US Veterinarians Are Helping Displaced Ukrainian Pets. Here's What They're Seeing
He’s been impressed by how “tough and stoic” the Ukrainian women are. Most men aged 18-60 are prohibited by their government from leaving Ukraine so they can stay and fight.
Geller, a 71-year-old who normally doesn’t smoke, drink or eat meat, joked that he “got corrupted” while trying to connect in a positive way while overseas. For starters, people with a little free Greek restaurant got him smoking Greek cigarettes. The Romanian border guards introduced him to Romanian fruit vodka. The nonprofit World Central Kitchen doled out hearty servings of Romanian chicken and pork, which he ate with gusto.
“What made the biggest impact on me was this amazing unification of the world for these Ukrainian refugees,” he said. “The positive energy of everybody coming together in a totally noncontroversial way — that feeling just blew me away. When’s the last time we felt that?” Weitzman said most refugees fleeing the violence brought dogs and cats, though he did examine a ferret. One little girl even brought a huge pet snail she’d loved for several years to be checked out at the veterinary tent.
Cats are often carried in refugees’ coats so the team gets them carriers and food after giving them fluids and warming them up in the tent.