Back to Samos May 2005
After I had spent 5 days on Samos in November 2004, I had felt intuitively that Samos had much more to give and I had a lot more to give to Samos. At the verge of a sabbatical year of locuming and freeing myself of financial obligations, the Pythagoras birth island was an obvious starting place for me to go in May 2005.
After a few years of building up the so-called necessary experience, losing sleep over difficult cases and most of all problematic owners, the keeping track of why we in the first place became veterinary surgeons or healers (as some would call our vocation) can become problematic.
The long weeks; the 10 minute consults, the night shifts, the tantrums of other vets and staff, but sometimes our patients fill us with humility and awe and we take a deep breath and our steps become lighter. And it is that empathy that inspired us to study veterinary medicine. Out of the duality of mind and matter science has created matter as the only reality and dismissed mind as an artifact.
Immeasurable phenomena such as feelings, values and purpose are understood as byproducts while in my opinion they are inherent part of veterinary science…
All this to explain why doing this trip connects me with the core of our science.
May 2005 on Samos is a pleasant warm month; the big summer heat has not yet exploded and makes the tarmac shine as a mirror. People are getting ready for the big summer rush and the markets displays the first seasonal vegetables.
The old house had undergone a real transformation and where the old plastic garden table with some old table lamps used to live was a complete state of the art operating theatre.
The tired looks of Joeri and Silke displayed how much effort had gone in getting this room ready for the month may. Tailor-made cupboards, tiled walls, an autoclave, running hot water, a operation table it was all a far cry from the state we found the place in in November.
Due to the 3 week stay I had planned the outlay of the days was a lot more laid back. The daily ride along the coast from my lodging to the little “clinic” made me wake up with a buzz.
Next to the need for neutering the spring had also brought more puppies and with that also Parvo and its difficult management. An outbreak of Distemper on the island had also made me acutely aware of the big responsibility resting on me regarding the few coughing and sneezing dogs we had at the shelter.
The shelter next to the huge land fill site looked in this sunlight less gloomy then in rainy November. It is still a mystery to me how so many dogs live quite peacefully together. I had not one dog bite wound in those 3 weeks to treat. In the 3 weeks I did not muzzle one dog; seldom have I felt so fortunate to be a vet….
These rejected dogs kept on wagging their tails and greet you every day with the same enthusiasm.
Joeri had so much joy in his newly acquired toy, the cat catcher that some days he brought a carload of feral cats. With huge ice creams he managed to bribe us in working overtime and get the stray cats back on the street, neutered and deflead in no time….
After little by little realizing that Greek people have a different outlook on animal welfare it was with tears in my eyes I put the loved dog of a Greek man to sleep. His tears made clear that very easily we generalize…
Cultural differences are hard to overcome and it is very understandable that sometimes we are seen as arrogant foreigners. Finding a balance is for any animal charity that receives foreign vets a real task.
A complete new idea that I adopted as one of my personal reasons to support neutering programs like Animal Care Samos is the enormous impact free ranging animals have on the local wildlife. Observation of free ranging domestic cats has shown that some individuals can kill over 1000 wild animals per year. Worldwide, cats may have been involved in the extinction of more bird species then any other cause.
Considering the amount of free ranging cats on Samos it is surprising to have any wildlife at all remaining. Also the enormous increase in the occurrence and recognition of urban zoonosis is a factor to consider.
In recent years new human pathogens have been recognized in urban environments such as Bartonella elizabethae, Bartonella henselae and Rickettsia felis. Stray animals or rodents can serve as vertebrate amplifying hosts and bring these agent and their ectoparasitic vectors in contact with the locals and help maintain transmission cycles in urban areas.
The German re homing kennels demand every Samos dog to be on a full 3 week course of Doxycycline prior to shipping them to Germany. Experience has learned them that Ehrlichiosis is rampant.
After we initially rejected loads of dogs on the ground of prolonged buccal mucosal bleeding time, the out come made clear that half the kennel would remain unneutered so with a big breath and loads of swabs and courage we decided to go ahead and luckily the Greek gods were mercifull with us.
When I left a whole load of surgical tools had arrived; the future of animal care Samos looks better and better. If the Greek government will loosen its Bureaucratic reins is another question; but as long as people as Joeri; Toby; Silke, and Caroline and so many other keep battling there is hope.
Veerle Dejonckheere
