Poiseul-la-Grange. Miracle dog, trapped rat, wasp attack... Anecdotes from a rural veterinarian

"We don't remember everything," says Lieven Van Daele, a veterinarian who opened his practice in Poiseul-la-Grange in the mid-1990s. "So much has happened." But in over 30 years of practice, some events are hard to forget.

"Even when I arrived, I wasn't completely bilingual," says the man who grew up in Beervelde, Belgium . "I knew a few French words, but, for example, there were parts of a cow's body that I didn't know. I had to learn on the job. I even went to Dijon to buy a medical dictionary, but it was for men... I couldn't find the abomasum, for example."

Called out day and night, Lieven Van Daele experienced countless operations. One in particular remains etched in his memory. "It was Christmas Day," he...

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