Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dr. Cliff Redford: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1550

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

In this 1550th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with veterinarian Dr. Cliff Redford who travels across the world and works side by side with local staff at community-based organizations that carry out animal rescues, adoptions, advocacy and wildlife conservation. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

What up Miami? Toronto VK on the beat Check I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm in Toronto right where you wanna get the city love My city love me back for my city love

I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm in Toronto right where you wanna get the city love Welcome to episode 1550 of Toronto Miked! Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville.

The Advantage'd Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada. Learn how to plan, invest and live smarter. Recyclemyelectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921 today making his Toronto Mike debut is dr. Cliff Redford welcome cliff thank you thank you wow 1550 I'm gonna get a tattoo of that would you do that you got some ink on you uh I would I would I have a lot of ink on me. Yeah. Are they all animals on you? I just saw there's a turtle. Yeah, almost all of it except for the guitar.

And this is probably my favorite tattoo. It is not only a guitar that is gorgeous and has the notes that come out that spell my kids' names. So Brandon up top, Nicholas in the middle and then Emily in the back. Nice. But my son Nicholas, who I guess is my well Not I guess he's my firstborn. I have twins so I had to think about it

He's the oldest of the twins He built this guitar that the photo is or the images in grade 11 shop class the entire semester Was them building this he chose a guitar and soldered it and cut the wood and dipped it in paint. And what were you doing in grade 11 shop class? I was making probably a cigarette holder. Yeah, ashtray or something like that. Yeah, a birdhouse.

Did any of your children follow your lead and become a veterinarian? None of them have become a veterinarian, though Brandon is now starting to think about it. But Emily, who travels with me... Emily, I've seen extensive footage of Emily and you saving the lives of many an animal, but tell me about what Emily is doing with you. Yeah, yeah. So Emily, all three of my kids worked at my clinic, of course. It helped

pay for their university and pay for their allowance. And where is this clinic? My clinic's in Markham, Markham, Ontario, Wellington Vet Hospital, shout out. It'll be 25 years I've owned that place this January, so I'm pretty excited. Wow, okay, so a lot of ground we're gonna cover, but that's active, right?

Like people could bring their pets to you. Oh yeah, yeah, it's myself and Dr. Aran and I own it, and we're at the north end of Toronto, right by the PetSmart, or sorry, north end of Markham, and yeah, we're taking new clients. We love it. We love it. And again, I mentioned I've seen extensive footage of your daughter, Emily, and you saving like the lives of animals around the world. So we're going to get into that because I've seen your documentary. What's the name of your documentary? Dr. Cliff Worldwide Vet. Okay, so I've seen it and it is amazing. And this is like a very special episode

for anyone who's ever loved an animal. And that's, I think that's most healthy people, right? I think that's everybody. Yeah, pretty much everybody. Okay, a lighter note off the top though. I got a note when I said Dr. Cliff Redford. By the way, any relation to Robert Redford? I have an uncle named Robert.

He's not the Robert. No, he's not the Sundance Robert. He's not the Robert. No, he's not the Sundance Robert. He's not the Robert No, no Unfortunately, you look a lot like him. Oh, do I know I'm just thinking you know what? Well, you know two eyes and nose. We both have the same number of fingers and toes Did you love baseball as a child? Like is that a sport you enjoyed? I play it, you know a quick little story We had a Canada Day barbecue at my brother's place up in Milton

and he's got a giant backyard like almost the size of a football pitch and We started the kids start playing a game of of baseball esque, you know There's only like five of them sure and I showed them how to self pitch now. These kids are 20 2025 I showed them how to self pitch. Now these kids are 20, 20, 25. I showed them how to self pitch. And I cracked it. And all these kids are like, what? I didn't know you knew how to do that. Do it again. I did it again. And did you play on a team? Like, no, we did this every day, all summer. All we did was play baseball. Well, the reason I'm asking that ridiculous question is because I Loved in fact, I don't know why I put it in past tense because if I watched it today, I would love it

But I loved the natural Roy Hobbs was of course played by Robert Redford. That's right. So what a great movie Hey, I love it. I get it's a raw Randy Newman Randy Newman score and it's I mean there's some parts in there that, you know, as a kid, we're kind of boring because you got this, like, there's a shooting and there's a whole kind of a mystery in, in, in shady rooms and stuff, shady characters. But when you get on that baseball field, there was nothing better. Wilfred Brimley and a red and, and that whole, um, you know, Roy Hobbs, greatest player I ever saw.

And then how it all ends, uh, I'm getting goosebumps right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What a great movie. That was thank you for that trip down memory lane. You know, I only booked you because I kind of thought maybe you were like a second cousin of Robert Redford. So get the heck out of my basement, Dr. Cliff. Wow, too late. I'm already here. So I said, OK, Dr. Cliff, Redford's coming on. A lot Wow, too late. I'm already here. So I said, okay, Dr. Cliff Redford's coming on. A lot of people very excited, but Steve Cole, Ever the Comic, says that you're a very timely

guest because he reminds me, our beloved pets are being hunted down by hungry mobs with knives, forks, and HP sauce at the ready. I have evidence of it right here. Let me just play this brief clip. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating, they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. Is this happening, Dr. Cliff? I need to fact-check. That's a, I was told that's a former president of the United

States. I doubt he would make up a story like that. Yeah, of course to fact check. That's a, I was told that's a former president of the United States. I doubt he would make up a story like that. Yeah, of course he doesn't. He's not known for doing that, right? You know what? I've traveled everywhere to all these underserviced areas including like Panama and Ukraine and India. I think I need to go to middle America. Springfield.

Next, Springfield. Isn't that, isn't that where the Simpsons are? Yeah, there's a lot of Springfield. Oh no, Santa's little helper is getting picked on by somebody. Well, of course, you know how they got Santa's Little Helper, right? He was literally a Great Dane that was running a race on Christmas. Greyhound. Greyhound.

You know what? That's why you're here. I know that because I used to have two rescue greyhounds. Were they being raced? Yeah, yeah. So this was straight out of vet school. While I was a student in veterinary school, a lot of the teaching dogs in Ontario Veterinary College are ex-racing greyhounds. And fun fact, it's because

not only are they kind of a dime a dozen, and you need to find them at homes, but we would do live anatomy lessons on the greyhounds. They were so lean that you could pick out bones and muscles and greyhounds have a higher red blood cell count than other dogs. It's natural selection or human selection. And so that they would actually be used for blood donor dogs. So before I was rescuing and saving animals, the dogs I adopted were saving animals lives. Make sure you donate people. Well, I meant Greyhound. I got the wrong G name. But the Greyhound, yeah, Santa's Little

Helper was being raced on Christmas Day. He had a lousy performance. And I think he was, I don't know what they were going to do with poor Santa's Little Helper, but Homer brought him home and saved Christmas. There you go. And he became the hero of the day. Hero of the day. That's a great Metallica song. All right. So, so much ground I want to cover. I want to talk about these, these, these trips you're making, uh, saving animals around the world. Milan rode in when he heard you were coming on that, uh, he basically says the lesson in here is don't mess. Well, he didn't say the word mess, but don't mess with cat ladies. What are your thoughts? Dr. Cliff on childless cat ladies. Yay or nay?

I'm not a Swifty, but I would definitely welcome Taylor Swift into my house with open arms. So yeah, I'm I love cat ladies and dog men and lizard people. And as long as they own lizards, they're not actually lizard people. Right. That would be frightening. All right. Give me your origin story. Did you always love animals? What made you become a veterinarian? Yeah, I did always love animals. And I didn't actually decide to enter veterinary school

or to try and get into veterinary school until senior year in high school, back when we had OAC, back when we had OAC. I had OAC myself Dr. Cliff. There you go, very good. But all the, you know, it's funny like teachers have reached out to me over the years through social media, people that knew me when I was five years old, ten years old, maybe ten years old. And they all said, we knew you were going to be a veterinarian. You're the guy taking care of the class bunny rabbit and

All of my show-and-tell things instead of me bringing in a new toy that I got for Christmas I would bring in like a feather that we found at the beaches It is called the beaches by the way That came up recently and then my guests literally laughed at me and said no, it's the beach There's one beach like chastised me and then I brought up the fact there's the beaches jazz festival But it is beaches, right? I mean I was grew up of beaches like there's multiple beaches. I just don't understand There is multiple beaches. I don't understand why There was even a like why change it who cared they actually had a vote. It's pedantic, right?

This is like the definition of pedantic? Like it's not really broken. I know there's enough things we're working on fixing that might be potentially arguably broken and beaches was not one of those things. It's always the beaches to me and I'll always call it the beaches. And you know a thing about beaches

because I think in one of our earliest correspondence, Dr. Cliff, is you letting me know, I was talking about my kayak and I was wondering like when does kayak, because I'm actually kayaking tomorrow and it's still beautiful though, but at some point the weather will turn and I'm wondering like, I guess that I'll end kayaking when I don't want to end up in Lake Ontario.

Like that'll be the moment I stopped. But you surf in the winter. Yeah, yeah. So I picked up surfing as a sport during the pandemic. It was something I wanted to do sort of as a retirement sport. And I did a little bit of research and actually found out there's a huge surfing community on the Great Lakes. In fact, there's Surf the Greats is a store up by the other skateboard park here in Toronto.

And so yeah, you can surf. Lake Ontario is so large, and if the wind is in the right direction and strong enough, it causes waves. Now the waves are kind of like hockey players. They knock you off a lot. And the interesting thing, and this is where it gets most people to say, heck no, there are no waves in the summer.

I have not seen a wave that's surfable in about six months the surfing is just starting soon Okay, and will be huge in January and February anywhere I noticed on my bike rides that I'll see some surfers at Marie Curtis Park Which is like that's the very west end of Toronto like at the other side of Marie Curtis Park here in Mississauga And I do see the odd surfer there, but I'm other side of Marie Curtis Park here in Mississauga. And I do see the odd surfer there, but I'm wondering specifically where would you go in the water when those tasty waves show up in, I don't know, October or whatever? Yeah.

I mean, it does depend on if the waves are coming straight from the south or if they're coming all the way, which is really nice, if they're coming all the way from Kingston, because then it gives time for the waves to build up. I surf out of the Bluffs, literally Bluff Park, right by the lighthouse if I'm feeling adventurous or just where people normally swim. Also, eBay, Asperger's Bay has great surfing and all along there's a lot of places where people won't tell you. I have actual surf surfing friends and they post images and they specifically won't say and you're not allowed to ask them. It's their secret spot. It's their secret spot. Like Ben Rainer in his swimming beaches. That's right.

I understand completely. By the way we're talking about Great Lakes we're gonna get right back to your origin story. There'll be tangents you'll say a word like beaches and we'll be off to the races. Not the Greyhound races, though. OK, we don't support Greyhound races. Right, Dr. Cliff? We do not. It's almost I think there's only one or two states now that allow it. It's pretty much shut down. Yeah, pretty much.

But on that note quickly, and I say this with the caveat that I produce a horse racing podcast for the legend that is Peter Gross. He's an FOTM Hall of Famer, Dr. Cliff. Keep playing, your card's right, you might be one would day as well. But how do you feel about horse racing? Is that fair to these beautiful animals? Dr. Justin Marchegiani Yeah, that's a tough one. And I used to, back in high school when I was 15, before I even, again, knew I wanted to be a veterinarian, I got a job as a hot walker, before I even again knew I wanted to be a veterinarian I got a job as a hot walker which is not a description of my sexual prowess maybe but with sexy flangers you this you walk the horses when they're hot when they're sweaty

after after races after training and you muck a lot of stalls you you shuck a lot of manure but so I've worked at the race track. Before you were passionate about working with animals? Before I'd made the commitment or before I realized. But you already loved animals. And this was literally just a friend of a friend. And I was just like, yeah, sure. I don't want to flip burgers. I'd rather flip horse patties. Right. So when you, for example, when the queen,

sorry, it's called the king's plate now, it's going to take a little time for us, you know, we got to get used to this because my whole life has been the queen's plate. And now it's the king's plate. But when the king's plate is taking place at Woodbine, your or how's your feelings you mentioned is it mixed because you know, but but I'm just wondering if you have any feelings like, hey, these poor animals are being raced and many, as you know, they breed these animals such that you snap an ankle. They're very muscular and heavy and they're, you're the veterinarian here, not me. But it doesn't sound very humane to these beautiful animals. Yeah, they, if they, if they blow their cannon bone, which is basically like our shin, that's it, they're done. It's almost impossible to get them to

even survive, let alone thrive. They'll never race again. I certainly have a displeasure for greyhound racing much more than horse racing. Horse racing doesn't make my stomach turn, but I would never go to one. And, you know, I was a kid, so I don't feel bad that I used to work there. The reality is, though, is at least at the King's Plate and at Woodbine and all these places in Milton, all these sort of higher level racing organizations, these horses, once they're done racing, they're put out to pasture. Whether or not they can breed, they're put out to pasture, they have value, people want

them. Whereas the greyhounds, after they lose their X number of race, they're put up into a room for adoption. And if they're not adopted, Santa's little helper would have would have been no more. So that's what happened to Snowball. Okay, remember the Snowball 2 is the name of the cat because that guy ran over Snowball 1. Okay, too much Simpsons trivia here, but we did talk about surfing on the Great Lakes. So as we get back to this origin story, I will let you know Great Lakes Brewery is delicious fresh

craft beer brewed right here in southern Etobicoke. Welcome you from the from the east end to southern Etobicoke. Here you are. But you are taking home some fresh craft beer with you from Great Lakes. I was so hoping. Can we I'm going to make sure my wife doesn't hear this until later because I'm going to do this with my children and the Great Lakes Brewery. I'm looking at their very nice logo and those are some sweet waves right at the bottom. Those are definitely surfable waves. Great Lakes.

You can surf those. There you go. Those are surfable waves. I'll never look at it the same way again. OK, now let's go back because you said beaches and then we went off. But I need the origin story because at some point just a little teaser for the listenership. You're volunteering. You're traveling the world. You were in the Ukraine during this war. But before

we get there, what makes you become a veterinarian? Yeah, so you know, senior year of high school and it was either going to be a veterinarian slash you know maybe a marine biologist, but George Costanza took over that gig. Or a science teacher or a police officer, which people would say those don't go together, but they kind of do because they're all teaching and helping and whatnot. And, um, I don't remember, it was 35 years ago when I decided to be a vet. I don't remember what made that decision.

I probably didn't decide until I got into, I got into University of Guelph as an animal bio student and just decided, well, I'm gonna do something animal and science related, so let's get the grades as good as I can and make sure that the courses fit the prerequisites for Ontario Vet College. And- Where did you go? University of Guelph. Yeah, that's where all the vquisites for for Ontario Vet College. Where did you go? University of Guelph. Yeah, that's where all the vets I've ever talked to. Pretty much. Yeah,

there's only five right now. There were only four in Canada and being an Ontario, you know, person, I could only go to Guelph unless I'm willing to pay $50,000 a year to go elsewhere. Right. So I'm going to go to Guelph and it's one of the top three to five top schools in the world. So anyways, I, I half lucked out, half worked my butt off and got in after one year in DeVette school, which is very unusual, but this is back in the day when you could do that. And even my, my father was very surprised when I told him he went, what you got in? Thanks, dad.

This is a true story. He's going to listen to this and he's going to email you because he likes to get his final word in. But he's like, you did? You get in? I mean, I thought it was hard. I'll put your dad on the show. Don't worry. Yeah. He will. He would be the most entertaining. Talk about storytelling. It's incredible. But just ask him about politics back in the 80s. He worked for Ministry of Health for many, many years.

Anyways, yeah, it just sort of, it fit and I did a lot of volunteer work while I was in university and prior to make sure- Quick note to your dad, I want him to know, Bob Ray was in this basement just about a month ago. Ah, very nice. So he wanna talk about any Ray days or whatnot. There you go, he would love So, you want to talk about any ray days or whatnot. There you go.

He would love that. He would love that. Um, uh, yeah, so it, it, you know, I just decided to go for it. I am a very much a, uh, ready fire aim sort of guy leap first, uh, and then see, uh, how cold can it be surfing in January and in, in Ontario, right? What do you wear for that? Uh, A lot. So we wear what's called a 6'8", wetsuit, meaning six millimeters on the legs and arms and eight millimeters on the chest.

And then it comes with a hoodie. And then it also, we have mittens and booties. We basically look like giant fat penguins out there. Can I borrow this gear for my kayak rides? You could. I would give you though my 3.4, my 3mm, 4mm. Well, we'll talk. I have trouble getting in and out of the 6.8. It's just so tight. Maybe that says... Well, you've got bigger muscles than I do, Dr. Klutz. There you go. But I'll give you the fall one the fall one would be much better

You don't need the the other one. Please don't pee in my wet suit And if you do just don't make no promises, don't tell me don't drink the Great Lakes brewery right beforehand You got to do what you got to do. All right, so when you get your what is it? You get a doctorate what you get out of a Guelph I'd be called a doctor of veterinary medicine degree Yeah, you DVM is that when you start the clinic that you you have in North Markham? Yeah, so I'm crazy but I'm not that crazy. I worked with this brilliant single clinic, single veterinary clinic up in Novelton, Dr. Gil Plummer. He's now retired and loving fishing off the rivers in BC. And then I worked for

a brief period, evenings and weekends at Downtown Animal Hospital right at Church and Wellesley here. And although I loved it and the crew was great, I've always known that I don't really work well working for others. Every sport I've done has been, even a team sport, I was the goalie, you know? Boxing, surfing, you know, everything's just like, I don't need a team, I just wanna rely on myself. So I bought this clinic, it was a struggling clinic. I bought it in January 1st, 2000.

I was hoping the millennium was gonna like wipe away my bank debt, it didn't happen. I was hoping the Millennium was gonna like wipe wipe away my bank debt. It didn't happen I still have it and then it just kind of grew and grew and grew from there. So my goodness gracious Okay, and it's still going today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's as I said 25 years this January So I'm gonna have to find some surfing Slash conference in Ecuador or something to go to if you bump into Eddie Vedder on those beaches, let me know. I feel like he's a guy who's just looking for surf spots in this world. OK, I imagine.

Shout out to Eddie Vedder if he's listening at home. So. You have the clinic, but at some point you decide the world needs me. I'm too much to be contained by the GTA. Dr. Cliff needs to go elsewhere and help animals. What was the first time that happened that you decided to travel, but not travel for enjoyment purposes, for a vacation, but to travel to help animals in other countries? Yeah. The first time was, it's almost eight years exactly it was late August eight years ago I went to Kingston Jamaica or Jamaica for three

weeks and although it was primarily volunteer I was also looking to do a little bit of filming for a YouTube channel which has kind of gone defunct now it's my Instagram that's that's busy. Well, shadow your Instagram handle. Yeah it's at drcliffworldwidevet same as the movie. dr, shadow your Instagram handle. Yeah, it's at DR cliff worldwide vet, same as the movie. DR cliff worldwide vet. Yeah, check it out. It's lots of fun. So I was I was doing it to volunteer and I'll be honest I was thinking I was gonna go in there as this sort of knight in shining armor and and teach modern medicine and use my my skills. I'd been a vet for a little over 20 years at the time, and, or almost 20 years.

And while I was very helpful and I definitely brought some skills, I learned so much over those three weeks. Diseases that I don't normally see and having to do, I mean, on day two was my, the second hardest surgery, pardon me, the first hardest surgery of my entire career at the time. It was this emergency pyometra spay, meaning the, the hundred pound Akita dog had a infected and ruptured uterus.

This is why you got to get your animals. Please be a good pet owner. Have your animals spayed and neutered, as Bob Barker used to say. God rest his soul. It's good to say. The price is wrong, Dr. Cliff. There you go. So, I had to do this surgery and not only was it, it's normally very difficult.

The anesthetic options are what I'm not used to. Cannabis? Yeah, maybe. That was after the fact. There you go. A little red stripe and something. And then also this dog had, like all the dogs on the island, was what we call a bleeder dog, meaning it had been infected by ticks, which carry Ehrlichia, as well as Lyme disease and things like that. Ehrlichia is a microorganism that damages platelets.

So the body destroys the platelets. So this dog basically, it was kind of like being hemophilia. And you know, so it made me such a better veterinarian. It was the first time I stepped on a surfboard when I was there. So there was a tiny bit of vacation, but very little. Like it is, it is 14 hour days and maybe- What happened to this dog though? This was a successful- Oh yeah, this dog's name is Augie. Check out my YouTube page.

I think it's just drcliff, youtube.com slash drcliff. But it'll also be on my Instagram page. Augie did make it. He did survive. Oh my goodness. And what I learned was there was this gentleman we all called Mr. Henry, a local of Jamaica, who was air quotes, just a technician. So air quotes because he's amazing. And here this very good surgeon in me was doing this very difficult surgery and this non-veterinarian,

Mr. Henry, was assisting me and he was instructing me and he was taking me to town and saying cut here and tie here and you're using too much suture and and he was right every single time so that's where I learned to just shut up and be quiet and listen to the listen to the people that have more gray hair on their heads than I do, and I didn't have any back then. And yeah, the dog did great, and so I started traveling and going to cool and exotic places since then.

Okay, we're going to discuss that. I will tell you on the live stream, live.torontomike.com, where people can see your handsome face right now. Hayref, I happen to know, because I've met Hey ref at TMLX events, this man is an accountant. Nice. That's neither here nor there, but it might just interesting that his,

he's asking this question, cause you were talking about going to Guelph and getting your veterinarian degree or whatever we call that wonderful piece of paper they handed you. Why is it harder, this is Hey ref talking, not me, why is it harder to get into vet school

as opposed to medical school or dental school? And he falls, not me, why is it harder to get into vet school as opposed to medical school or dental school? And he falls, he says true story. He goes, my brother in law got rejected from veterinarian school, but he was able to get into dental school. Is that true? It's is it more difficult to get into vet school than medical school or dental school? It is 100% true now. And it was 100% true back in 93 when I got accepted into OVC. I graduated in 98. In fact when I had the interview after you know they looked at my marks, my marks were good enough, here's an interview in front of three faculty

members and they said what's your fallback plan and my fall, I said, if I don't get into vet school, I'm going to become an MD. I'll become a human doctor. And they kind of chuckled and they said, really? And I said, no, people are gross. I don't want to. I literally said that. I was like, no, people are gross.

I have no, I have no interest in being a human doctor. And, and why is it more difficult? First of all, as Kramer would say, they are better doctors, Jerry. They need to be able to treat a lizard, a chicken, a dog, a cat, all in the same day. I'm gonna count the Simpsons and Seinfeld references. I'm gonna just count the one we do.

I think we're at like seven. Yeah, I think, yeah, it's pretty high up there. Um. What is about those veterinarians? Anyways? So I think part of the problem is there's not a lot of veterinary schools. There's only five in Canada and again you're limited if you're in Ontario. You can only apply to OVC or you go internationally and there's a lot of international schools. Some of them are great, some of them not so great. They'll all take your money pretty much, but it's expensive.

So there's a limit and there's also a demand. Okay, so he's an accountant, is he a CA or a CGA? My dad would ask that. My dad was a CGA, I'm gonna get this wrong and he's gonna yell at me. He's gonna correct me, he would say, whereas I think my sister's a CA. Anyways, it's like

we're working out like father issues on the program. I got no issues with my dad. He, you know, he's brilliant. He's sweet. He's a pacifist. Although he did what he would swat to my bum when I was really bad as a kid. Yeah, that happened. And that's so so I was spanked on the bum a lot and I decide excited for kids and Never spanked one of them one time like not even once. It's just I just said I'm I'm just not I'm gonna be the dad Who doesn't spank his kids? Yeah, it's a different thing. It's funny. Now. I do amateur boxing. I compete in amateur boxing Only with other old guys and guys my and my dad dad- I thought you were punching your kids, okay. They would kill me. Are you kidding me?

They would beat me up. And my dad says, I don't get it. I already, we always taught you guys never to hit in the head and never to get hit in the head. I said, well, you're a normie. I can't explain it. That's pretty much what I said to him. But yeah, it's really, really difficult

getting into vet school and it's a demand issue. And it's so many more people want to be veterinarians. The truth is, and it's because people are gross and animals are much more exciting. I want to capture as many stories as I can here, but I know there's a story about a young red fox. Yeah. So is this a good time to tell that story? Let's talk about it like so you do this to me. It sounds like this trip to Jamaica Opened your eyes to the possibilities. This is a big world. We live in more than just Markham You you where does the young red fox in the surgery room happen? Yeah, so

And and after Jamaica I did travel all over the place and then we actually started to think about pitching a TV show idea and That's where this sort of red fox came in. I ended up becoming very good friends with this guy Diego who is the producer and writer and director of the documentary and that's where this red fox is because I gave you a very secretive link to watch the film. And I started volunteering. So as I did these trips, I started volunteering locally because I realized I had no experience with wild animals. So even to this day, it's now been probably seven years, normally every Thursday. So you're taking me away from my volunteer work. I volunteer at Shades of

Hope up in Georgina and I do work on foxes and hummingbirds and micro bats and deer and coyotes and porcupines doing surgery on porcupines. Ow! It's a sticky situation. And so this Sandy Pines is a rescue up in Peterborough and And Peterborough, they basically said, hey, we heard that this guy is willing to do free work, volunteer work. So this fox had been hit by a car and broken, I believe it was tib fib. No, it was the front leg.

So it was a broken humerus, pardon me. The not funny bone, the humerus bone. Right. And they brought it down. And at the same time, I called my buddy Diego, humorous pardon me the not funny bone the humorous bone right and they they brought it down and at the same time I called my buddy Diego because we were looking to do a pilot episode or some sort of little sizzle reel and he put together his little Discovery Channel friends to film it and the next day we we tried to save and I won't give up the the ending because it's amazing you got

to come watch the film we had had this amazing red fox that had some complications during surgery. Okay, no spoilers on this program here. So this documentary is called Dr. Cliff Worldwide Vet. And again, your daughter Emily is traveling with you and we're gonna talk about your trip to India. I do want to ask you about the trip to the Ukraine. I have more questions, but I actually want to play the trailer.

But before I play the trailer, I wanna give you a couple of gifts. So this is the order of things. So I've given you fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. It pairs very nicely with the delicious lasagna from Palma Pasta. Palma Pasta, you're East End guy, Markham, all these places.

Palma pasta is Mississauga and Oakville. Go to palmapasta.com. It's worth the drive if you're not a West End guy or whatever, but delicious. We're working on another event there, which I would love to see you at. Bring the kids, Palma pasta will feed you. This will be TMLX,

that's Toronto Mike listener experience. TMLX 16, more details on that soon, but this this will be tmlx that's toronto mic listener experience tmlx 16 more details on that soon but this box will be full it's in my freezer right now you're getting a lasagna thank you palma pasta thank you palma pasta and a veterinarian you're always i'm sure you're out there and i don't know you see a i don't know a raccoon was hit by a car you jump out of your car hopefully you didn't hit the record and you've got you got him. You don't have to measure the wound You can now measure the wound with this really Measuring tape that's from Ridley funeral home. They don't bury animals. I don't think it really funeral home No other funeral homes for animals there are

Most often though what people utilize is there's a service that will cremate the animal and then you can get the ashes back So you can actually bury them or disperse them or have it done in this cool little like river rock. The ashes will be turned into this rock that you can put into your garden or whatnot. But there are funerals. And I bet you Ridley's associated with a- I'm going to ask Brad. So I produce Brad Jones's podcast. I'm going to ask him on the next episode of Life's Undertaking of Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral. I'm going to ask him on the next episode of life's undertaking of Brad Jones from Ridley funeral. I'm going to ask him if there's any partnerships with places to your beloved dog and your cat or even your budgie. Maybe maybe what's the third most popular pet that you get at your clinic? Well, I pretty much only see cats and dogs in my clinic. So the third

most popular hamster I'm trying to guess here. Yeah that's a tough one. I do occasionally see it'd be a toss-up between bunnies and birds but it's really only for like nail trims. There are much better veterinarians. Everyone says but I see you on Instagram you take care of bald eagles and whatnot. Yeah but that thing's got a broken arm and you know our goal is to release it. It's but that thing's got a broken arm and, and you know, our goal is to release it. It's different than if it's a budgie living in your house with like red mites or some. You didn't know I'd be asking the tough questions on this program here. This is a tough one. I appreciate this.

And what's, what's, is dog first than cat too? If you had to rank those two in terms of your clientele and your clinic and- Oh, a, 100%. Unless you're a cat only clinic, which a buddy of mine, shout out to Jay Chivers, a classmate of mine, went from being a cow veterinarian to opening a cat only clinic in St. Catharines. So everyone go check it out. I can't remember the name of it. Golden City, something like that. But at any animal hospital, if they see both cats and dogs, cats are like the under-serviced pet.

People don't bring their pets in enough. They just go, oh, that's fine. It's got a litter box. Because it's like furniture. Yeah. We take it to the vet when it's sick. So when it was a kitten- Do you love cats?

Look me in the eye. You love cats? I love cats. Okay, just checking. You're just checking. I especially loved my cat, Rye. She lived about 21 years. My car lived 21 years. Wow. There you go. And they both had a cat. They both had a purring motor. But I typically have dogs. My wife doesn't. There was an incident

when she was young. She won't tell me the story. There was an incident with a cat There is no cats allowed in our house. That's called childhood trauma. Yeah, we need to help her Okay I want to say moose grumpies on the live stream and we were talking earlier about Childless cat ladies and she what she says even cat ladies with kids are dangerous She wants to point that out here and then she asks a good question and we will get back I've given you the Ridley funeral home measuring tape. I know you're volunteering. I don't know if that's good if you're accountant. Shout out to Hey Ref on the live stream. If you're accountant, like all this volunteer work, but the money you're making at the clinic, I'm just letting you know Dr. Cliff that if you listened

to the Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, You would be berated with a wealth of best practices and good advice and you just be a smarter and richer man I'm just letting you know because I care about you I'm a pretty smart man, but I could I could definitely use some help on the rich side of it the advantaged investor podcast and Speaking of tips recycle my electronics dot CA. Dr. Cliff. That's where you go. If you have some old tips. Recycle my electronics dot C a Dr. Cliff. That's where you go. If you have some old dog fixing tech that broke, you don't throw it in the dog fix and tech. You don't throw that in the garbage. You go to recycle my electronics dot C a put in your postal code. They'll be like, yeah, drop it off here and we'll recycle it properly. So those chemicals do not end up in our landfill. Moose grumpy's got a question for you, Dr. Cliff. Perfect.

We're going to get to the documentary teaser and then we're gonna talk about everything does he have an opinion on of a pet awk I'm not getting this right aquamation is that a word aquamation as opposed to cremation pet aquamation I'm learning a word for the first time is that a word that word before I have not heard that word I'm sure it is a word I'm first time. Is that a word? Have you heard that word before? I have not heard that word. I'm sure it is a word. All right, Moose, your job is to give us a little context because I never saw this word. Aqua. Yeah. Aqua-mation. Aqua-mation. I would say, is that a word? Irregardless.

That's not a word. That is not a word. That is right. You know, I'm an English major. Get out of my studio. I want proper English. I said it with a sarcastic tone. All right, so we'll get back to moose grumpy. Jeremy Hopkins was when we were talking about non dog dogs and cats was thinking about Eugene Levy wailing over the woodchuck hit by the car in SCTVs, cardboard, Fiona and Alice skips, which is fantastic.

So we'll find out more about pet aquamation as opposed to cremation. I mean, if it's aquamation, what are they doing? Are they drowning these pets? What's going on, right? Aqua, I don't know. They're not surfing. We'll find out more. Water-based cremation using water as opposed to fire. You have an opinion on that

or do you need to do more research? I don't know anything about it, but how do they, I mean, they wouldn't turn it into an ash. Would they turn it into a liquid? It sounds like you need some time. Ian Service wonders if it's like a pressure washer, but we're going to get some more details before we chime in on this one.

Wow. We'll find out more. But I want to play the clip. Maybe while I play this clip, you could noodle this pet aquamation versus cremation. Where is Brad Jones when I need him? But let's listen. This is actually a few minutes, but I think it's worthwhile.

We'll set the table? But let's listen. This is actually a few minutes, but I think it's worthwhile. We'll set the table nicely. Let's listen. Just going to check his pulse in here. These rings are not solid. OK, OK. Oh, no, it's not that thing. There's a pigeon stuck on the side of this bridge. They're not going to stop the traffic.

The pigeons stuck on the side of this bridge. They're not going to stop the traffic. The second this dog escaped out of sight into the shed at night, we knew things all of a sudden became much more urgent and much more difficult. If we don't get this in, he's not going to live anyway, so we got to do this. A big part for traveling for me is taking care of new animals, new

interesting species. Oh this is messed up. Can you get the box of medicine from Sri? Arthur! See if you can pick up a heartbeat. The reality is we do see animals pass away in front of our eyes sometimes and that can be really hard and knowing that there's not really more that you can do. That may be a Meloxicam. I want to keep taking it, taking it, oh, taking it. My world is turning black and blue, and I'll take it all for you. It's like a massage.

Call her Heidi since she's our first female rescue from Hyderabad. She's like a massage. Call her Heidi since she's our first female rescue from hydro bed. The tail's wagging. I love working with cats and dogs. They tell you flat out if they don't like you. I feel like we're going on a spy mission. I ain't never had no Canadian meat before. I'm a vegetarian man. This is lean meat. I don't think we'll ever stop doing these trips. Emily, this is where I start crying.

She's always been adventurous like me. She's one of my best friends. You know, any daughter would be so lucky to be able to say, you know, they get to go travel the world with their dad, like saving animals' lives. Dog! Sorry. Have it. Come on.

Peek-a, peek-a. You think he'll drink it? Just a little bit. Oh, wow! Good job, guys. He's like, give me the dessert. Give me the dessert. All that we can do is our best, and and feels like we are doing the right thing.

At least for me, I feel like I am where I'm supposed to be. I love what I do and every animal deserves a chance, but I'm never going to quit. Wow. Okay. A lot of that is visual, of course, and this is a podcast. So you just got to hear it. But Dr. Cliff, worldwide vet. Now that everybody is like, hook that to my veins. How the heck does somebody see this documentary? Yeah, there's a, right now there's only one way and it is tomorrow at Young and Finch at the York Down. So tomorrow, like September 13th, Friday the 13th. Yeah, we get a time stamp. 2024. Yeah, listening to the.

There you go. That's right. It is part of the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival. Nollywood is Hollywood based out of Africa. It is a, a large film festival, though obviously not as large as TIFF. And it's showing tomorrow at 3.45 PM. Tickets are free. If you check out T-I-N- Whoa, free as in free beer? Free as in free.

Well, you gotta pay for any beer or popcorn, but free. Not you, you're bringing that home for free. Not me, that's right. T-I-N-F-F..com I think but basically just just google it And you can go for the entire day like the tickets give you the entire day and it's been like five days of festival of films And I'll let the people know I've watched it because I had a top-secret link and it's excellent and it's just it's wild Like so you're in I hope I say right, Hyderabad. Yeah, Hyderabad. Okay, Hyderabad, India. Thank you Yeah, it's the first time I pronounced anything correctly. This is a big moment. Dr. Cliff. Okay, so you're there

We heard Emily's voice in that trailer. She's your daughter. She accompanies you on these Rescue missions you're rescuing animals and it is it's quite thrilling and if anyone out there is at all an animal I'm thinking of like Moose Grumpy, so many people who love animals. It's just wonderful. And I have in my notes, it's an award-winning documentary. Is that a real award? Like when you donate to the Human Fund.

No, no, we've been doing the festival circuits for, this is our last festival ever. And I'll explain why in a minute so please ask but we've been in festivals in the UK and we've won like best pilot episode or best pilot film best documentary we've been in festivals in New York where else the US San Diego and California. What about Springfield, Ohio? Never been to Springfield, though I think I might go volunteer there.

They need you there. People are eating the dogs. So we've probably won about 20 awards. We've been nominated for five at this one. Best producer, best director, both of those go to Diego. Best editor for Jimmy. And then best documentary and best TV pilot. Now the thing is is they've told us we have won something. They basically said please

come to the awards ceremony. You're coming right? And I was like yeah. Tomorrow? The awards the awards thing is Sunday. Yeah the awards thing is Sunday. They gave you a wink wink. You probably should attend this thing. Yeah yeah and the important thing about that is this is a CSA, Canadian Screen Award Qualifying Festival. And so if you're entered into one of those and you win an award, you can therefore potentially be nominated for a CSA.

But, and this is my not so smooth segue, although this is our very last festival, so some of you, you got to come and check it out in the in the theater presence, you know, Young and Finch, it's right there. But we are flirting very very heavily. The flirting is getting very very serious with a not not insignificant streaming service here in Canada and so hopefully this fall, it will be visible on little screens all across the country. And you can't tell me which one yet.

I could, but I'm not going to. Hey, I'd be happy to introduce you to the guy who runs Hollywood Suite. Just remind me later. Only because good FOTM, that means friend of Toronto Mike, his name's David Kynes, you're a good FOTM that means friend of Toronto Mike his name is David Kynes you're a good FOTM excellent I love it that's official I just checked the timestamp you are now in a FOTM I have I have questions okay so when you're in India uh-huh I guess what's the word I mean for us they'd be

exotic they'd be local to well hyper bad Hyderabad Hyderabad I'm gonna work on that I had it. I should have just copied and pasted. Okay. But what is the most exotic animal? Like, I mean, I'm, I know monkeys, like what, like other than, you know, dogs? Yeah, yeah. And this was actually why I started, I went to Hyderabad, three years prior to that. So about four and a half, five years ago, almost five years ago. And so it was

before that, that I started volunteering with the wildlife here because I knew I'd be seeing some exotic, I would call them exotic or wild animals. And yeah, you get, you know, pigeons and, and there's a cattly gret, which is a beautiful white bird that we had to deal with. And then cats and dogs and bunnies, but I have treated several rhesus monkeys

as well as a giant fruit bat or a flying fox it's known as. And they are giant. They're big and beautiful and special. And I had to look at it and go, okay, wait, no, this isn't a bird. I just have to look at this like a giant mouse that happens to have wings and and when they hang upside down they literally do look like a vampire they the way they curl their their chest together is pretty amazing so yeah we we've seen some some pretty spectacular

things there now I need to know about this trip to Ukraine so during so Russia invades Ukraine they're at war right now, and during this, it's like it's almost almost three years, I suppose. But when you go to Ukraine, and tell me a bit about, like, it must have been scary to be in Ukraine. Yeah, and I've been there twice. The first time happened six weeks into the war. And like a lot of people, we just couldn't believe it. And I was seeing these images on TV and hearing these stories. And I quickly found out that at the border with Poland, Ukrainian citizens that were trying to leave were having trouble because they wanted to bring their

pets. And if their pets weren't vaccinated or they were vaccinated, but who's going to grab your vaccine paperwork if you even keep it? They were having trouble getting across into Poland and then if they wanted to go to, you know, Italy or Germany or wherever else or what if the animal's sick and so I literally was on a Sunday. I decided to go. I bought my tickets on the Monday and by the Saturday I was flying out and at the time I I basically told my wife and she was like I love you be safe. Yeah and

You know go do your thing. She knows what I'm like and I texted my kids to say hey Just so you guys know your dad's going to the border of Poland and Ukraine I'm gonna do some volunteering for two weeks My daughter was on a solo backpacking trip through Europe at the time she was in Spain, I believe. And she said, get me a ticket and I'll come join you. And so she actually joined me. Now it was air quotes safe because we stayed in Poland except for one day I broke the promise

I gave to my brother not to go towards the war war and we did go into Lviv for the day But we basically helped people get their animals healthy so that they could they could travel raised a Crap ton of money. I almost said the other word. Well, you can actually swear on this show Okay, we we we raised a shit ton of money. We raised at that time, we probably raised about $60,000. Normally these trips I pay for myself, whereas this one I did use that money everyone understood for the flights. And I fell in love with the people and the ability to help that six months later, not

even because it was around late July, without my daughter for obvious reasons, I went into Harkeiv. And we basically had to fly into Poland and then through some connections I had already made. Shout out to Cheesy John from the UK, who still has a rescue there right at the right at the edge or a charity. He got me a ride into Ukraine to Kyiv where I got picked up by the animal rescue Harkeiv team, drove into Harkeiv and was there for about 12 days at an abandoned veterinary clinic. The veterinarian had left and gave the

veterinary clinic or lent it to this animal rescue and as the military was going into you know bombed out areas they would find injured or homeless animals and they would bring it to the rescue. So my job was to take care of these animals and we even did a few charity runs deep into the war zone. Like we went into the Donbass region, which I believe there was a period that had been taken over by Russia after that. But like, you know, there was a scare one morning.

There was a couple of high impact ballistic missiles landed a couple hundred meters from my apartment. Funny sort of funny story, I was filled, you know, you hear this bang bang and then the alarms and being a social media guy, once I thought it was safe, I pull out my camera and I'm start filming and you can hear all the noise and I'm talking about it. And then there's another one while I'm filming. So I'm just like, uh, I gotta go.

And I went to the archway in my, in the Airbnb that I was rented and I was told, stay under this archway if there's a, if there's a missile. I put on all my gear, you know, I had the helmet, I had the flak vest and I sat there and I waited and I waited and I started to hear voices out in the courtyard of this apartment complex. So I go out there sort of sheepishly, and here I am again, wearing every gear, safety gear, imaginable, and the locals are standing up on their kind of garages, pointing toward the missile landed,

in their pajamas and their slippers, drinking their coffee, you know, their version of Tim Hortons, and they see me and I'm so embarrassed, they call me over and they basically say, it's okay, we were like you were, you were six months ago. So yeah, it was, it was dangerous. We needed some military escorts a few times because we got back too late and there's a curfew, so we, we got to use, the driver got to use night-seeing goggles so we could go through Harkeev in the dark without lights on like it was pretty pretty spectacular I ended up talking about tattoos I ended up getting a tattoo

the one I don't know if people can see it this red one of the snakes attacking attacking the Red Falcons. That snake image is the crest of Harkiv and everyone knows what the Red Falcon represents. So this is the crest of the military unit that I worked with. So most of my tattoos, they all have stories as good tattoos should have, and my entire left side is all animal-based and from different trips. So that was the one that I got afterwards in Ukraine. Dr. Cliff, you really love animals. I really, really love animals.

Like everyone's getting out of a place and you're running in to rescue and to aid animals. That's kind of amazing. Yeah, I mean, what's amazing though is the people like at Animal Rescue Harkeev that have stayed there and and could have left, you know, a lot of them sent their families away and stayed to rescue the animals and they're there for two plus years, right? Putin did not think this war was gonna last two weeks let alone two years. So I'm not trying to be humble. I recognize what I did was brave. My brother would say it was careless. He would say when I got back, he didn't talk to me for like a couple of months, which is

kind of a bonus. He didn't talk to me for a couple of months. Is he listening right now? Probably not right now because he's working, but he'll listen later. No, I mean, I mean. Oh yeah, yeah. But I Probably not right now because he's working, but he'll listen later. No, I mean, I mean. Oh, yeah, yeah. But I have a text from him where I texted him afterwards saying, hey, I'm back, I'm safe. And he said, welcome back, dumbass. And again, I didn't hear from him for a while.

He loves me very, very much. And he's my older bother. So he has to take care of me. And he's not my father. He can't tell me what to do. But I love him very much. Working through these issues, I love it, okay. So yeah, I was, you know, it was brave what I did,

I get that, but it's nothing compared to the people that, I mean Cheesy John from the UK, he's still there. And he's been there for two years. He could be living in the south of France with his wife, but he wants to help out humans and animals. And that's a great handle, Cheesy John. Yeah, well, there were several guys named John. There was Cheesy John because he presented us with cheese from the UK.

And he just said, just call me Cheesy John. Okay. And then there was, I think it was Beer John or Canuck John. But he was the guy that drove me on this big red bus that some of the money, the additional money, we ended up raising about 110 grand plus, what is the name of the pharmacy? Shoot, I should know this. There's a drug company based out of Montreal that gave us $50,000 worth of human chemotherapeutics to go to the hospital in Kharkiv, specifically for like breast cancer and prostate cancer, so hormone type chemotherapeutics,

because Ukraine gets all their drugs from Russia. They're not getting them now. So for anyone, because I did have a few, I had a lot of radio interviews, and one guy here in Toronto whose brand is he's a grumpy old fart be more specific it wasn't like Richards it was it was it was on the same channel though Mike Richards it wasn't like okay but what station it wasn't it's that station shoot what is it he's actually checked he's not on a station anymore but he knows I on Jim Richards. Jim Richards. It wasn't Jim Richards. It's news radio 1010.

It's not Jim Richards. It's Jerry. Jerry. Jerry. I've met him at a, believe it or not, a documentary about Great Lakes Brewery at a cinema. I said, Jerry, I was like, why don't you help people and show them? I don't, I understand that sort of like saying, well, you know, how can you care about this? There's starving people in Africa like this. Right. But so do people ever say, Hey, there's, you know, in the hierarchy of needs, we got to help the people before we help the doggies and the cats.

I don't personally buy into this philosophy. That's kind of ridiculous. And you wouldn't do anything because there's always a bigger fit. What is it? So my, so that I have several arguments. First of all, my, my one argument, if the person is legitimately questioning why I'm doing this, I'd say, well, what do you do? Right. Right. How do you help? How do you help? And the reality is I'm not a human doctor and obviously I was helping people because

they weren't gonna leave Ukraine unless I helped their animals and we brought all these, all these medicines, uh, for people. But you know, then we get people, why don't you help animals here instead of there? Well, I do, I do every single week, except for this one, sorry guys. Uh, every single week or you know, my big thing is if everybody picked something, doesn't matter if the guy down the street agrees with it or not. Just volunteer, just help out. It doesn't have if the guy down the street agrees with it or not just

volunteer just help out it doesn't have to be extreme it certainly doesn't have to be one day a week if you just do a couple of days a year the world be such a better place so anyone who really seriously asked that most of them are just being shit disturbers well Jerry agar likes to you know rile people up on his talk show. That's like his job. So he's kind of a contrarian that way. So I totally get it.

He was asking a question that other people were needing to know. Yeah, he wants to stir shit up. OK, that's right. That's like his job. But it was good that I was able to say, hey, we are we are helping people get to safety because they want to bring their pets and we're bringing all this human medicine. You're basically, these pets are the loved ones of the people who are, yeah. I love what you're doing here.

Now, Cheesy John, just a quick shout out to Afram from the Cheese Boutique, cause I just learned he, the Cheese Boutique, they're great, they're in the West Toronto here, but I just learned he's like a neighbor. So they're not a sponsor or anything. I just wanted to shout him out cause I just learned he's like a neighbour. So they're not a sponsor or anything. I just wanted to shout them out because I just learned he's living in New Toronto, which is this neighbourhood.

And it's exciting to me when somebody you know is in the hood, as we say. So shout out to Afrim from Cheese Boutique. And shout out to Cheesy John if he's listening. You're doing good work, Cheesy John. I'll let him know. I'll let them know Yeah, so this other Canuck John or or beer John who drove me to Keeve

He owns a brewery out by Peterborough. I think Wow, yeah, so so these beer guys and girls all to the earth these There there salt of the earth malt of the water.'re salt of the earth, malt of the water. I don't know how... And they all have good beards. They do. He did have a good beard. He did, that's right.

I'm surprised he's a John, because they're all named Matt. No, as long as it's single syllable. My dad says, don't trust your mechanic unless they have a single syllable name. What about Tony? Tone, I don't know. Yeah, you're right. But he always went to Jack. Jack's auto shop. So who knows? You know, I was told by Michael Landsberg, because I said, how come you're a Michael and not a Mike? I'm just curious because I'm a Michael and I go by Mike. And he said, Mike

is the name of the guy who fixes my car. There you go. I'll snow up. And I'm like, that's fucking amazing. I wish I could fix a car. And why are you, why are you putting down mechanics who are able to fix our car? That's like putting down a veterinarian who's able to fix our pets. That's right. Mike, Michael Landsberg, I met him when he went spinning at cycle bar at Leeside, him and his daughter. He was a regular at Cycle Bar Leeside. And the reason I'm bringing that up is he will remember my wife, Vassal, who was a receptionist there at the time or CBX it's called, um, and, uh, front desk

staff, my wife is now opening. This is a shameless plug, but I need Michael to know Michael, my wife, Vassal is opening up her own cycle bar in Markham. It opens up in about six know. Michael, my wife Vasa was opening up her own cycle bar in Markham. It opens up in about six weeks. Dude, you got it. I was trying to reach you through social media and no one's returning my email. Cycnoweek.com or something like that. There you go. Michael, find me, talk to, I am a FOTM now. I had to think about what it was. That's the next tattoo.

I'm an F, it might be. Get that tattoo, then come out to the TML it was. That's the next tattoo. It might be. That tattoo then come out to the TMLX events and show it off to everybody. When's this next one? This past one? I haven't picked the exact day yet. I'll let you know. I'll email you when I know. I'll do my best. I'll do my best. If I'm in the country, I'll be there.

And I want Emily there too. She was great in this documentary. Yeah. Yeah. She's amazing. She we'd say she stole the show, but she's been trained. She's been traveling with me a lot and she stole the first trip her first trip ever was to India was to Hyderabad Five years ago, and then she went with me again to the border of Ukraine and Panama and Egypt and then again India and Cali, which we recently went to a Cali in January Wow For penguins, what's up? What's going on? Well, a callowit the city of Nunavut the capital city. It's only got 10,000 people but it's the biggest one

So they called the city, right? Um, they have no veterinarian. They have a vet clinic They had a vet there that two and a half years ago disappeared in the night Rumor has it he was selling drugs That should be an HBO potentially him and his RCMP wife This is just what I've heard. This is not my leg. Neither is this the opinion of Toronto Mike Allegedly allegedly Lauren Honigman is listen, but so now these all these animals in a callow at cats and dogs don't have veterinarians So we went and volunteered there in Iqaluit, cats and dogs don't have veterinarians. So we went and volunteered there

and saw the Northern Lights, Borea, what is it? Aurora Borealis. That comes from a Greek word, which I'm learning Greek, I should have remembered that. Okay, it's all Greek to me. There you go. No, I've never heard that one. All right, who's the comedian around here?

Okay, now a little mop up here. So is it surgery? What did you do for a bald eagle? Yeah, that was a great one. So This bald eagle came here transplant also. Well, they don't have hair man. They got feathers Yeah, that's why they're called bald eagle, but you could give them Actually, they're called bald eagle because bald in the Native American language whichever one Means white and they have a white today. I learned.

Okay. And I was just thinking George Costanza, I, here's my hot take on Seinfeld before we get back to the bald eagle. When George puts on the hair piece, Elaine makes fun of him and she says, get that thing off your head. And she throws it out the window. I thought George looked great. Okay.

I thought George looked, I'm not saying he needs the hair, but he looked great in his hair piece. And Elaine was really mean to do that. The problem, well, they're all mean. They're all dysfunctional friends. That's why it worked. But he looked good in that hair piece. The problem with hair pieces and transplants

is there's too much hair. Like, no one is going to believe a guy of his age at the time had that much hair. I think he was like 35 years old. I his age at the time had that much 35 years old I have that much hair today. I don't know. No you Maybe you do it was just It's just too After this thing is turned off All right back to the bald eagle, yeah, yeah, yeah enough about the ball bold Costanza this bald eagle had been

bald eagle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough about the bald Costanza. This bald eagle had been honestly accidentally shot by duck hunters. I think they went up for the ducks, they shot out their pellet and the bald eagle was there. And then they went and got the bald eagle out in the bushes or in the marsh and brought it to Shades of Hope. And Shades of Hope brought it to my clinic because at the time I was the only veterinarian. There's now two veterinarians, one on Monday, me on Thursdays. This bald eagle couldn't wait, so they brought it to my clinic and we pinned its humerus bone again, between the elbow and the shoulder. Then they named the bald eagle Wolf because she became a nasty MFer, which is what they

should be. They're wild animals. You don't want them to be cute. And when the time came, eight, 10 weeks later, for her to be released, they gave me the call, would you like to release Wolf? Heck yeah. And so we went down to Niagara Falls, because that's where the Owl Foundation was, and she had spent her last couple of weeks doing some physio there and we walked onto the frozen Niagara River and I had to get my hands on her one more time just because I love animals and I wanted so I faked this while filming it. Faked this little oh I got to examine the let's make sure the wings okay and she bit me.

Oh my god she's a wolf. She's bald eagle but yeah she bit me and she bit me hard enough my god, she's a wolf. She's bald eagle, but yeah. She bit me and she bit me hard enough to say, you idiot, what are you doing? Don't you, you're getting your hands right by my face. I'm not being restrained, but not hard enough to hurt me. So I think it was really her way of teaching me a lesson, but also saying, thank you for saving me.

And we released her and she flew off into the blue wildy under. Well, that's amazing. And then I was gonna say we we we ended up getting picked up by the Dodo which is like this Facebook and YouTube channel so they made a story on it and I got so many comments from Americans saying why is this bald eagle in Canada? They don't know and there's just like get too custom. Yeah, people be like, you know, they just fly in fact the number one place for bald eagles in North America is Red deer red not not red deer Red River Red River Manitoba canora. Okay.ora. It's very close. Yeah.

So Red River, Canora. I was a junior ranger there. The summer I turned 17, I learned how to fight fires and build bridges and canoe and clear forests. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So.

Well, that's where you got, you know, you had a sense of adventure from a young age. So when you love animals and you have the sense of adventure, you kind of have to do what you do, which is kind of, it was your calling. Yeah. Yeah. It keeps the voices at bay. If I, if I stay busy like this and adventurous. Oh my goodness gracious. I think I know I heard in the trailer for your fine documentary, people can see tomorrow cause the documentary is called and it's an award-winning documentary as we learned, Dr. Cliff Worldwide Vet. Again, I guess Google it and it's free tickets. Yeah, free tickets. And you can see it tomorrow.

T-I-N-F-F dot com, I think, Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival. And follow me on Instagram because as soon as this flirting and please introduce me to the Hollywood sweets. Yeah, I do the kind. I'm only flirting with this other broadcast company. I haven't put a ring on their finger, so nothing's been promised yet. Um, so I'm, I'm happy to have other people interested. Yeah. Um, because it, we are doing everything we can.

It's already been picked up by Al Jazeera in the middle East, uh, as well as it's a big network. That's a big one. Um, I didn't know anything about it. And then Diego, the producer was like, no, this is huge. It's big. And then South Africa has bought it as well. Our agent out of Barcelona, Spain has done a great job,

but they're now really hustling for Canada. And I think winning this award... And it's tough sledding. I know I have friends in the business, shout out to Stu Stone, but it's tough sledding. Yeah, it's very very difficult It's it's like paddling against the current. I'm trying to get a kayak reference here. Oh, I love it Quick question you mentioned dodo and I was thinking for a minute like are they still around? Okay, so what is the rarest?

Like what's the most? endangered species you have treated the most endangered species species you have treated? The most endangered species? That's a tough one, right? Yeah, that one wasn't endangered. I mean there's some really cool ones. Because bald eagles are no longer endangered. Am I right? Or were they were endangered because of the DDT? I feel like... Yeah, yeah. That was a bit when we were kids. Yeah, that was a big deal. It was weakening the shells. Yes, we were. You know what? The things that, because we're similar vintage vintage but like When I think back about the ozone layer like the things that were really big acid rain acid

I can't believe we're still here. You know, it really was scary though, right? Like like I just thought one day I'd gone the rain and my skin would peel off like a bellic and Raiders of the Lost Ark Very nice. It's my call back here. But I mean if you don't have an answer you can think on it I'm going to close this episode with some more insight into Moose Grumpy's aquamation question. I'm going to pose that little education for you. But yeah I mean probably the the strangest and potentially most endangered was a it was my third day in Jamaica and I had to remove the eyeball off of a crocodile that had been shot by a spear gun

from a very frightened farmer and rushed to the Kingston Zoo. And I don't know how to do this. I don't, but I have, I've quickly learned it's a lot easier taking things apart than it is putting things back together I'm not a mechanic, but I could take apart my car engine I could not put it back together so I can take out the eye of a crocodile

I just pretended it was kind of a dog with very dry skin. Do you put a glass eye in there? Is there any cosmetic work done? No doesn't feel... We prefer biologically inert plastic that is recyclable and we gotta, you know, make sure that it matches the color of the other eye. Because the other guys are going to make fun of him. He went into an enclosure with another crocodile that was missing its front leg. So it was kind of like the land of toys that toys forgot.

It was kind of like- Misfits. The misfit toys. Island of Misfits or whatever. So there's another- Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. There'd be another great like animated series. That was done here.

Really? Yeah, I've done episodes on this topic and now that I'm on the spot, I'm gonna mess up the details. I'm gonna give them. Except the animation studio was based in Toronto okay and a lot of those voice actors so that was all done here and a lot of those voice actors were local local people in car I think one is still with us I want to call him Carlos

Bona bang and it was all it was all like snowy and ice cap. Well, it was all in Canada. Yeah, I thought they're filming it. See, you have totally changed. So the island, it was the toys. And then the guy wanted to be a dentist and you wanted to be a veterinarian. You could have been one of the elves that wanted to be a veterinarian. Didn't want to be an elf. There you go.

That that might have been that's probably like one of my oldest memories is that that Rudolph the Red Neuron Reindeer episode. Maybe that's what got me into being a veterinarian. Well, you know what? I want to pretend so. And there is in the feed, if you go to the Toronto Miked Archives, absolutely there are many a episode on this very, very topic. And I'm just vamping a little bit because I feel like, I'll look it up in a minute, but I'll find the name of this place. Everybody, you know, on the spot, I don't have it, but I'm going to get you talking about something here and then I'm going to dig it up.

That's my strategic ploy. That's my move. Don't tell anyone my tricks. Wellington, veterinary, sorry, Wellington veterinary hospital. It's in Markham. Uh, what's the website for that? Uh, it's going to sound, uh, silly, but it's drcliff.ca. Drcliff.ca.

Cause it has a bunch of other stuff. It's branding, right? You're the face of this operation. You're the owner. So if you can actually be a client of the Wellington Veterinary Hospital in Markham, and then how often can you go there and you'll be the guy? Like, I don't know if you have other veterinarians

that work there. Yeah, it's myself and Dr. Aron, and he's part-time because he's at another clinic as well. So I'm actually there Six days a week. I'm normally there tonight, but I'm gonna go see my buddies Matt Modine and Wait, Matthew Modine. Yeah. Well, he's not my buddy, but though I am supposedly gonna meet him Steven is the director of martini shot starring Matthew Modine and John Cleese. And it is in the Toronto Independent Film Festival. There's global nods for this thing and possibly Oscars.

So yeah, like it is, I met, I met Stephen, the director and writer at the Atlanta film festival. We also won there for best documentary. And he, he lives in Sprucedale, which is where my family cottage used to be up in Sprucedale. It's this tiny little- I don't even know where that is.

Yeah, it's right off of, what is it called? The Golden Highway Highway Highway 11? But yeah, so I'm not working tonight. So normally I'm there six days a week. All right Well guys, if you dr. Cliff man, he'll show you his tats. He'll take care of your pets and that's awesome Go check out his documentary tomorrow We'll see what streaming service it eventually drops on at some point. You have to get me back on when it gets You can kick out the animal jams, okay? Your 10 favorite animal songs.

Okay. Okay, you can work on that and maybe your kids can even help you with that. So, Moose Grumpy brought up something that was news to us and then she gave us a bit more info, so I'm just going to share this on the way out because I can educate you. So, aquamation is a form of pet cremation, also known as alkaline hydrolysis, water-based cremation, and bio-cremation. Aquamation uses warm water, lime, and alkali to mimic the natural decomposition of tissue that occurs after burial. The rescue that Moose Grumpy is attached to is using this option for kittens that are lost early in life. But it's apparently now I got to

talk to Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home about this, but it's also available for humans. It's a newer procedure and Moose Grumpy finds it very, very interesting. And now you kind of are aware of it. So who knows? Maybe next time you come on, you'll have an opinion on what you prefer, aquamation or cremation. I am sure I'll have an opinion. It may not be the right one, but it may not be an educated one. Can't be wrong, Dr. Cliff.

But I would say as far as you know, on the way out, they're not eating cats and dogs anywhere that you know of. Like pets. There's no pets being devoured by people, like just for sport. Correct. Not until the zombie apocalypse happens, is that going to be an issue? All right. We know the Trumpers are going to get mad at you if you called their leader a liar.

Oh my goodness gracious. I like your motto. I might steal it from you. What if I closed every episode of Toronto Mike? Then I just said, be kind to animals. That's fair. But let's hear it in your voice. I think you do it better than I actually say, be kind to animals, be kind to each other and be kind to yourself. And that brings us to the end of our 1550th show. You can follow me all over the place.

I'm at Toronto Mike, but you need to go to Instagram. I'm Toronto. Mike on Instagram, but the guy to follow is this Dr. Cliff here. He's on Instagram, Dr. Cliff worldwide vet doctors just DR to DR cliff worldwide vet. Follow him on Instagram and you'll always know what's going on in the Dr. Cliff universe. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery. You said in your trailer, I was going here and I forgot to get there, but Dr. Cliff, you said in your trailer that you're a vegetarian. That's correct, right? Yes.

Okay, so I screwed up again. This is the second time in a row. I actually only have a meat lasagna in my freezer, but I can get you a vegetarian. No, no. My wife's not a vegetarian. My stepson, my sons, we're good. Well, I just want you to know I feel terrible that you won't be enjoying the glory that is Palma Pasta. Beer is vegetarian. That is true. That is true. Recyclemyelectronics.ca Raymond James Canada, and of course Ridley Funeral Home. See you all.

I got to go to my calendar and find out who the next guest on Toronto Mic is because I didn't prep this before. And oh my goodness, it's the return of Roger Lajoie, who keeps setting new records over there on the Fan 590. I think he just did his one millionth show. So we'll talk to Roger. See you all then It's just like mine and it won't go away Cause everything is rolling in gray Well I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who, yeah I wonder who