James Herriot as Tricki Woo’s veterinarian

James Herriot’s relationship with Tricki Woo is both professional and playfully familial: he is the Pekingese’s physician, but Mrs. Pumphrey presents him as Tricki’s uncle, a role Herriot accepts as affection grows through repeated visits. Their bond is tested less by the dog’s behavior than by the recurring consequences of his indulgent care at home.

A familiar patient and recurring treatment

At Barlby Grange, Mrs. Pumphrey receives Herriot as an honoured guest and calls for Tricki, who bounds from his cushion, leaps onto a sofa, and puts his paws on the vet’s shoulders before exhausting himself. The dog’s fatigue has a practical cause: he receives roughly twice the food appropriate for his size, and the food is unsuitable. Mrs. Pumphrey’s phrase for his sudden discomfort, “flop-bott,” describes the symptoms of impacted anal glands. When they fill, Tricki abruptly sits down while walking, and his anxious mistress summons Herriot. He lifts the little dog onto the table and empties the glands by pressing around the anus with cotton wool. The procedure is uncomfortable, yet Tricki shows no resentment; Herriot finds his patient forgiving, even-tempered, and intelligent, and says he is genuinely attached to him.

The duties of an indulgent uncle

Herriot’s visits to Barlby Grange are shaped by a domestic intimacy that extends beyond treatment. He warns Mrs. Pumphrey that continuing to indulge Tricki Woo’s appetite will make his attacks of “crackerdog” more frequent, but leaves the decision with her. At the drive, she waves goodbye while Tricki stands at the window, his familiar face seeming to laugh. The farewell captures the easy affection of their routine, even as Herriot recognizes that the dog’s recurring troubles are bound up with the household’s inability to refuse him treats.

That intimacy also brings gifts. When Tricki Woo travels to the seaside, he sends Herriot boxes of oak-smoked kippers; when the tomatoes ripen in Mrs. Pumphrey’s greenhouse, Herriot receives a pound or two each week, along with regular tins of tobacco and occasional photographs bearing loving inscriptions. At first, Herriot thanks Mrs. Pumphrey, who insists that Tricki is the giver and deserves the gratitude. A Christmas hamper from Fortnum and Mason’s prompts Herriot to address the patient directly: in his letter, he thanks Tricki for the gifts and suggests that, if the festive food upsets his digestion, he should take the black powder his uncle prescribes. Herriot admits to a slight professional shame, but the prospect of future kippers, tomatoes, and hampers helps overcome it.

The letter makes the playful family fiction explicit while revealing its comic material benefits. Mrs. Pumphrey reports that Tricki cherished it but was offended by the address “Master Tricki,” since he insisted on being called “Mister”; receiving a letter from Herriot soon restored his good temper. Back at Skeldale House, Siegfried teases Herriot about working himself to the bone for another hamper. The exchange turns the veterinarian’s affectionate unclehood into a running joke among the humans too: Herriot’s care is genuine, but it coexists with an amused awareness of the privileges that accompany the bond.

The household surrounding the bond

The relationship took shape within the distinctive world of Mrs. Pumphrey’s home on the outskirts of Darrowby. A wealthy widow, she lived with a large staff, including servants, a gardener, and a chauffeur, while Tricki Woo occupied the place of her most cherished companion. Herriot entered this household not simply as a clinician summoned to treat an animal, but as a welcomed guest: a maid led him through rooms filled with expensive furniture, glossy magazines, and new novels, and Mrs. Pumphrey received him beside the fire. The formality and comfort of the setting gave the veterinary visits a domestic warmth unusual in ordinary farm calls.

Herriot’s familiarity with the household extended to its small rituals. He timed visits for half an hour before lunch, when he could expect sherry, and associated the home with an armchair near the fire and cocktail biscuits. Such hospitality helps explain how the professional relationship acquired the ease of kinship: Mrs. Pumphrey’s welcome and Tricki Woo’s excited greeting made Herriot a recurring presence in their household, while his role as the dog’s veterinarian remained the practical center of that intimacy.

Affection and the limits of care

The ease between Herriot and Tricki Woo does not remove the practical imbalance at the heart of their relationship: Herriot can treat the dog’s immediate discomfort, but Mrs. Pumphrey controls the habits that keep bringing it back. His warning about the consequences of overfeeding is firm, yet her inability to refuse the treats makes the advice difficult to put into practice. Tricki, meanwhile, meets the uncomfortable examination without resentment and greets Herriot with evident delight. Their bond therefore rests on more than the comic title of uncle: it joins the veterinarian’s recurring work, the dog’s trusting response, and an affectionate household routine whose generosity cannot by itself keep its cherished patient well.