He traveled 7200 km by car to find his dog again.

Vassilis Stavropoulos is 35 years old, he comes from Piraeus and is a vet. He recently moved to England for business, leaving his pet in Greece. The sense of responsibility towards his buddy made the idea a reality, and Vasilis crossed his car with 9 countries and a total of 7,200 km to see Hermes shake his tail again. The sense of responsibility towards his buddy made the idea a reality, and Vasilis crossed his car with 9 countries and a total of 7,200 km to see Hermes shake his tail again. Some would call him crazy, it can be. As you read his story you will see that he is a special man with a zealous conscience and a romantic soul. According to him “Love moves the world”, doesn’t he have right?

I drove 7200km crossing England, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and finally Greece (and back) for a single purpose. To bring my dog ​​back to England where I recently moved. His age did not allow him to be transported by plane and the companies did not allow him to leave the rented car in a different country. The yearning to see your dog again, to caress him, to kiss him, to see his tail swing with joy for you it obscures every obstacle and every obstacle feeds on that craving at the same time! I take this opportunity to mention once again that pets are our family. We have to be faithful to our commitment to thema dog or a cat has only you. You are their world! Don’t neglect or throw it away when your life changes, when you change country, when you have a child, when you go on vacation.Your animal is a part of your life and you need to know it before you even get it! Above all, you owe it to yourself to be fair and look strong in every difficulty that arises! Problem finding solution organization practice. It all starts with a decision! Everything else is done!Love moves the world! They told me crazy that I was doing this. I will say that beyond being a mad dog I am a conscious and in love dog and would travel so much, and so much, and so much more for these eyes, to see him sleep next to me calm because he knows I never left him!

Do you think that what you did was a sacrifice or the obvious?

If we look in a dictionary we will see that the concept of sacrifice is about a voluntary loss in order to achieve one goal or to protect another. So the people who are sacrificed want to be deprived, want to lose something and know the loss they will have. The point is to sacrifice self-evident things for you, to do what it is to do without the need for specific explanations or evidence. Every day millions of people are “sacrificed” for their wills. For what they consider self-explanatory.At the end of the day, you are left alone with the thoughts of what you did or want to do.Personally, I am happy to be able to make “sacrifices” for what I claim to be self-evident.

Having worked in Greece and abroad, what differences have you identified in animal treatment?

In Greece things have definitely evolved in recent years in terms of how I remember them earlier. Generations have certainly changed the perception of animals. More and more people view their pets as an integral part of their family, care for them, learn from them. There are exceptions of course and there will always be everywhere.We see them every day, and I don’t need to mention personal experiences of abuse and / or neglect of an animal.Abroad things are naturally better in the sense that people seem at least more aware of the role of a pet’s guardian.Legislation is rigorous in terms of welfare and large state control.Of course we are talking about a large percentage of people as there is a smaller percentage with complete ignorance of duties and duties towards his animal.Personally, I found enormous similarities in poor animal care compared to Greece, just to a much lesser degree and intensity.The whole thing starts from home, school, society as a whole, factors that shape perceptions and human behaviors.

Can you imagine yourself in another profession?

Being a vet is not simple. It is no coincidence that the Veterinary School is one of the most difficult schools in Greece and worldwide. I was once asked, why be a veterinarian and not a human doctor? I answered, to work twice as much as half the money (I’d read somewhere). I believe that if you ask every veterinarian in charge, he will answer the same. It’s so weird to go to your job combed, clean and perfumed and leave as if you were in a war zone. But at the end of the day you will always prefer to work with animals rather than humans. I can’t describe the charm of this profession.The joy you get when you treat an animal well, the way it looks at you and says thank you.Of course there is the other side of the coin. Frustration, failure, sadness.Euthanasia is never easy either for the veterinarian who performs it. I have been crying nights and nights. In addition to the stress of all the work, the need for lifelong learning and the demands of nature the profession has put the veterinarian first in suicide rates worldwide. Doing such a difficult but at the same time wonderful profession was a 100% conscious decision and I could not imagine myself in any other role.

What is it that ultimately makes a dog a man’s best friend?

This is really a complicated and difficult question to answer in 1-2 paragraphs. A dog is often more than a best friend. Why; Because it has the ability to give you things that a human being cannot give. A dog will never judge you for your appearance, your religion, your sexual preferences and beliefs. For a dog you are everything! His whole world is moving around you. Around the simplest things you do, like when you come home, when you give him a caress or you look at him smiling. A dog will ALWAYS be waiting for you when you come back. A dog will give you his life without ever thinking about his own. Just because as an animal, it has the gift of living in the moment. He does not care about tomorrow, money or rehabilitation.All he cares about is YOU! The dog may be your best friend because it will always be there for you. Always.

When I started the little stories, I didn’t expect that friends, acquaintances, and even strangers would go in the process of thinking and suggesting stories to me. Along the way I was glad to find that I was wrong. I owe the above story to my friend Spyros Kourkoulos, who one night sent me Basil’s post and typically told me “Make a theme for us friends too. “I have never had a dog, cat or other pet, not because I do not love animals but because I do not feel ready to take on such a responsibility.More and more often several ex-cute pets are turned into endless strangers because their owner finds a job and does not catch up, because he has changed his home, because he is just bored. Everyday horrifying images of animal abuse make the internet.You do not have to be animalistic to understand the crime that is being committed.It is your right not to like animals but you have an obligation to respect them. Respect is a matter of education and an indication of culture. As important as it is for our children to learn arithmetic, it is equally important to teach respect for these unprotected creatures. Let’s start from this moment by reading to our children the story of Basil.

Let’s all support the Naoussa Animal Association * Friends of Naoussa Animals * its members are VOLUNTEERS trying to help stray animals in the area. D O N A T I O N S: Paypal elektra.60@hotmail.com Tel. 6945101569