Pawcurious: With Veterinarian and Author Dr. V

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If I get eaten

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I took my kids to see the Lion King 3-D yesterday, which I would have done regardless but has special import to me now. I think that movie is what did me in for the Africa-lust back in high school. They were moderately impressed, though the overall response was, “Forget you lady. You’re going there tomorrow. We have to go to school.” Which, to be honest, is totally fair. They’ll live. So anyway:

Auf wiedersehen, my friends. Today, it’s a plane to Chicago, then to Amsterdam, then to Arusha/Kilimanjaro, then to chimp camp. Total travel time to reach chimp camp via that route: 3 days. Then it’s CHIMP TIME. I have some posts set to go live so you won’t be without things to read here- but check the site! I don’t know if I’ll be linking from Facebook like I usually do. And some of the places will likely have wifi, so I expect you’ll be hearing from me between now and October 6th. But as I’ve said I’m kind of also digging the idea of time away from the computer, so I might just pretend there was no wifi after all.

As you probably know by now, one of my big phobias in life is getting eaten by a carnivore. I’ve written about it, about the local mountain lion attacks and the Great White who killed a veterinarian off the San Diego coast a couple years ago, so it’s not an entirely unfounded fear. One of my college classmates was mauled by a lion in Africa after college. It happens.

I’m not going to be stupid about things. I’m not going to throw back one too many martinis and go stumbling around the bush roaring about how I’m Hemingway while I face down a pride with an olive on a toothpick. If I’m out and about at night, I’m to be given an armed escort. That being said, things can happen, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that if weird things happen, they happen to me.

So if I get my leg chomped off by a hippo, my intestines devoured by a lion, my liver gored by a rhino, or my calf pierced by a Boomslang, I just want you all to remember one thing:

It was totally worth it. Carpe diem and all of that. Grab a little joie de vivre and put yourself out there to get nibbled every now and then. You only live once, right? Adrenaline is good for your complexion.

Oh, and one other thing:

If I die and any of you make a Flat Dr V and bring it around to BlogPaws, I will haunt you till your dying day.

Photo: Indiana Jones World Map by Matt Busch

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Comments

  4. Have a WONDERFUL time! I worked with chimps in captivity for my Master’s Thesis, and I’ve watched as one of my best friends has rehabilitated chimps in Guinea, and tracked them in Cote de Ivory. I think it would be INCREDIBLE to see them free, outside of cages, acting like ‘normal’ chimps. (Chimps in captivity are much more neurotic and aggressive!) And yet… I am too chicken to go to Africa. So, if you don’t mind, I will live vicariously through you a little bit!

    Congrats on seizing the day and fulfilling your dream!

  5. If you drink lots of margaritas you will be the Dr V equivalent of Carne asada – what’s not to like?

  6. I will miss you, but if you are incommunicado until the 6th, that’s OK by me – just DON’T you dare get eaten by ANYTHING or I’ll NEVER forgive you! Definitely Carpe Diem!

  8. Have the time of your life! And please say hello to the chimps for me too 🙂 Would LOVE to visit chimp camp!

  9. Have the time of your life! And please say hello to the chimps for me too 🙂 Would LOVE to visit chimp camp!