We came to the Round House for our Friday night pizza, a new and sacrosanct tradition for us and we ran into a bluegrass duo playing great old bluegrass songs. The duo was Alan Epstein, left and Jason Weinstein, right, who happens to be our large animal vet, he works out of the Granville Veterinary Service.

We have called Jason in a panic more than once and he is precious to us, he is also rough and tough. He crawls around pastures, sticks his hands up animal uteruses, wrestles with donkeys and ponies and sheep, does life-and-death diagnoses in the middle of the night.

Large animal work is rough, dirty, sometimes frightening and very physical work. Jason gets down in the much and is fearless. He also gets filthy. His wife is also a large animal vet and he has two small kids. He is often called out in the middle of the night, he answers quickly and comes running.

I can tell you it is a scary thing to be out in the dark with a large animal writhing and foaming on the ground. We are glad to see Jason, there are  not too many older large animal vets, it is a young person’s business.

Jason is a vet we truly trust, he is always direct and honest, conscious of the cost of things and acutely aware of the animals and their comfort and pain levels. He is one of the people we most want to see when a pony goes down or a donkey has a seizure or a sheep gets wobbly. He saves a lot of animal lives, but he also doesn’t avoid the reality of animals and their real lives.

We were happy to see him playing his guitar and we sat down and listened to him and his partner sing and play for awhile. Scott put down a carpet for Red (who is afraid of linoleum floors) and we spent a couple of happy hours there. He sings and plays very well.