All Creatures Dark and Dangerous: The Dr. David Westbrook Stories

Dr. David Westbrook, a small-town veterinarian in Michigan, has a one-eyed, three-legged cat named Franken Kat, whom he found by the roadside and patched together. "She's a terrific mouser," David explains. "She can't catch anybody but she spooks the hell out of 'em and they change neighborhoods." All creatures can be dark and dangerous, but Dave knows that humans can be the most dangerous of all. With the cooperation of the local sheriff, David finds that his ministrations to cats, dogs, horses and other four-legged creatures lead him to dark side of a more complicated creatures — the two-legged kind. And David discovers that just as he stitched Franken Kat back together, he sometimes has to reassemble people's lives, including his own. Doug Allyn is one of the most gifted short-story writers in the mystery field. He has won an Edgar for Best Short Story from the Mystery Writers of America, and two of his stories in All Creatures Dark and Dangerous won the Ellery Queen Readers Award.