A Triumph of Surgery

1. Tricki the over-fed dog

Tricki is a small pet dog belonging to the wealthy Mrs Pumphrey. The narrator, who is also the family vet, first notices that something is wrong when he sees Tricki in the street. The dog has grown enormously fat; he looks like "a bloated sausage with a leg at each corner." His eyes are bloodshot and runny, his tongue lolls from his jaws, and he is listless and unwilling to move. Herriot, as a professional, immediately understands the cause: the dog is hugely over-fed and gets almost no exercise. He warns Mrs Pumphrey that she must cut down on Tricki's food and give him more exercise, but the warning falls on deaf ears.

2. Mrs Pumphrey's misplaced love

Mrs Pumphrey adores Tricki and showers him with affection in completely the wrong way. She feeds him rich treats between meals — cream cakes, chocolates, and other delicacies — because she fears he is "delicate." She is worried that he might be suffering from a lack of vitamins and minerals, and so she begins giving him extra helpings of cod-liver oil and a bowl of Horlicks at night to make him sleep. Tricki even has his own wardrobe of little coats for different weather and a whole array of bowls for different foods. Her love is genuine but foolish: she is literally killing the dog with kindness.

3. The dog falls seriously ill

One day Mrs Pumphrey rings the narrator in a great panic. Tricki will not eat his favourite dishes; he has vomited, refuses food, and just lies on the carpet panting. He has had "a sort of crisis." Mrs Pumphrey wails that he will die. The narrator decides at once that the only cure is to take the dog away from his home and its endless supply of treats. With some difficulty he persuades the distraught Mrs Pumphrey to let him take Tricki to the surgery for a fortnight of observation and treatment.

4. The dramatic departure

Taking Tricki away becomes a tearful event. As the little dog is carried out, Mrs Pumphrey is overcome with grief, certain she may never see him again. While Herriot waits, an avalanche of Tricki's comforts begins arriving at the surgery — his day bed, his night bed, cushions, toys, rubber rings, breakfast bowl, lunch bowl, supper bowl, and a whole bag of extras. The narrator tells the staff to take no notice of this luxury; the real treatment will be quite different.

5. The simple "surgery" — no medicine at all

At the surgery there is no operation and no medicine. Herriot simply puts Tricki in the yard with the other dogs of the household and gives him no food at all for the first two days — only plenty of water. Ignored by the busy pack at first, Tricki soon begins to take an interest in his surroundings. On the third day he starts whimpering for company and joins the other dogs. From then on he is treated like an ordinary dog: he is fed small amounts of normal dog food, made to run and play in the garden, and even joins the dogs in scrambling for their dinner. He becomes fitter and happier each day, racing about and rolling in the grass.

6. Mrs Pumphrey's anxious gifts

Throughout the fortnight Mrs Pumphrey keeps telephoning to ask after her darling. When she hears he is improving, she begins sending eggs "to build up his strength," then bottles of wine and even brandy to fortify his blood. The narrator and his colleagues happily consume these gifts themselves over their evening meals, enjoying the wine and brandy while Tricki gets nothing but exercise and plain dog food. This is one of the funniest ironies of the story.

7. The joyful, healthy return

By the end of his stay Tricki is a transformed animal — slim, hard-muscled, bright-eyed, and bursting with energy. When Mrs Pumphrey arrives in her chauffeur-driven car to collect him, she is astonished. Tricki leaps into the car and into her arms, and she weeps tears of joy, declaring it "a triumph of surgery!" The narrator wisely keeps silent about the fact that he performed no surgery whatsoever — the cure was nothing but starvation of treats and a healthy, active routine.