CH-1 TRIUMPH OF SURGERY
“A Triumph of Surgery” from the Footprints Without Feet book, James Herriot presents the
story of a small dog named Tricki who is pampered and overfed by his rich mistress, Mrs.
Pumphrey. Tricki becomes hugely fat and listless because of his sedentary lifestyle and
excessive diet. James Herriot, who is a veterinary surgeon, realizes that the only way to save
the dog is to remove him from his owner’s indulgent care. Tricki is taken to the surgery
(clinic), where he is given no food but plenty of water for two days. Gradually, he starts
taking interest in his surroundings and joins the other dogs in their energetic play. Within a
fortnight, Tricki is transformed into a lithe, hard-muscled animal. When Mrs. Pumphrey sees
his recovery, she believes it is a miracle performed through medical science, calling it a
‘Triumph of Surgery’, unaware that the cure was simply a natural lifestyle and proper diet.
• Bloated Sausage: The vivid description used by Mr. Herriot to illustrate Tricki’s
extreme obesity and unhealthy physical state.
• Listless: This term describes Tricki’s lack of energy and interest in his surroundings
due to his excessive weight and poor health.
• Rheumy: The watery discharge from Tricki’s eyes, signaling his physical distress and
ailment.
• Convalescing: The period of Tricki’s recovery and gradual return to health at the
surgery.
• Lithe: This describes Tricki’s transformed state after two weeks of
exercise, meaning he became flexible, graceful, and physically fit.
DETAIL SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
The story starts when Mrs. Pumphrey, a rich lady takes her dog out for a walk. A nearby
veterinary doctor who knows the lady sees the dog and is shocked as he sees that the dog
looks like a bloated sausage with a leg at each end. He advises her to stop giving him
unhealthy things to eat but Mrs. Pumphrey is not able to refuse him. Soon he falls sick and
the doctor is called. The narrator, Mr. Herriot then somehow takes Tricki, the dog to the
hospital even though he knows that Mrs. Pumphrey is not ready to leave her dog and nearly
fainted just by hearing these words. Then he takes the dog along and puts a bed for him in
his surgery. The dog doesn’t move much nor eats anything for the first two days. On the
second day, he looks around and whimpers a bit. He wanted to go out on the third day and
started playing with the bigger dogs when he was taken out. He also licked the bowls of
other dogs clean on the third day.
Then his condition started improving very fast. He started fighting for his meals with other
dogs. Then when this news reached Mrs. Pumphrey, she started sending him eggs as she
thought that Tricki was recovering from an illness and needed energy foods. Mr. Herriot and
his partners started eating those eggs for morning breakfast. Then for improving Tricki’s
blood, Mrs. Pumphrey started sending in bottles of wine which was again consumed by Mr.
Herriot. He used to take two glasses before lunch and some more glasses while having his
