SO YOU ALWAYS WANTED A PET PORCUPINE?

Pleasant Grove veterinarian Dr. Norman Ralston doesn’t dispute that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but he does contend that you can get amazing results poking a senile canine with a needle from time to time. When a woman brought a paralyzed, blind 16-year-old pooch into Dr. Ralston’s office and asked that it be put to sleep, the vet tried another approach-acupuncture. After only a couple of sessions, old Fido was able to walk normally (with a seeing-eye person for guidance).

Since then, Dr. Ralston, who studied under Oriental acupuncture practitioners at Purdue University, has been sticking it to scores of Dallas pets and achieving what he says are shocking results. Lame poodles prance; non-ambulatory Airedales trot towards those fire hydrants with new vigor.

Dr. Ralston is so impressed with Oriental methods that he has begun to put patients on yin and yang (positive and negative force) diets. Using a pressure cooker that he bought for a dollar at a garage sale, he mixes up special blends of rice and other grains which he says will alter a pet’s behavior and “help the animal become happier in its environment.”