Book review: Aren’t we too early? by Hugo van Duijn

I have recently heard very positive messages from various people about the booklet ‘Aren’t we too early?’ by veterinarian Hugo van Duijn. Because of that I decided to leave my pile of unread books for a while and order this book. It is available for free at many veterinary practices, I ordered it online from Dierenrust after paying the shipping costs. As far as I know, it is only available in Dutch at the moment.

First impression

I had no idea yet of the size of the book, so I must admit that my first thought when I got the book in my hands was: ‘Oops, thin!’. It is about the size of a postcard, and has 31 pages. However, the font is not large, and there are no images except the beautiful pencil drawing of Clinto, Hugo’s dog, at the front of the booklet. This drawing was also made by Hugo.

Content

Hugo starts the book with a foreword in which he talks about Clinto. He writes about how his experiences with that dog, among other things, inspired him to create this booklet. He then explains some things about ‘the last chapter’, the final phase of your beloved animal’s life. I don’t think I need to tell anyone that the last chapter does not always have to be related to old age, but can also occur due to illness, for example. However, I suspect something that many people do not think about is something that Hugo does briefly talk about: serious behavioral problems. It doesn’t happen very often, but as a behavioral therapist I unfortunately sometimes hear sad stories from colleagues who have guided owners in making this undoubtedly extremely difficult choice. I am therefore very pleased that attention is also paid to this in this booklet!

Quality of Life

Hugo then talks about the criteria of quality of life. He views wanting to eat, wanting to drink, being cheerful and being suitable as a pet as minimum requirements for the quality of your animal’s life. Hugo discusses each of these requirements in detail.

The writer then challenges the reader to look at the situation of your own pet, armed with these requirements. He makes you think through a number of, sometimes quite confrontational, statements and questions.

My own dogs are hopefully not that far away yet. Juno turned eleven in April and although she goes to physio every month and is getting a bit slower, I think, especially with the knowledge from this booklet in mind, that her quality of life is still excellent. But it is still good to think about it. If we do this well in advance, it will not be so shocking when, hopefully in many years’ time, the time comes for us to have to make the choice.

Final verdict ‘Aren’t we too early’

I found it quite a confrontational book. But that is of course mainly because we do not really want to think about the mortality of our beloved dogs. However, that moment will eventually come, unfortunately.

The book is written in a respectful manner but still makes you think, and I think that is very well done!

The author ends the book with the moving story of his Clinto. I think the way he writes about his dog clearly reflects how much he cares about animals.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has pets, including those who are still young and will hopefully remain with us for many years to come. Because at some point that moment will come for all of us when we ask ourselves: Aren’t we too early?