The incredible story of Peanut, the cat with the... BIONIC PAWS
DR NOEL Fitzpatrick is the rock god of the animal world, a man whose remarkable ability to perform apparent miracles with sick animals – including Meghan Markle’s beagle Guy – has guaranteed a meteoric rise to superstardom on both sides of the Atlantic.
Fitzpatrick is a vet, but he’s no ordinary vet. The man dubbed The Supervet is about to head out on a live tour, Welcome To My World, where his fans will pack out venues more used to hosting the Arctic Monkeys or Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
His Channel 4 show, where beloved cats and dogs (and the occasional hedgehog) are given his specially designed prosthetic or ‘bionic’ limbs – inspired by science-fiction characters such as Wolverine and X-Men – to prolong their lives, has endeared him to millions of viewers, astonished by tales of pets such as Peanut (see panel below).
Russell Brand, Monty Don and Chris Evans have all had pets treated by Fitzpatrick, with Evans describing him as ‘a pioneer and genuine genius’.
Brand’s dog was cured of a crippling hip injury and Don’s golden retriever, Nigel, was brought back from the brink of total paralysis with a strict regime of hydrotherapy, a special brace to keep one of his back legs in the correct position and limited exercise. Don has described Fitzpatrick as a ‘miracle-maker’.
Fitzpatrick is only too aware of the power pets have over their human companions. ‘Pets are part of the family, and if your pet is ill, you will go to any lengths to try to fix it and I will go to any lengths to sort the problem – whether it’s creating a special piece of metal to put into a bone or just working out a different way to look at an injury. I won’t stop until I find a solution,’ he says.
Radio 2 presenter Evans sought out Fitzpatrick in 2008 to treat his German shepherd, Enzo, who vets said would have to be destroyed after two herniated discs left him paralysed. Enzo now has a bionic spine with two bolts (known as SpondyloFitz bolts because they were invented by Fitzpatrick) holding together his vertebrae. Evans showed his gratitude by helping Fitzpatrick get his show on TV – 2010’s The Bionic Vet on the BBC. Fitzpatrick now appears on The Supervet, which is in its fourth year, on Channel 4. ‘BLOWN AWAY’ BY THE QUEEN DON’T be surprised if Fitzpatrick is invited to next month’s Royal Wedding (though he might not have time to go). He was asked to treat Markle’s beloved beagle for two broken legs in the wake of an accident. Even the Queen has fallen under his spell. At a special lunch for eight individuals who had made a difference to the world of science and medicine, this son of a poor Irish farmer found himself seated at her right-hand side.
‘I was blown away,’ he says. ‘She knew all about me. She was unbelievably knowledgeable on the subject of One Medicine [an
IF YOUR PET IS ILL, I WON’T STOP UNTIL I FIND A SOLUTION
approach to medicine that aims to merge human and animal research and treatment]. We talked a lot about what would happen if her corgis got cancer and how human treatments could help. And we also had a good laugh. I was completely humbled that the Queen of England would be so interested in someone like me.’
Fitzpatrick, with his dark, rugged looks, penchant for bear hugs, Irish brogue and poetic language, has the air of a cult messiah. Once brutally bullied and dismissed by his peers as ‘a thick ‘culchie’ (bumpkin) because he was almost illiterate at the age of 11, he has developed more than 30 ground-breaking techniques in veterinary surgery, including new joint-replacement technologies, limb amputation, prosthetics for limb salvage and fracture repair systems.
He also has honorary doctorates and professorships at three leading universities as well as a place in the Guinness Book Of Records for being the first vet to successfully attach two prosthetic paws to a cat – Oscar – in 2009, when the twoyear-old had his hind paws chopped off in an accident with a combine harvester.
‘The stories we tell [in the new show] are about the animals and their families,’ he says. ‘But I get so many letters – particularly from kids – asking why I did an operation like I did. How I made a particular prosthetic limb and why it is so important to me. I want to get that all out there. I want to explain not just what I do but I want people to know why I do it and why animals are so important to me.
‘It will be a mix of science, music, technology and storytelling. Nothing like this has ever been done before but then no one had thought to rebuild a cat’s paw before I did it. It’s just something I want to do.’
A MESSAGE OF LOVE AND HOPE
HE WILL perform 20 shows across the UK and Ireland to tens of thousands of fans, culminating with a night at the O2 Arena in London on November 25.
Fans will see a virtual 3D operation and hear his life story and a message of ‘love and hope’ as the show follows the fortunes of three animals and their families who arrive for treatment at his clinic.
The situations are always extreme, with the television cameras shadowing the families throughout the consultation, surgery and recovery.
But it is the way Fitzpatrick deals with animals, such as the threelegged dog Daphne who was rescued from Thailand, that makes the show so unique. In another segment, we learn that his inspiration for how to treat a naughty dachshund, Frankie, who suffered with a deformed front foot, came from the design of an ice-cream scoop.
Fitzpatrick’s mission is to give both animals, and the people they live with, hope. So it’s ironic that aged 11, little Martin Noel Galgini Fitzpatrick, from Ballyfin in County Laois, had no hope at all.
Part of a tiny percentage of local day boys taken in for free schooling at an expensive boarding school run by the Patrician Brothers – a Catholic organisation that educates young people – he knew on his first day that his life was going to be hell.
‘I had been in a tiny village school where we did basic handwriting and reading and basic maths,’ he says. ‘But I was in a classroom full of smart boys from Dublin who knew so much more than me, I was the dumb idiot. The joke. I suffered a tsunami of hurt and pain at that place that made my life a living hell.
‘In the end it wasn’t the physical pain and the violence I hated. It was the emotional trauma, the downright cruelty because there was a general consensus that I was worth nothing.’
His only comfort was his dog Pirate. And at night he would wipe his tears on the dog’s comforting coat. Bereft of friends, he would sit and make up stories with his canine pal, where they would work together to save other animals.
‘I was obsessed with The A-Team and MacGyver [a secret agent who was also a scientific problem-solver and always carried duct tape and a Swiss Army knife],’ he says.
‘My stories were about a superhero called Supervet and that was the very beginning of everything I do now. I’d watch MacGyver on a television that required 50p pieces to make it work, and he would fix a car with a piece of tinfoil and a box of matches. It made me think I could fix anything and I just took that attitude into my work.’
LOSS IS PART OF THE SHOW
FITZPATRICK is a mesmerising storyteller, largely because his tales are so full of extremes. He pushed through his school, excelling in science and the arts, went to University College, Dublin, became a vet and spent years on farms (‘having cows s**t on my head’).
Today he is devoted to finding a solution to every veterinary problem ‘no matter how crazy’ that solution might sound. But loss, too, is a challenging part of his work.
‘There are those cases when things don’t work or there is nothing that can be done. And we have to deal with it – loss is part of the show.’
He works 16-hour days, sleeps in a side room in his veterinary clinic in Surrey, recites poetry and song lyrics with unnerving regularity and is not afraid to cry. Although he occasionally goes on dates and has a thing for Keira Knightley (he named his Norfolk terrier after her), at 50 he has never married. He is also – despite his TV fame – by no means rich. Fitzpatrick Referrals, his vet practice, has a multi-million-pound overdraft to pay for the state-of-the-art MRI scanners, hydrotherapy pools and operating theatres he has designed for his work.
He has also turned down hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of pet advertising offers because ‘integrity is worth far more than money’. And although he is now a bona fide sex symbol, he looks distinctly uncomfortable at the mention of this. ‘I don’t know what to say,’ he says with a flush creeping at the edges of his saltand-pepper-stubbled jaw. ‘I’m not a sex god. It’s my message I want people to pay attention to, not my physical representation.’
Fitzpatrick has many messages he wants to get across in this ambitious, and somewhat surprising tour. ‘I want to mix it up. I want people to know that even if people dismiss you at school, even if you are bullied, you can go on to make things happen.’ If he makes any money it will be pumped into his Humanimal Trust (which promotes his One Medicine message).
After an hour in his company, the whole idea of his tour, his life story, even his bionic 3D stage animals and his music, makes absolute sense. Or as he puts it: ‘Trust and it will happen.’
I WAS THE IDIOT AT SCHOOL. MY LIFE WAS A LIVING HELL
Supervet is on tour from September 30 to November 25, 2018 – see supervetlive.com for details. The Supervet is on Wednesdays at 9pm on More4 (repeated Sundays).