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Veterinary School— the Holy Grail and brass ring for animal lovers the world over. An Animal Life: The Beginning is a scientific medical mystery (animals and people are dying) and a quest for True Love (with a real cowboy) that unfolds as newbie first-year students struggle to survive the academic gauntlet of veterinary school.  If you love animals and ever wondered about going to vet school, here's your chance to experience the joys and challenges without being kicked, scratched or bitten and at 0.00001% the cost of tuition.

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Millions dream of vet school, few make it in. The chosen discover a hidden world of the most demanding discipline on Earth. (Cue ominous kettle drums…) The first-year “Death Row Crew” is as likely to be skewered by a heron, pranked by their med student rivals, or drummed out by a mule-tough professor as they are to solve a national medical epidemic or find True Love while holding hands inside the belly of a cow — but they never give up on their quest for An Animal Life. (okay, fade kettle drums…)

(co-author bios)

Howard is an aquatic animal veterinarian and science writer. In veterinary school, along with canine anatomy, ruminant physiology and small animal orthopedic surgery, Howard studied aquatic animals at both the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole and the National Aquarium in Baltimore. After graduating from Penn in 1992, a benefactor helped him create a veterinary internship working at the National Aquarium.  His good fortune continued when he was hired as the first full-time veterinarian for the New England Aquarium (NEAq) in Boston.  At NEAq he and his awesome crew worked with nearly every species under the sun — humpback whales, harbor seals, jellyfish, sea turtles, bluefin tuna, lobster, lumpfish and herring.  Subsequently, Howard signed on to help launch both the Georgia Aquarium and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  He has been featured on the PBS TV series Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda.  His work with stranded sea turtles, large whales and dolphins has been recognized on the NBC Nightly News, various regional TV news stations and in dozens of newspaper outlets including the Boston Globe.  Also, Howard’s contributions to help create the world’s largest aquarium were chronicled in the award-winning documentary, "Window To Wow/The Opening of the Georgia Aquarium” (produced by WXIA-TV Atlanta). With a long-standing goal to combine his love for animals, science and creative communication, Howard enrolled in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University where he studied science writing, creative nonfiction and fiction writing.  He graduated in 2002 with a MA and ultimately led the science communications program for the Massachusetts Ocean Partnership.  He has published numerous scientific articles and penned chapters including “When Whale Sharks Fly” in: The Rhino With Glue-on Shoes and Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and Their Patients (Bantam/Dell Publishing Company, Random House Book Group).  In fact, Howard loves writing so much, he’s been known to compose emails and to-do lists on a daily basis.  At present, he lives in Vermont with his wonderfully fabulous wife, Mary Margaret, their sweet dog Mola and a really good kitten, Lucky George.