Alumni Authors

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Not only do our alumni work daily with companion and large animals but a handful are published authors. Here are their stories.

Stories by: Dave Gieseke

She’s the world’s most followed veterinarian on social media. At last count, more than 2.2 million animal lovers around the world follow Dr. Karen Shaw Becker (’97) on Facebook.

Another 100,000 follow her on Instagram.

Social media isn’t her only outreach. Becker consults for a variety of health and wellness companies and has created the largest pet wellness website. In her spare time, she enjoys formulating fresh pet food recipes for transparent, ethical pet food companies, while developing pet health products to improve the wellbeing of companion animals.

Oh, and she’s also the co-author of The Forever Dog, a how-to book that vaulted to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. It is the first dog health book ever it hit number one.

The Forever Dog

At the heart of it, Becker is a small animal veterinarian, and she continues to practice despite the multitude of other activities that pull her away from her love.

“Although I only work part-time, seeing clients now, to me, there is no better feeling than working with people and patients,” said Becker, who worked as a full-time veterinarian until five years ago.

After graduating from Iowa State, Becker completed exotic animal internships in California and at the Berlin Zoo in Germany before opening the first proactive animal hospital in the Midwest in 1999. She followed that up with an exotic animal clinic in 2006 and a rehabilitation and pain management clinic five years later.

But she could only reach so many pet owners through her clinics.

“I was looking for a platform to provide free resources and tips for people to provide better care for companion animals,” Becker said. “Pet lovers are desperate for information on how to make better choices and not have regrets.

“If social media was the place where I could reach more people than I could in a clinic, then I decided that is what I should be doing.”

Becker’s Facebook following soon transitioned into writing. Her first book, Real Food for Healthy Pets, received the Whole Dog Journal’s Best Homemade Diet Book of All Time award.

But it is The Forever Dog that has catapulted her into national prominence. Co-authored with Rodney Habib, founder of Planet Paws, the book gives practical, science-backed tools to protect companion animals.

The authors traveled the globe before the COVID pandemic, interviewing the owners of the oldest dogs in the world – people whose dogs have lived into their 20s and even their 30s. Then they met with top geneticists, microbiologists and longevity researchers to review these case studies, identifying what the owners did (and didn’t) do that can positively influence lifespan, according to the latest research.

Becker and Habib undertook thorough investigations into the dogs they document in The Forever Dog. They obtained the dog’s records before scheduling an interview. “We would not get on a plane until the veterinarian sent us the papers to verify the dog’s age,” Becker said.

“Every scientist we contacted for an interview, thankfully had a soft spot for dogs,” Becker continued. “We were able to access the top longevity research labs around the globe because these scientists also want companion animals to live longer lives.”

Many of the tips in The Forever Dog are similar to what physicians tell their human patients – eat right, get plenty of exercise and do the things you love.

“Dogs are really victims of their owners’ health and wellness choices,” Becker said, “and we spend a lot of money buying things for our dogs.

“Shouldn’t we be doing things that will prolong their lives?”

One of those things Becker argues in The Forever Dog is to identify all forms of stress in your dog’s life. In her interviews with the experts and the owners whose dogs had exceedingly longer life expectancies, she came up with a common dominator - reduce the dog’s stress levels, including mental, emotional, physical, and environmental chemical stress.

“These extra long-lived dogs all have an exceptional quality of life,” Becker said. “Every single one of the owners also suggested that it was important to identify things their dogs wanted to do.”

One way to help reduce one form of stress, mental stress, plaguing pets today is giving them more opportunities to do things they want to do, which corroborates what canine cognition expert Dr. Alexandra Horowitz relayed in the book – happy, engaged dogs have less stress and less stress hormones, which plays into health span and life span.

One of the examples Beiber documents is Tigger, a 22-year-old rescue Pit Bull.

“The owner regularly scheduled playdates for Tigger, especially as she aged, so she could have social interactions with her dog friends,” Becker said. “This may sound trivial, but dogs are social species and many need ongoing opportunities for positive, social engagement throughout their lives.”

Augie, a 19-year-old Golden Retriever loved the water. She began swimming as a puppy and her owners contin-

THE FOREVER DOG CONTINUED

ued to help her swim every day until her death.

Almost 21-year-old Darcy loved fresh blueberries and trying new foods. His parents created nutritionally diverse recipes and meal plans for him throughout his life.

It could also be as simple as making one of your daily walks a “sniffari,” and allowing your dog to decide which direction to go and how often to stop along the adventure.

“How happy your dog is can affect their longevity,” Becker said. “One of our goals as owners should be to find what activities makes our dog happy and stay with the plan.”

Becker is taking her own advice. She has recently adopted a 14-year-old terrier named Homer. Homer spent time in a rescue after living most of his life with his owner in an assisted living facility. This narrow and limited perspective led to poor social skills.

Becker first met Homer at a Christmas Eve dinner hosted by her aunt who was fostering the dog. Soon Homer was living with Becker, and she applied stress-reducing tips she wrote about in The Forever Dog.

She started exercising Homer and soon found his happy place.

“I created a safe environment for him to walk outside,” Becker said. “He found out birds aren’t scary. Other dogs aren’t scary.

“I also found that Homer loves to investigate his environment. I like to say smelling is his hobby. He is happiest when he is outside. Being able to spend lots of time in nature opened up a brand-new world for my senior dog and he’s living his best life.”

So is Becker.

“I’m looking forward to what’s next,” Becker said. “I’m enjoying every day.” gd

Dreams Come True

Growing up, Christine Hedrick had a dream. Actually, she had three dreams. “I knew I would work with animals,” the 2001 DVM graduate said, “and I wanted to be a teacher.”

The third dream?

“Many of my elementary school and high school teachers encouraged me to be an author,” Hedrick said.

And imagine that, all three dreams came true.

Hedrick attended the University of Iowa where she “had the intention of being a teacher.” But her heart pulled her in a different direction.

Soon she was volunteering at a veterinary clinic and by the time she graduated with an elementary education degree she had plans to be a veterinarian. Since Hendrick lacked many of the prerequisites required to earn admittance to vet school, she spent time as a substitute teacher in the Iowa City area while she went back to school.

One dream checked off but even today Hedrick still teaches. She is an adjacent biology teacher at the Des Moines Area Community College.

“It can be tough, but I know my limits,” Hedrick said. “I love teaching and as a biology teacher I get to integrate my veterinary medicine stories into my lectures.

“I try to brainwash my students into going into a career that I love.”

That was dream number two – becoming a veterinarian. After graduating with a DVM, Hedrick worked full-time at Jordan Creek Animal Hospital in West Des Moines before transitioning to relief work at the same clinic.

“I love everything about being a veterinarian,” Hedrick said, “especially helping patients. I know I can help animals and since I’m not working full-time now, there is really no need for a break from practicing.

“I’m sort of ‘on-call’ in the neighborhood and help with their animals as much as I can.”

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Not working full-time also gave Hedrick an opportunity to achieve dream number three and the COVID pandemic provided the perfect platform for Hedrick to write her first book.

“I was hearing from so many different people about how veterinarians were being battered by the public during the pandemic,” she said. “I wanted to show a side of veterinary medicine that the public could relate to and understand.

“I was hopeful that I could not only make myself feel better but maybe help others as well.”

The result was Into the Fold, a novel that pulls back the curtain on life from a veterinarian’s perspective in a way few people outside the field have understood. The novel’s main character is Carrie, a young and driven veterinarian whose dream career is revealing harsh realities that throw her well-planned future into question.

“Into the Fold absolutely made me better,” Hedrick said. “I love the characters in my book and how they lift up those around us.”

Hedrick wrote the first draft of Into the Fold in three months and then spent the next half-year editing, and then rewriting and rewriting.

“The heart of the story remained the same from the initial draft to the final version,” Hedrick said.

Her experience in writing Into the Fold has encouraged Hedrick to continue her dream of being an author. She is currently working on a second book that she describes as “much different and edgier” than Into the Fold.

“This book is out of my comfortable zone,” she said. “I’ve had to do a lot more research and I’m definitely stretching myself as a writer.” gd

Spinning Tales

Wagging My Tales began simply enough. Dr. Doug Carlson (’71) began writing down stories from his childhood of growing up in rural Iowa. He wanted his grandchildren to know what it was like living on a pig farm.

After his daughter bought Carlson’s Illinois veterinary practice from him, she asked for some other stories from his veterinarian days to put on the clinic’s website.

“She wanted some interesting stories about some of my unusual patients over the past 42 years,” said Carlson, who now lives in Spring, Texas. “I have always enjoyed telling stories but since I have had Parkinson’s for 18 years, my voice has become weak.

“Writing stories makes up for that problem.”

The result is Wagging My Tales, a series of short stories from Carlson’s childhood and veterinary career. The book is available on Amazon and other on-line outlets.

Most of the book looks at some of the more unusual patients Carlson encountered at the Village Animal Clinic in Carol Stream Illinois. He started the clinic in 1979 after working at a nearby clinic in Wheaton with Dr. Russ Chapin (’61).

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Submitted Photo “Dr. Chapin was a great mentor and gave me a lot of skills and confidence to be a quality veterinarian,” Carlson said.

One thing Chapin may not have fully prepared Carlson for was the unusual patients that he writes about in Wagging My Tales. The “tales” include:

• The show went on after Carlson operated on a pet rat, who still made it on time when the curtain rose on a high school production “Jane” the rat was in. • He was surprised when he was prepared to do a spay on Penny the cat. Turns out Carlson had to perform a neuter instead. • Butkus, a “typical junkyard dog,” who’s “job” was to protect his owner’s car repair shop after hours. Over the years Carlson saw Butkus for a number of ailments but never once did this junkyard dog bite his veterinarian friend.

Butkus may not have bitten Carlson or any of his staff. The same can’t be said about the author’s favorite story in Wagging My Tales about a dwarf hamster with a broken leg.

“Midgie was perhaps the smallest patient that was presented to me,” Carlson said. “One night the nine-yearold girl who owned her woke up at 3 in the morning and noticed her hamster’s leg was caught in the cage bars.” After an emergency veterinarian recommended amputation, the girl tearfully requested that Midgie be taken to Carlson the next morning. Despite Carlson’s diagnosis that the leg couldn’t be saved, the little girl cried and cried.

“Finally, I saw the desperate look in her mother’s eyes,” Carlson said. “I knew the nerves to the leg were severed and as the hamster wasn’t in any pain, I suggested we tape the leg and recheck Midgie in a week.”

Carlson and his technician carefully worked on Midgie, who was constantly trying to bite the pair. It was with a sigh of relief that the leg was finally taped and they could take the hamster back to the owners.

“We brought the hamster into the exam room where the family was anxiously waiting for their precious pet,” Carlson recalled. “As we walked into the room, the hamster finally managed to bite the tech. She reacted by flinging her arms up in the air and the hamster flew across the room.”

The stress of the situation finally overflowed in Carlson. He started laughing and immediately apologized. He needed not to have bothered.

“Oh, that hamster bites us all time,” the family told Carlson.

A week later Midgie returned to Carlson, who upon further examination still had to amputate the leg. Midgie did well on three legs afterwards, but continued to bite his owner whenever he could.

“I never did develop a great love for treating hamsters,” Carlson writes. gd

Drawing Upon Experience

There’s an old saying… “write what you know.” Dr. Candace Carter (’92) has definitely drawn upon her vast real-life experiences to tell her stories. Her on-line bio even says she “has walked many paths in life.”

A few of those paths including serving in the military, working in private veterinary practice and at the USDA Bureau of Land Management after earning her DVM from Iowa State University. Carter also worked for the National Park Service as a biological science technician at the Canaveral National Seashore along Florida’s Atlantic Ocean coastline.

Carter’s stories also reflect on growing up in rural Ohio where she was often found fishing, hunting or horseback riding. Her love of old western movies came from nights watching the flicks with her father.

“My stories reflect small town life and the feeling of family shared by people in rural communities,” Carter said.

Those stories revolve around Henry “Whispering” Smith, a Colorado range detective who in Carter’s first book returns to his North Carolina home after years of tracking livestock rustlers. In Muddy Waters, the range detective seeks to bring a killer to justice.

Carter turned to writing after retiring from the National Park Service a few years back after contracting Lyme Disease.

“I used to write in a journal,” she said, “but I never thought about being an author. I did some technical writing while I was in college. It wasn’t until much later that I decided to be a fiction writer.

“My childhood dream was to be a park ranger.”

While she was a park ranger, Carter would jot down things from time to time that would stick in her brain. Like the time she was in Searchlight, Nevada, and saw a wanted poster that just read, “Wanted Sheep Rustlers.” Those thoughts were just that – thoughts until 2001 when Carter joined a writers’ critique group, which she describes as “three old guys.”

“I didn’t think my writing was any good but the guys in that critique group really helped me, especially with my character’s development and help brainstorm to come up with ideas to move the plot along,” she said.

The critiques Carter received helped mold Muddy Waters into an award-winning mystery novel. Carter received the Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Award from the South Carolina Writers Association in Novel First Chapter for the book and the prize included having Muddy Waters published.

It took Carter eight years to write and finish Muddy Waters. She is currently working on a sequel and has penned a short story, “For What It’s Worth,” that also features “Whispering Smith.”

Her subsequent works have been both easier and harder to work on.

“It’s easier in the sense that you know what you’re doing,” Carter said, “but it’s harder because there’s always a doubt in the back of your mind that maybe this book isn’t as good as the first one is.”

At least one thing has been easier with the second book.

“In Muddy Waters, I wrote half the book with a specific character in mind as the murderer, but then changed who guilty party was,” Carter said. “I knew who the murderer was in the second book, before I even started writing.”

In the sequel, Carter is still writing about what she knows. The main character works for the National Park Service. gd

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High Plains Fiction

Photo: Dave Gieseke

Any doubt of what Dr. Nishi O’Dell Giefer (’97) writes about were dispelled immediately upon meeting her.

Decked out in denim, a long-sleeved cowboy shirt, boots, and a cowboy hat, Giefer lives the ranch life through and through. She has a lot of experience in that area.

She’s coped with inclement weather. Suffered the financial hardships that comes with ranching. She’s traveled with a wheat harvest crew, shod horses, built miles of fence, cooked for hired hands, and has spent days in the saddle.

She has even been bit by a rattlesnake.

“I have the cowboy gene in me,” Giefer said. “My family has always been on the frontier and manifested the ranching attitude.”

Giefer has translated her ranching background into a series of high plains novels. Her 21st book was released last May and all are in the western mystery genre. Here’s just a sampling of what Giefer has written…

• Brennan’s Odyssey – Set in the present-day American

High Plains, Brennan only wants to be a cowboy but life just hasn’t worked out that way. • Convergent Trails – Three cowboys – one running from his family life. One haunted by dreams of combat. One managing life in a wheelchair. An old widow who hears ghosts and a debutante who is failing trying to run a ranch. Of course, their trails converge. • Doctor of Veterinary Murder – Dr. Shiloh Bennett opens a clinic in rural Kansas and rans across a convicted felon seeking revenge. • Keep Your Enemies Closer – Can Kansas Highway Patrol

Trooper Cord Hallock break up a drug ring and solve a series of armed robberies before he meets the same fate as his slain predecessor? “I love writing mysteries,” Giefer said. “I get the same pleasure doing it as some people get doing a crossword puzzle as you try to put all the pieces together.

“I think mysteries chose me. I have always loved reading mysteries and if no one dies in the first ten pages, it’s not worth reading.”

Giefer comes by writing naturally. Her mother is a published author and as a young child, Giefer says she “wasted a lot of paper as a kid writing stories.” She finished her first “salable” book while in veterinary school and the book will finally be published next year.

And like she mentioned earlier, Giefer also comes by ranching naturally. She grew up on a farm in southwest Iowa and after graduating with her DVM, was a mixed animal practitioner for a few years in Kansas.

Giefer and her husband have owned a herd of 200 Red Angus cattle in WaKenney, Kansas, for the past two decades. Because of the demands of the ranch, her writing, and raising a family of four, Giefer no longer practices veterinary medicine.

That is if you discount the care she gives her own animals.

“I practice virtually every day,” she said. “I love it, still love to work with animals and the only client I really work with is me.”

The Giefers are now empty nesters, allowing Nishi more time to write. She was especially prolific during the first months of the COVID pandemic, writing and publishing seven of her 21 books. There are times when she has three books in development.

She created her own publishing company to market her books and has expanded into other authors recently.

“I love the autonomy of being my own publisher,” Giefer said, “because in the end you have to market your books if you are going to sell them.”

And market them she does. Giefer does frequent talks at library and book clubs. She has developed a website where fans can buy her books. They are also available on Goodreads and Amazon in print and e-books.

While ranching and the American High Plains are the settings for her books, there is another constant.

“Almost every book I have written has a veterinary character in it, although sometimes they are minor characters,” Giefer said. “Writers should always stick with what they know and I know veterinary medicine and ranching.” gd

180-Degree Turn

About the only thing Dr. Sarah Davis’ two forays into fiction have in common is that well – both are fictional tales.

Davis’ (’01) first book, Inside Voices, was a young adult fiction thriller that saw the main character move from witnessing a massacre in high school to working at the edge of the Arctic where her foreboding premonitions coincide with a rising number of murders in an Alaskan community.

Davis’ latest book, They Had Eyes of Silver, is a 180degree turn from Inside Voices.

“Yes, THEOS is an entirely different genre,” Davis said. “My main goal in writing, aside from writing a story I’m excited to read and tell, is to incorporate veterinary medicine into the plot.”

Davis describes They Had Eyes of Silver as a steamy, paranormal romance. The book is aimed at mature readers and as such, she wrote the book as S.E. Davis.

The plot follows veterinarian Reina Kirke as she takes a break from her hectic work life to visit Europe and look into her family’s roots. Discovering supernatural roots in her lineage, Reina begins skirting closer and closer to danger after meeting the handsome Blaine Woodward and finds herself drawn into a passionate love affair.

Davis says she first started to consider a Dracula/Outlander story line with a veterinarian getting transported back in time. Over time, the story morphed into veterinarian meeting an extended family of wolf shifters.

Her research led to an actual story of a German serial killer who during the late 1900s claimed to turn into a werewolf by wearing a leather belt.

“That got me thinking, what if there was such a strap and if so, where or how would it have gotten its magic,” Davis said. “That lead to They Had Eyes of Silver.”

Published by Valkyrie Books, the book was released in June 2022. It is the part one of a four-book series Davis says will include They Had Eyes of Gold, set in Minnesota and North Dakota; They Had Eyes of Fire, set in North Dakota and Iceland; and the finale, They Had Eyes of Ice, which will again take place in Iceland.

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“I did not have a series in mind when I started out with this book,” Davis said, “but the characters decided differently. I’m excited to introduce new characters with each book, shifting spotlights as the story unfolds, and weaving in lesser-known elements of Norse mythology.

“I can also include random stuff I make up; this is fiction after all!”

There is a possibility Davis could write prequels to the series as well. She is also working on Grandma Birdie’s How to Crochet for Vampires, a paranormal fantasy/ magical realism story.

“When I find time to write, unless I have a specific goal, I’ll bounce between stories,” Davis said. “Birdie’s vampire hunting skills are second to her crocheting and cooking and provide a fun distraction from the wulfin.” gd