedding ceremony eventually followed. The bride and groom dressed as Lara Croft, tomb raider (with Erica descending from a tree), and King Arthur from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Now, more than three years married, Long asserts that he is a much-in-love, very happy camper. The couple’s household features “7 horses, 5 cats, 2 donkeys, 2 dogs, and a sheep named Gerald,” and readers will get to know them all (except the sheep) in these pages. The entertaining vignettes in this upbeat work include a couple of lifestyle adventures (for example, a treacherous motorcycle scramble away from a “thousand-year rain event”). But most of the episodes recount medical experiences, especially the middle-of-the-night and holiday weekend ones endemic to a veterinary practice that chooses to be always on call. “It’s almost like horses know when it’s a holiday,” Long writes, “and that’s when they seem to injure themselves in spectacular fashion.” Although inevitably a few of these tales are tissue worthy, most are uplifting, sprinkled with Long’s sense of humor and overflowing with tenderness. Perhaps most touching is the story about the rescue of an abandoned black horse found standing in a ditch along I-75, badly bruised, frightened, and stoically docile. Readers who have had little experience with horses will find a wealth of intriguing physiological and psychological facts about these very sensitive and often fragile creatures.
Heartwarming, frequently amusing, and a generally enjoyable ride for animal lovers.
