So the deadline for the copy edit of book 2 has just passed and unbelievably I've made it by the skin of my teeth. Quite a process writing a book, I always imagined the hard bit would be the writing, but in all truth - that's just the beginning. Teams of hardcore literary wizards then pour over your cherished material and point out you've used the same name to describe every animal you mention, or suggest that character development might involve a little more than saying a person was wearing a jumper. Chapter titles, page breaks, jacket copy excerpts, cover notes, dedications, illustrations and grammatical slip ups all need sorting - it's a mission - and it all needs to hit a deadline or you get blacklisted and banished to hell. Well almost. Literary hell at least. In fact, writing a book is a bit like being a vet, all about the team and without the team checking all the errors then it would be a pretty poor read. Much like trying to do an operation without a nurse - bit touch and go.

Talking of which, had a bit of touch and go this week. Not the best confession to put on a public blog, but it involved a feral cat so hopefully that makes it ok. The issue was that it was supposed to be a castrated male and turned out to be an entire female. That in itself wasn't a problem, and I doubt the cat minded. The problem was that the cat was as wild as the hills, I had sedated it to check it over and then realised it needed to be neutered. All turned out well, the cat was fine, just that you could arguably say the situation in which I spayed it was a bit more VetAdventure than Pilgrims Veterinary Practice. What can you do? Needs must and the cat wasn't going to get caught and sedated twice. 

On other news, it's been a busy one at work. Just finished 26 nights out of 35 on call - pay back for extended time away - ideal for book writing though so every cloud and all that. I also had an interview with Graham Norton on radio 2. High five with Boy George on the way to the studio and there I was, in the seat of power. Boy George didn't really give me a high five, though he did cast a cursory glance in my direction - not doubt noting my distinct sense of dress style, as he exited the building to a crowd of fans waiting for signatures. It was quite hard to push through them and get in through the doors actually. Security took some persuading as well. Graham, however, was great and really nice of him to have me on the show - we had a big surge of interest in the charity so all good news and I'm indebted to him.

The title to this blog relates to the fact I have become a small furry vet. Not literally - that would be difficult given my size, but whereas last month I saw a chicken a day, these last few weeks it's all been rats, rabbits and guinea pigs. What's going on there? So far, fingers intact, but we all know it's only a matter of time...