Sylviax and the "domus"-tic animals

The concepts of domestic animals here in Samoa all takes a new turn. Or maybe it just goes back to the origins. Animals are domestic as they are part of the domus, the house (that is the latin root). When you move here and you rent a house, don’t be surprised if the house also comes with dogs and cats. They will be your animals so long as you live there, you can name them if you wish, and the next person that will rent the house will inherit them. If you do not want them, the house owner will take them, but not knowing where they will end up would be a spot on my conscience...

I know a dog, Edd, in Lion's Park that has actually been adopted by a whole palagi (the white people) community (post pics if you have them!). Dogs and cats (as well as mice and cucarachas that are so big they could be extras in Jurrasic Park) are just part of the furniture.

(this is a pic of Ed I got, I cannot make how is with him? Jeff? And the entrance of one of the house in Lion's Park)

Amazingly, not many people actually worry about renting a house with a couple of ferocious dogs. That is called a house with a security system. The only difference is that you need to remember to feed them, or they may revolt against you too. This is a quote from a couple of comedians, the Laughing Samoan: “the only time you see a samoan with a dog is if the samoan is chasing the dog or if the dog is chasing the samoan”. It summarizes the concept very well.

When I first moved here and I was doing field work nearly every day, I soon learned to keep a few good throwing stones in my pocket. I am usually against violence against animals, but here it is more a matter of survival, you or them. The problem is when you go off-island and you still feel like throwing stones at dogs that look menacing. After a few months here, a friend of mine went back to the US and she nearly hit her neighbor’s dog with a rock one day as she went running. Then she realized that would probably be something inappropriate there, but the temptation was strong.

About a year ago, a friend of mine rented a nice house, which came with a dog (beware if you get a female, my friend just recently got 4 more puppies!) and two cats. Recently, one of the cats disappeared, and the other one, traumatized, spent all day every day hiding in the jungle, and at night would come by crying, trying to get inside the house. This resulted in long nights of bad sleep for my friend, that, not wanting an inside cat, felt he should find a new house for the cat.

Now, I am more of a dog person, but I have to recognize that cats inside the house are the perfect solution to get rid of all the unwanted mice and cucarachas. And so Alyssa and I decided to adopt Sylviax (the “x” is mute, but I wanted to include it into the name, it is a French twist ;)).

I am surprised how Sylviax survived in the jungle all this time, because she is a total house cat, very affectionate and needy. And she has to be for a while because she has such a big belly that she cannot fit in the hole we have in the floor that our 2 other cats use to get in and out. It was a hole used for the drier machine, but it has an all new meaning here. So dieting is the goal now.

Now, the problem is that she is a female. Was she ever fixed? Will the veterinary we have on island able to tell?
Veterinary here is another issue. I am not even sure if there is a real certified one.

Once I phoned to ask when I could bring the cats in to be fixed (it costs $10, like anything else, like seeing a doctor, having a cavity fixed etc…). The vet phoned me back at 9.00 at night asking me where I was living because he wanted to come over to fix the cat at my house. ….seriously… no way!!!

The “vets without borders” came here last year and two years ago to help us (or better A.S. –American Samoa) out. They modified a fale to be their clinics and fixed and looked after an incredible number of cats and dogs, seriously worked no-stop for some weeks. I want to mention them because they were an incredible group of people and I hope they will come back! If anybody reading this would like to know more about them or make a donation, I will hopefully post some more information about them!