There I was talking to Dr. Derrè on the phone the other day. He was updating me on Ginger’s meds. All is well right now. He is weaning Ginger off of all her previous medications and is now on one new prescription, cyclosporine, and two other meds from before. And she is doing very well.

Ginger turned seven on October 28. She spent the first half of her life as a hyperactive Irish Setter. However, Ginger started having some major medical issues in the other half, like not eating for a couple of days. Her local vet told me she needed to visit Purdue Veterinary Hospital. That was when Ginger and I met Dr. Derrè. They took Ginger to the emergency room. I left her there and returned home to wait for a call from Purdue. I feared that Ginger wouldn’t make it.

Dr. Derrè called the next day to tell me they transferred Ginger to the ICU. Ginger still wasn’t eating, and they began to feed her intravenously. I went from being fearful to being scared.

Late that evening, Dr. Derrè knew he needed to get Ginger to begin eating. He tried again with a small amount of food. After a few minutes, Ginger ate some food. I don’t know what Dr. Derrè said or did, but Ginger finally responded. I got a call from Dr. Derrè the next day telling me that Ginger was eating.

Over the next three years, Ginger has had her ups and downs. New meds were added over the years, but still, things weren’t back to normal. I drove down to Purdue Veterinary Hospital to re-evaluate Ginger’s medical issues. The staff at PVH were attempting to change her medicines. It was a lengthy process of weaning her off some prescription drugs and adding a new drug. Several months ago, Dr. Derrè happened to be the vet on call. I’m unsure whether Ginger or I was the happiest to see him. He took blood samples again. Since the results were good, he would call about removing some medication over the next several weeks.

Dr. Derrè called on New Year’s Eve regarding Ginger’s progress. We discontinued another med and have reduced the last drug to every other day. If Ginger remains well in the next few months, I could stop it entirely.

To be honest, I don’t know how we started talking about Edinburgh, Scotland. I do remember telling Dr. Derrè about being there for a year of post-graduate studies at New College of the University of Edinburgh in the late sixties. I had a flat at Ramsey Garden, which is adjacent to the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle.

In the middle of my remembering Edinburgh, Dr. Derrè said that he thought Edinburgh was a truly beautiful city. He had been the about two decades ago. I couldn’t believe it. I also went back to Edinburgh in 2013. I told him that forty years ago, the Royal Mile from the castle to Holyrood Palace had drastically changed. Back then, the Royal Mile had taverns, pubs, clothing stores, bagpipe shops, Campbell the Butcher, St. Giles Cathedral, and John Knox’s home. Today, most of those places are now souvenir shops.

What impressed me about Dr. Derrè is that he knows veterinary medicine, but it is coupled with caring for animals. Ginger goes bonkers when she is around him.

I showed Ginger my recent essay about Maxime. That didn’t mean anything to Ginger until I told her it was Dr. Derrè. I took this video of Ginger wanting to thank him. She gets wound up around him or just the mentioning of his name.

Then I showed Ginger this photo of Dr. Derrè. Ginger was a bit befuddled. Finally, she responded, “What’s with all the cats?”

If you want to see photos from my trip to Scotland, go to Travels and scroll down to Scotland 2013. I interviewed two Scots while there, Doug Norris and the Duke of Argyll.