keynote address
Intro
Hello - and welcome! --- welcome - honored guests & the New Jersey veterinary community.
It is just a thrill, an honor, and a privilege to share with you these opening remarks.
We have all gathered here in order to partake in a passion which is common to each & every one of us in this room –that passion is the human animal bond.
17 years ago this animal hall of fame was begun in order to celebrate this passion, and to pay respect and homage to our four legged and our 2 legged friends – as they are unable to speak for themselves.
These special friends have endeared themselves to our hearts, and they have enriched our souls. We solicit & we enjoy their warmth & their company - every day of our lives.
I would like you to know that it was the veterinarians sitting right next to you today - at your very own tables - who conceived this celebration those years ago, and who have maintained it since. Please remember to thank them.
3rd GRADE
Animals and veterinary medicine have consumed virtually my entire life. Most would argue this to be most unbalanced - and they would be right. But it has worked well for me.
Veterinary medicine is the only thing I ever wanted to do or be - never had a second choice. Veterinarians are a most caring group of professionals. They spend nearly every day of their lives interacting, in so many different ways, with animals. I feel so honored to be counted among this group, and so fortunate to have been able to spend my life in this way.
Each of us in this room has his or her own story – each one unique and important.
The reason why animals are so important to me - is my story. My journey goes back a bit. It started early. It was probably sooner, but in my own mind, I can document my life’s plan back to at least the 3rd grade. It was Woodbridge, NJ. School #1 - K through 5.
My teacher’s name was Miss Schrimf. One day she asked each of us in class what we wanted to be when we grew up, and she inscribed each future occupation on the black board. At my turn, I said veterinarian. An unusual occupation 55 years ago, miss schrimf could not spell that word. So I spelled it for her, and she wrote it on the blackboard. To this day, I remember that event well in my mind.
SCHODER AVENUE
I was not raised on a farm. Nor was my family engaged in any sort of animal endeavor. Few people even had a dog back then. It was just simple suburbia – Woodbridge in the 1950s.
Yards were small & times were different. But somehow it came to be that i collected an eclectic group of animals in my back yard. It started when i was about 7 years old, and continued until college. It began with box turtles. Box turtles were my first love. I accumulated a number of them - stray & injured souls from across town. Dad & I built a pretty decent terrarium for them in the yard.
Then came the duck – I named her surprise – she also needed an enclosure.
Then, and I don’t remember from where, came 2 baby pheasants – I named them Mary & Gordon. This time dad & I had to build a really big enclosure.
The whole group lived long lives, and they were seen to appear in multiple neighborhood child productions. To those on neighboring streets, i was that - “little boy on schroder avenue with the animals”.
BOX TURTLE & OLD WHITE CHURCH
I have always loved my box turtles. I don’t know why – I just have & still do. I asked my dad to build me a small wooden carrying case, with handle, about half the size of a breadbox, and shaped like a large box of chocolates. At times, when I went on errands with my folks, I would select a turtle, put it in the box, and off we would go.
My best box turtle story occurred in the old white church in Woodbridge. It was Sunday morning - mom, my sister, & i got to church first. Dad was late & I had asked him before we left to bring me a turtle. So dad comes into church, sits down in the pew, and surreptiously hands me a turtle from under his suit jacket.
The offering plate came. It passed by me, and on the return trip, i still don’t know why; I put the turtle in the offering plate. The plate with turtle was passed to the end of the aisle, where the usher, a Mr. Tony Larsen, retrieved the plate. He never said a word, and carried the plate in normal fashion, along with the other ushers, to the back of the church. This story was told & retold at Woodbridge Presbyterian for many years.
ZOO ANIMALS
For a while I thought I wanted to be a zoo veterinarian. In my senior year of veterinary school, I arranged to do a 6-week externship at the Bronx zoo. Pretty special & I learned a lot.
But not many zoo jobs were available at the time, so general practice it was.
I saw & treated a fair number of exotic pets in those early days of practice, and I did a bit of pro bono work at a small zoo. I particularly enjoyed the big cats. Although I would not do so again today, nor would I recommend it to others, but I took opportunity, on multiple occasions, to literally walk among large & awake Siberian tigers. Fascinating experience. Wendy & I helped to raise a baby jaguar abandoned by his mother.
These experiences were exhilarating & rare. But that was 30-40 years ago. I learned a lot from working with those animals. I learned that those days needed to be gone. Exotic & wild animals ought not to be kept in private homes. And small, private zoos need to have disappeared – which they pretty much have & for good reason.
BLUEBIRDS
Wendy & I enjoy our birds. We are not official birders – but we love to watch them from our windows and to attend to their care. Year round we provide food and water, the water source heated in winter. Some 20 years ago I decided to begin a bluebird trail, and today i manage multiple boxes on 4 properties. Our annual fledglings are numerous. Two years ago we set our own record with 7 boxes active at one time – active meaning a box with eggs or babies.
Our preferred occupants are eastern bluebirds or tree swallows. I visit the boxes daily, and I talk to them. Sometimes I pet/stroke momma bluebird or mamma tree swallow once or twice on her back with my forefinger when she is sitting on eggs or young.
The eastern screech owl is a magnificent creature, and these raptors can be found across all of New Jersey. We maintain a number of boxes for these guys also. Keeping squirrels out of their boxes is a constant challenge.
BEAR
Two summers ago I talked Wendy into yet another remote adventure – this time a fishing trip to northern Minnesota. We arrived late night & I read a note tacked to the lodge door describing a recent problem with a rogue black bear around our camp. The note advised discretion & good judgment when moving about.
An old, homemade bear trap – repeat homemade bear trap – a box like structure made of welded rebar, had been hauled to the outskirts of camp & baited with stinky stuff. I asked to be contacted if the bear were caught. As fate would have it, while out fishing our second day, a cell phone call from camp announced the bear had been caught. I said please don’t shoot the bear, we are coming in.
We got back to camp, and there he was – a big fellow – unhappy & vigorously shaking the rickety old cage. There were no state or game people to assist. – only a local bear hunter guide and an out of work outdoorsman with his large utility truck. They wanted to shoot him, but i argued strenuously in the bear’s defense. We used the utility truck to drag the old cage (bear inside) out of the woods and onto a simple trailer.
Then 4 of us drove this large bear, in an open air cage, on the simple trailer & for all to see, many miles north, to an even more remote area, where we released him – and released him we did - very, very carefully.
BURMESE
I have enjoyed a 40-year love affair with the Burmese cat. It began by pure happenstance as a freshman in veterinary school, when I acquired 2 Burmese cats in need of a home.
There are always two, and the gender does not matter. Their eyes often run – and their faces are pushed in. I find this endearing - though not all agree.
This is Jason – the love of my life – 17½ years old and his kidneys are failing. I cherish every day with him – and there won’t be many more. He meets me at the door like a dog & he loves to be held.
Wilma is the youngster - 14 years old - and she always has something to say.
The cats come to work with me every day at the hospital, and they go home with me at night. It’s our ritual, and they love it.
I have severe cat allergies & i should not have cats. Of course they spend all their time with us, and they sleep on the bed. To keep myself out of intensive care, I take daily pills, a nose spray, and inhalers. Every 14 days i inject myself with allergy vaccine. I would not have it any other way.
WHIPPETS
Wendy & I have enjoyed & loved a gaggle of dogs over the years - each one unique & special.
Now we find ourselves in the era of the whippet. This is Archie. He is just the best. New on the scene is Norman - our Dennis the menace. Whippets run like the wind in the yard. And they may run away & get lost if not fenced. At home they are great ‘potatoes of the couch’.
Wendy decided that we needed to have; first one, then two, large rectangular cloth covered styrofoamish automotive dog seats - each one belted to the back seat of her car, so that Archie & Norman can be elevated to look out the window when she drives them all over town. And we have learned that that virtually all whippets prefer to sleep under the covers.
TURTLE TOWN
By now you know that box turtles are a love & passion for me. More recently they have become a cause as well. Over the past year, in my back yard, I have cleared about one third of an acre in order to create turtle town! A special chelonian environment in natural setting.
Twice with backhoe I have dug a shallow pond, and twice i filled it back in. Just not right. This spring I will dig, for the third & final time, a proper box turtle watering area – shallow & continuously running.
Then - after construction of turtle fencing dug into the earth, multiple turtle hiding places, suitable flora, and edible vegetation, I will seek to populate turtle town with injured box turtles & those not suitable for release. Raised baby turtles to be returned to appropriate habitat. My long held dream.
CLOSING
We close now.
Honored guests – thank you for coming here today to share with us your special experiences and wonderful stories.
And the new jersey veterinary community - thank you for all the good work that you do, all the animals you have helped, and for all the pro bono work which you do that often goes unnoticed and unthanked.
We in this room are a very special group of folk. Hence, as we leave here later today, may we each and every one of us -
May we each and every one of us, each in his or her own way, and each to the best of his or her ability –
Each to the best of his or her ability - strive to be stewards of and ambassadors for all the animals – domestic and wild
Strive to be stewards of and ambassadors for all the animals domestic and wild – in our communities, and - on the land, in the water, and in the sky - on this earth.
Thank you all for coming