Henry and the Wolf Doctor

Roberta Collineur, Ph.D., D.V.M., First Nations woman who is scientifically brilliant and tied to her cultural Spirit roots, has just graduated vet school after clawing her way out of an abusive and self-destructive past. Pans to start a new life in a prestigious clinic in Vancouver are foiled when she nearly runs over a wounded pup that mysteriously appears in the dead of night, leaving her stranded and penniless in a town filled with colorfully-dysfunctional rugged individualists with no shortage of secret pasts and present vulnerabilities. Top on the list is Doc Henry Steiner, old Redneck White veterinarian with a mysterious past, who hires Roberta for reasons he keeps to himself. Terri, a hyper-optimistic and naive neo-Hippie mechanic/veterinary assistant who really does believe that all you need is love, is about to have her eyes open to the world as it really is. Norma runs a highly illegal but effective animals rescue operation and is a Platonic friend of Doc Henry who wants to be more...perhaps. Cowboy Hank, dream man garage owner, whose real identity is known to no one else in town, offers Roberta genuine love, which she wants to trust but can't. Deathhound, a super-intelligent and ultra-cynical Goth born to dim-witted pseudo-liberal rich parents, seeks a role model and teacher she can believe in. Roberta is changed by and changes the lives of all around her, mostly for the better, but destructive people from her very dark past (e.g., her abusive father and even more manipulative pimp-dope dealer hubby) follow her in her dreams, and reality. Very real ghosts from Henry's past are also bent on destroying what the culturally-mismatched animal docs are building, along with the community of Knife Bend that is, so far anyway, a model for independence and vitality in a dead, lifeless and cruel world. Adopted from published novels of same title by MJ Politis.