My dad, Donald, was a vet and had a practice in Yorkshire. Cats and dogs were his bread and butter, but his greatest love was large animals.

Campbell recalls his father’s professional life as a veterinarian, contrasting the everyday economics of small-animal work (“bread and butter” cats and dogs) with a deeper vocational passion for treating larger livestock. The line highlights a common tension between what sustains a practice financially and what most inspires the practitioner. It also subtly evokes a rural or semi-rural Yorkshire setting where large animals—cattle, horses, sheep—carry cultural weight and demand a different kind of skill and physical engagement. As a piece of memoir, the quote functions to locate Campbell’s family background in practical service work and to sketch his father’s character through the distinction between duty and love.