In 'Dr. Dee: Alaska Vet,' viewer discretion is advised

Dunk came home when I was watching Dr. Dee perform surgery on a guinea pig. Oh, I can't do this, he said, and went into the other room.

Each episode of Dr. Dee: Alaska Vet begins with a viewer discretion advised notice. Castrations, spay and neuter clinics in remote villages and farm visits are part of Dr. Dee's daily routine.

Dee's show aired for two seasons. She participated in a Reddit ask-me-anything 11 years ago when the first season was about to air. Someone asked how she ended up with a tv show.

It's kind of a long story! She replied. When my son was 17, he broke his back and spent weeks in intensive care. During that time, I started to write screenplays (it was LA, go figure!) and it sparked my interest in tv production. It turns out that one of my clients worked in film and tv production and connected me with a tv scout, who then reached out to a production company called High Noon. They pitched the show to Animal Planet and we were filming before we knew it!

Dee is quite the character. She came to Alaska in 1982 to deliver a horse and never left. She owns Animal House Veterinary Hospital in Fairbanks. Dee got her pilot's license so she could travel to rural Alaska and tend to all animals. She was even Miss Alaska in bodybuilding in 1996. She's a badass.

Her husband, Ken, is also on the show, traveling to remote areas of Alaska with her to assist in her clinics. They married in 05'.

One of Dr. Dee's clients was Ron Richards, who had a rather unusual pet – a 30-plus-year-old black bear named Delilah. Ron started Pleasant Valley Animal Park in Fairbanks (which is no longer around) as a way for folks to see animals up close and personal. Ron died earlier this year: his obit mentioned Dr. Dee and Delilah's feature on the show.

Ron found Delilah when she was just a four-month-old cub, and holds a certificate to have her. He used to have another black bear named Samson, but he died of natural causes a few years before Dr. Dee's show aired.

In the same episode, one of Dee's employees rescues four baby squirrels. After they are healthy, she visits her "good friend for many years," Bernie Karl – owner of Chena Hot Springs Resort – to give them a better life. Yeah, that Bernie Karl. The same guy who defended his poor choice to stay at the resort in 2021 when wildfires burned just two miles away, and threatened any employees with termination who chose to leave.

Someone much more interesting than Bernie featured on Dr. Dee: Alaska Vet is Annette Gray, who lived in North Pole with the farthest north dairy farm, or Renee Blahuta of North Star Miniatures. She was born in Linz, Austria, and moved to Fairbanks when her husband, Alton, was stationed at Fort Wainwright. She won the Evangeline Atwood Award in 1990 for "significant long-term contributions to Alaska state or local history."

In 2017, she was interviewed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks about: her family's hotel in Linz, her upbringing in Linz, Austria, the Nazis moving into Linz and how it affected the town, her early education, her father in the army, Hitler wanting to make Linz into a city like Budapest, bombings, the concentration camp near their town, their hotel being bombed, having tuberculosis when she was a girl, and conditions after the war. You can listen to the interview here.

Dr. Dee went out to North Star Miniatures to help Renee and Striker, who had a hoof issue causing him pain. Renee named him Striker because when he was born, he went over and kicked his mother.

My favorite storyline in the series was when five northern hawk owls were rescued in Ruby, and transported to Anchorage, where they received care at a bird sanctuary for months before being released at Bicentennial Park. The owlets were tagged with USGS bands for tracking.

(total watch time: 12 hours, 36 minutes)

🎶 🚙 'You and me, we're bumper cars' 🚗 🎵

I forget that there are a bajillion episodes of Love Island. I have previously seen S6 of the US and UK, so watching the newest season in real time with friends has been a lot of fun. Shoutout to Joey and Gabby for clocking in on their Spain vacation to stay up-to-date. That's dedication.

I have to remind myself that the majority of the fanbase are literal children or people who are younger than me (more than 50% of season 7's audience were aged 30 or younger), so while I don't agree with the majority of people's takes online, I do enjoy reading them.