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IN THE BEGINNING.......
I first met Matt when he came to look at my rhea. Believe me, there has been much innuendo since then.
I live on a flourishing smallholding near York, home to an ever increasing menagerie of rescued animals, the latest arrivals being three very thin and tatty rheas. It soon became apparent that one of them in particular, was not just malnourished, but very ill. Ever more listless, finally she couldn't hold up her own weight, and collapsed.
Being as near to ignorant as one can get about South American flightless birds, we panicked. After carrying Phleas into the nice warm workshop, we started looking for a vet who specialised in exotic animals. A call to Battleflatts surgery in Pocklington reassured us that, yes, they had an exotic pet man!
We were relieved when the old land rover slowed outside our gate. After introductions and a brief history of events, we took Matt into the workshop where Phleas was lying on a pile of straw. He immediately told us that the best way to examine a rhea without spooking it, was to put a sock on it's head.
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I just cast around the aladdin's cave of useful junk that is our workshop. Amongst the usual tools, I knew we had a drawful of tractor parts and assorted bits of fruitwood that I will get round to turning on the lathe one day, but I was certain there were no socks.
Just as I started, "I'll nip up to the house and get a sock.", Matt leant down, took off his shoe, and pulled off a threadbare black sock. He drew it gently over the wary rhea's head, pulling it down her long, scrawny neck.
We laughed, and not just at Phleas, now quiet with a balaclava sock on her head. I thought, "I really like this man."
Life went on. Phleas slowly recovered. Then, late one Friday evening, when the office had shut and my colleague, Duncan, was getting ready to lock up, the phone rang. He answered politely, just in case it was a proper client, "Shaffron Publishing .."
It was Matt Brash, asking after Cathi's rhea!
"Did you say publishing company?', he asked. "I do a TV series called Zoo Vet at Large and I've written a book."
And so, this book began. It has been a huge amount of fun along the way.
Cathi Poole
Shaffron Publishing