This was my 3rd trip to Croatia with Gaye Lockwood as the mastermind behind the project, Lukre the Croatian vet, Elaine and Lisa the Irish nurses and Mo and Barbara the cat catchers. We had worked together before so it was nice to meet up again in the beautiful Elaphite Islands off the coast of mainland Croatia and the weather was glorious for so late in the season.
Our clinic was to be held in the fire station which needed some revamping to turn it into an operating room! Our local contact was Barbara, a German lady married to a Croatian who spoke little English but loved her cats and daily fed tens of cats at two sites. She showed us where to find them and helped to catch them also.
It was pleasing to find the locals more responsive to our efforts and we saw and neutered more privately owned cats and male ones at that, than on previous trips. It was lovely also to see previously neutered cats doing really well and looking in great condition. The numbers we treated are logged elsewhere but suffice to say we made a good impact on the island cat population.
A couple of fun memories from this trip were, one, the interesting facilities that made up our clinic. We were observed by maybe 30 guys living on site of the fire station, working at a local hotel, who paraded around, often in very little clothing and miaowed at us whenever we walked by….maybe a Croatian love call?? and, secondly, on my last day, in the morning before I was due to catch the noon ferry, a farmer was looking for veterinary help with a sheep that had injured its leg and was very lame. There was no vet on the island ( but I spoke to Lukre by phone) and so I got together some antibiotics, antiseptic solution,wound dressings and the ever brilliant antibiotic purple spray and was taken way over the island to his remote hill farm with Elaine, on the back of a golf buggy. The farm consisted of one small building which housed an assortment of sheep, lambs, goats and cows and then endless hillside grazing.Also to greet us was a really cute kitten of about 6 months that we had neutered a couple of days before and was clearly pleased to see us. The lame sheep was duly presented and examined, (a series of hand gestures led us to a diagnosis!). It had run its leg up a nail on a gate, there was no obvious wound but we gave antibiotics in case of a puncture wound and left some hibiscrub and cotton wool for the farmer to clean it with before heading back down to the town to grab my bags and head for the ferry. I can’t bear hanging around so had chosen to get the noon ferry (rather than 6am), which was cutting it a bit fine and left me 1 hour to get to the airport (a 35/40 minute taxi run). Luckily it was a smooth journey and I got to the departure lounge with 10 minutes to spare. Now that’s how I like to travel!
