A MAN has documented a life with animals with a book about veterinary exploits.

But Steve Ankers isn’t a vet himself – he has his brother and his wife, both of whom are animal doctors, to thank for a life dominated by their professions.

The 65-year-old from Lewes has written It’s A Dog’s Life For The Other Half based on life with his wife, Margaret Ankers, who has two surgeries in Brighton and Hove, and growing up with his brother, John, who has a practice in Morpeth, Northumberland, mixing farm animals, companion animals and exotic pets.

Mr Ankers said: “I’m not sure there’s ever been a book about what it’s like being married to a vet while holding down a normal job and raising a family.

“The whole family has contributed enthusiastically, so it’s been a joint effort.”

The light-hearted anecdotal read outlines thespian camels in a village Nativity play, a cat that ate a Chihuahua but spat out the tail and a duck that thought it was a rabbit.

Aside from telling of his own journey, the book features a vulture which went hundreds of miles on a car roof-rack and a cat which found its way home from Scotland to Sussex.

Mr Ankers said of the cat: “A local family had moved house to Scotland, taking the family pet with them.

“A few months later a similar looking cat, but much thinner, turned up in next door’s garden.

“The neighbours telephoned their old friends in Scotland and were astonished to hear that their cat had gone missing almost immediately after the relocation.”

Mr Ankers also divulges how to rugby-tackle an escaped alligator, weigh a three-metre python with toothache and tactfully repel the advances of an amorous llama.

He said the python was “quite a saga”, weighing it in a dustbin held by its owners to determine the right quantity of anaesthetic.

Mr Ankers regards two camels, Gloria and Gabby, as perhaps the strangest creature.

It’s A Dog’s Life For The Other Half was published by Mereo Books on Monday and is stocked in bookshops and online.