Far and Wild: Inside the New Memoir From the Worldwide Vet

A vet from a small Ontario practice ends up treating a one-eyed crocodile in Jamaica, a monkey in crisis in India, and dogs caught in the middle of a war in Ukraine. This is that story.

The Vet Who Cannot Sit Still

Every vet school class has one. The classmate who cannot stay in one exam room, one clinic, one city, or apparently one country for very long. Dr. Cliff Redford is that classmate all grown up, and it turns out that restlessness has a name: Far and Wild, his new memoir landing on shelves this September. You might already know him as the friendly face answering pet questions on Canadian national news, or as the guy the internet nicknamed the Worldwide Vet. What you might not know is just how far that nickname goes. Marathoner. Black belt. Father of a house full of rescue dogs. And a veterinarian who has treated animals in crisis zones on nearly every continent.

The origin story is refreshingly ordinary, which is exactly why it hits home for anyone reading this from a clinic floor right now. Dr. Cliff graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1998 and built a steady, successful practice as owner of Wellington Veterinary Hospital in Markham, Ontario. That could have been the whole career. Instead it became the launchpad. Somewhere along the way, seeing appointments five days a week stopped being enough, and Dr. Cliff started using his own vacation time, his own money, and his own veterinary license to go wherever animals needed a vet and could not get one. Athens. Egypt. Jamaica. India. The Arctic. Ukraine, mid-war. Far and Wild is the memoir version of that decision, and the years of unpredictable, sometimes terrifying, always meaningful work that followed it.

One-Eyed Jack, a Monkey in Trouble, and the Street Cats of Athens

This is not a dry professional memoir, and that is the point. According to the publisher description, the book moves from well-fed street cats in Athens, to a monkey in a dangerous situation in India, to a one-eyed crocodile in Jamaica that Dr. Cliff and his team nicknamed one-eyed Jack. It is part travelogue, part case log, and part personal odyssey, and Dr. Cliff does not skip the technical parts. Readers get real detail on the techniques and procedures he used to diagnose and treat patients most vets will never see in a North American small animal practice. For students building toward NAVLE and early-career vets still figuring out what kind of career they actually want, that mix of adventure and applied clinical reasoning is rare, and it is exactly the kind of story Vet Candy exists to surface.

The chapters on Ukraine are where the book seems to hit hardest. International coverage of war and disaster rarely spends time on the animals left behind, and that is precisely the gap Dr. Cliff's work fills. Journalist Adam Zivo, writing in the National Post, noted that by centering these overlooked victims, Redford gives readers a fresh angle on a story that has already been covered from nearly every conventional direction. Charmaine Brett, President and CEO of the Ontario SPCA and Humane Society, called it one of the most honest portrayals of animal welfare work she has read, one that does not shy away from the exhaustion and heartbreak of the job while still making room for humor and connection. That balance, hard truth held next to real joy, is something every vet reading this will recognize immediately.

Why This Belongs on Everyone’s Nightstand

Far and Wild is not a how-to guide, but it functions like one in the ways that matter most. It is a case study in what a veterinary license can actually do once you stop thinking of it as a job description and start thinking of it as a passport. For students grinding through boards prep or early-career vets wondering if there is more out there than a nine-to-five, this book is proof of concept. It also does something a lot of vet med writing forgets to do. It highlights the passionate teams around the world, shelter workers, rescue volunteers, local vets, who fight for animals without a fraction of the recognition Dr. Cliff gets, and gives them real credit on the page.

Far and Wild releases September 15, 2026, from ECW Press, and it is available for preorder now in paperback, ePub, and PDF. If you have ever daydreamed about a career that looks nothing like the standard clinic path, or you just want a genuinely great story written by someone who lives this profession at full volume, put this one on your list. Pre-Order here: https://ecwpress.com/products/far-and-wild