part of its Masterpiece Theater collection, illustrating the
enduring nature of Herriot’s stories.
“I remember each episode had a different little life lesson,”
says Williams, “but overall it was really about the rapture
of the human/animal bond. It’s timeless and I think he explored
it on so many levels.”
In fact, it was the work of James Herriot that Williams says
inspired him – and countless other young Brits – to pursue
a career in veterinary medicine.
“He inspired an entire generation to go to vet school,” says
Williams. “In fact, he made it very tough for people to get
into vet school.”
Before being accepted into the competitive undergraduate
vet program, Williams got a degree in agriculture from the
University of Aberdeen in Scotland, where he subsequently
met his wife, Jamie, who was there pursuing an English degree.
After graduating in the top of his class, he went on to
spend the next four years at the Royal School of Veterinary
Medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland.
He and Jamie always knew they wanted to settle into a
small practice in a rural town. After a short stint in Syracuse,
New York, they made their way south, closer to where
her sister lived in John’s Creek.
There was an opportunity at a veterinarian practice in
Eatonton, the Dairy Capital of Georgia – an ideal match for
what Williams was seeking. It was a mixed animal practice
so Williams would be able to use his skills on a variety of
animals.
“Most of my career has been mixed,” he says. “I thrive on
that diversity, the fact that I can be working on a goat in
the afternoon and playing with puppies and kittens in the
morning.”
When Williams was a child, watching “All Things Great
and Small,” it was the strong, no-nonsense large animal vets
that he admired.
“Back when James Herriot was a vet, there was a much
bigger onus on the large animals – the horses and the cows
– because these were livelihoods for the farmers,” he says.
“You were kind of looked down upon if you were a small
animal vet. Now, that whole paradigm has shifted. The food
animals and production animals are still highly-regarded
and there are specialty vets that deal with those animals, but
now the cats and dogs are peoples lives.”
Williams’ love of animals began with those small animals.
Born in South Africa, Williams grew up abroad, bouncing
from Switzerland to Argentina, and spent most of his childhood
years in Singapore.
“I would say that’s where my passion started,” he says,
“which is a little strange because, while they had animals of
course, it’s not an agrarian culture. It’s a big island city.”
He says he bugged his parents for an animal, pestering
them with questions about when they could get a cat or a
dog.
“We lived in an apartment and my mum told me it wasn’t
fair; you can’t have an animal when you live in an apartment.”
A few years later they moved into a house.
Goatie, named by Brenda Lopez’ 10-year-old son, Isaac,
recently had to visit Dr. James Williams after he got into some
azaleas which are toxic to goats. Williams says he enjoys the
being able to care for ‘all creatures great and small’ at Main
Street Vet. ‘I thrive on that diversity, the fact that I can be
working on a goat in the afternoon and playing with puppies
and kittens in the morning.’
“I don’t think it was even a week before I had a dog.”
It was a shepherd mix named Magnum, who was soon followed
by another dog called Claire, and several cats that he kept
rescuing. “I found one up a tree and plucked him out of the top.
I found another at a hawker centre – an outdoor street food
type of place,” he recalls. “Cats just gravitated there all the time. I
found one that was injured in a drain and took him home.”
That’s how he met one of the vets that inspired him early on,
Shane Ryan, an Australian vet who just recently served as a president
of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association.
“I just worshipped him as a young boy,” says Williams. “I’d take
all my animals to him and he’d let me spend time and watch procedures.
He’s one of the biggest reasons I’m a vet.”
Williams says he’s always felt a magnetism to animals and it’s
evolved and grown as he’s gone from Singapore to Scotland to
the Southeastern U.S.