Caitlin Venniker’s memoir Unleashed blends humour and honesty while shining a light on veterinary mental health in South Africa.
South Africa (25 May 2026) – This one had me chuckling by page seven! I won’t lie, I was very excited when Caitlin Venniker‘s Unleashed crossed my table. I became acquainted with Caitlin’s work when she won the 2022 Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing. Her short story, The Hunt, was a great read and now, having a whole memoir to enjoy felt like a true treat.
Naturally, one feels a great sense of apprehension when cracking open a book that involves animals. It is like watching a movie where the dog dies, you ask yourself, do you really need that kind of trauma in your life? Well, I pushed through and read the whole memoir and can confirm that I only truly cried once, at the end. The rest was all just eye-opening insights into the world of veterinary life and dating in northern Johannesburg.
Caitlin details her life, from her studies at the coveted Faculty of Veterinary Science at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Hospital, to the life-long friendships and relationships she makes, to the unique jobs she takes on and the ever-looming but very underreported veterinary suicide rates.
Aside from her dating headaches, the most prominent and heartbreaking theme within her book is the loss of talented veterinarians. I found it quite eye-opening. I have been fortunate enough to only really ever need to take my dog to the vet for his vaccinations and his pesky breed-specific teeth issues, and he has had 1 big emergency, which just turned out (thankfully) to be gas. Our vet has always been upbeat, easy-going and yet, next time I visit, I will see their work differently, with open eyes.
Caitlin weighs in on why she wrote the book, and it wasn’t only to make us giggle.
“To say I wrote this book for the fun of it, when there are much nobler reasons to choose from, is no minor confession. A more impressive reason would be to raise awareness about the mental health crisis in the veterinary profession, to remember all those animals and people whose lives intersected so intimately with my own, to celebrate the incredible relationships between pets and their owners that I get to witness every day. Those things were all part of it, of course, but writing this book was a joy.”
The book is filled with heart. I felt comfort in reading it and looked forward to cracking the book open each evening. And while being an animal lover is a big win, you don’t need to be one to enjoy this book. It touches so much on compassion, kindness and knowing when to say goodbye, that it’s perfect for every human.
Oh, and if you have a vet in your life, give them an extra dose of love today.
Back of the Book
Unleashed is the hilarious, intensely honest memoir of Caitlin Venniker’s journey from Onderstepoort, the only veterinary training institution in South Africa, into the heart of private practice, with a few stops in the United Kingdom and the Middle East along the way.
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If you would like to learn more about this book, visit its website here. It is also available at all major literary retailers and online.
Interested in more proudly South African books? You can find more of our book reviews here.
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