Dai Evans is a vet, the only vet for 30 miles around Bruton-under-the-water, and his days and nights are full...too full. He wishes for an assistant, but the wild and remote area holds little attraction to prospective employees. His wife Sheila and their five children help out the practice as they can.

Another good read by author Joyce Stranger, a follow-up to her first book, "The Running Foxes". While the former book stresses the lives of the local men and their hounds, this story revolves more around the farmers, their stock and the struggle to eke out an existence close to the mountainous fell country. Dai sees it all, and cares for not only his four-footed patients, but their owners as well.

I came to know these people as if they were part of my 'real' life, and was sorry to close the book and leave the Lakeland. ( )