In Houston, Texas the health department's much maligned Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care is run by Dr. Duncan A. MacDonell. It was supposed to be his retirement job, his opportunity to put on the brakes, to slow down, to take a well-earned respite from the intensity, the uncertainty, and the seemingly unending challenges of twenty-six years of military service. Now, nearing the close of his professional career, he finds himself to be nothing more than a big city's head dog catcher... and he's in trouble!

Unfortunately Doctor Mac has stumbled onto the world's worst job, in what many might consider the world's gentlest profession. The good doctor has spent a lifetime with animals. Spanning both oceans, he has worked with quick-tempered attack dogs, and sensitive drug and bomb detection dogs. Off duty he has judged flashy German field trial dogs, and treated primped-up American show breeds. Both in and out of uniform he has attended a myriad of other species. He's performed semen tests on those big cherry-red Santa Gertrudis bulls, taken blood from the ear vein of more than one elephant. He has also castrated a bobcat, x-rayed a snake, delivered calves, colts, lambs, and puppies. He's chased coyotes by helicopter. He's set the fractured femur of a fluttering parakeet in Italy, lassoed a cantankerous zebu ox, and vaccinated thousands of plodding water buffalo in the steamy jungles of Thailand. In truth, he's been chased, bitten, kicked, scratched, stomped, and gored.

Doctor Mac thought he was ready for anything...but he was wrong!

CANIS is a wild and woolly thriller set on the streets of Houston. It's a tale chock- full of lively, eccentric, and dangerous characters and filled with animal lore...loose livestock in the big city...coyotes on the golf courses...and killer dogs running amok. Ironically it's all the wild people who consort to drive Doctor Mac crazy...and force his prim little wife to consider packing heat.