Dr. Jeff Levy knocked gently on an apartment door on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon.

“I knock lightly because dogs can get upset if you knock loud, or with a cat, it might run under the bed,” said Dr. Levy, a veterinarian who specializes in acupuncture, exclusively by house call.

This house call was for Harpo, a 10-year-old toy fox terrier with a liver tumor that was diagnosed a year ago as terminal and untreatable.

“They told me to just keep him happy for his last couple of months,” said Harpo’s owner, Jess Caragliano, 36, who heard that Dr. Levy, 61, could help provide palliative care during Harpo’s last few weeks.

She had him begin weekly acupuncture treatments, and while a year later Harpo’s prognosis has not improved, outwardly he is energetic and thriving, said Ms. Caragliano, the founder of a music marketing company.

Dr. Levy’s rounds are mostly in Manhattan but he will take on patients as far as the city’s subway system extends. He sometimes sees a dozen patients a day, which means plenty of miles on his unlimited use MetroCard.

Read the full profile on The New York Times.