ABOUT

Dr. Karen Fine (she/her/hers) is a holistic veterinarian who writes about the human-animal bond, holistic veterinary medicine, pet loss, grief, and narrative medicine. She owned and operated her own house call practice, Fine Veterinary House Calls, for twenty-five years.

Her New York Times bestselling memoir, The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life and Mortality, explores her experiences as a pet owner and veterinarian. It was published in March 2023 by Anchor Books, a division of Penguin Random House.

Dr. Fine’s veterinary textbook, Narrative Medicine in Veterinary Practice: Improving Client Communication, Patient Care, and Veterinary Well-Being, was published in October 2021 through CRC Press. Her articles and essays have been published in the New York Times, Time magazine, the Brevity blog, Bark Magazine and Inside Your Cat’s Mind, among others. She has been interviewed by NPR’s Fresh Air, CNN, and Psychology Today. She also co-edits Reflections, an online journal on Veterinary Narrative Medicine. Narrative Medicine is a growing field in human medicine that can help veterinarians improve care by viewing patients and clients in the context of their larger story.

She is a proud graduate of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and Brandeis University, and is certified in veterinary acupuncture through the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society.

Dr. Fine currently practices small animal medicine in Central Massachusetts, where she lives with her family including an assortment of rescues. She enjoys walking her dogs, eating chocolate, reading, writing, and horseback riding.