BARK ABOUT IT! BUY THIS VET'S BOOK

Our headline says it all.

"It Started With A Turtle" is an autobiography and philosophical treatise by Denver's Kevin Fitzgerald. He's a veteran veterinarian, environmentalist, standup comic, bar bouncer - and rock n' roll roadie.

He made his bones in the rock world, he writes, with the Rolling Stones - and that many people seem most impressed by that.

Bouncing shaped his approach to man and beast. Caring, listening and reasoning. Defusing, too. Just plain old common sense. "You had to use psychology," he writes of bouncing.

Your editor's dog - a "scoodle" named Sadie - can attest to his tenderness. She took to him immediately at his animal clinic on Alameda Avenue.

And he was waiting for her in the exam room! Not the other way around.

"What is puppy breath worth or a blind Beagle placing his toy octopus in your hand as you try to get a history from his owners?" he writes. "Memories like these are priceless and add a valuable dimension to a career worth far more than money."