How it all started

It was a decade ago, and we had just started university.


We were about 200 fresh new students, at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Bucharest. However, Tri-vet was quickly established. That's us, Alinetu, Ricks and Andreika. All 3 born and bred in Bucharest, we became good friends from early on. And nothing was more of a team building for us then the bieniall exam sessions.

The exam sessions felt like mental training camps. For 2 months at a year, we lived, ate, red endless pages, laughed and pulled through. Ricks quickly established himself as the top student in our generation in anatomy, and that was by far our scariest exam in the first 2 years. He never did manage to make anatomy geniuses out of us, but he still takes pride in remembering our exam subjects. Alinetu always insisted that we go early at exams (they were mostly oral examinations and one could choose whether to queue up early bird or later in the day). The rest of us never really liked going that early, but it did become a tradition doubled by the superstition of "we'd better not change the habit".

The next picture... ...don't even ask!!!





Later on, a new addition came to the group. Mihnea joined the University having already aquired a vet tech diploma.

The triumvirat system of learning was never to be broken, but Mihnea took part in all the after-hour adventures. The endless trips to the horse studs, the classical March romanian tour, the mountain trips and then the student jobs with the animal market inspections. Enthusiastic, Mihnea also had a valuable asset, a blue stout Dacia that took us with courage on many new roads.

And then.... then we were seven!

Ovidiu, Ioana and Irina came to complete the group, youngsters in comparison to the old initial 4 dinosaurus (they haven't even graduated yet:) , establishing however their new paths and standards.

So, what's happening nowadays?

A lot is to be said about a vet's life in today's Romania, but more on that to come later.

We spreaded in all directions, seeking a better education, for those that still can;) , or simply better jobs, salaries, horizons.



Alinetu is currently a RCVS member and working in full mode in England. She had already obtained a masters degree in Scotland, and now is working in small animal practice.

Ricks, after coming and going in various countries, decided to try to make it in Romania. So he is currently the co-owner of a newly established small animal practice in Craiova, while in the same time developed a low cost, high volume trap/neuter/release programm for stray animals.

Mihnea worked after graduation in Cyprus for a year and, for the past 2 years (and at least for the year to come), established himself far away in the Pacific Ocean, being the small animal vet and bird flu expert of a small state called Palau.

Ovidiu studied for a year in Bologna, Italy, came back to graduate this year in Bucharest and from fall onwards, he'll be located in Vienna, where he will start a postgraduate year of studies in wild animal medicine.

Ioana, a brilliant student from the beginning, managed to transfer, and is currently located in Vienna, Austria. She still had a year and a half to go, being the youngest one of us, and many exams in german still ahead.

Irina is about to graduate as well, here in Bucharest. She is nowadays one of the most active of us in the animal welfare field, taking part and organising many campaigns.


As for myself, I've been into small animal practice since graduation, with a small infusion of large and exotic animals as the situation called. I have been working in Romania, Cyprus and the Emirates. With a new exotic location soon to come, but more of that in later episodes.

andreika