Late last year, Aja, a 17-year-old, short-haired dachshund felt sick. She didn’t want to eat and had small tubers on her belly. Her owner, Tomas, took her to the same veterinarian in Bratislava, Stanislav Bucko, who had vaccinated Aja and given her a general check-up.

“Dr. Bucko was so sensitive, so gentle, as if Aja were one of his own children,” says Tomas.

When Bucko was a child, he lived with his parents in Krupina, in the countryside and surrounded by many animals. He helped them breed pigs, cows, horses, ducks and others.

While his mother and two sisters were milking cows, feeding chicken and ducks, he and his father were doing heavier work like looking after horses and oxen. He always loved nature and looking after animals, helping to protect them. Care was necessary every day.

One day, when Bucko was 10, his favorite cow Lucinda was pregnant and endured a complicated delivery. Although the calf was born healthy, Lucinda died. As a small boy he was totally depressed and felt guilty that he couldn’t help her. From this time on, he decided that he wants to be a veterinarian.

Bucko studied at Veterinary University in Kosice and graduated 30 years ago. After his studies, he worked in the first veterinary practice in Bratislava. The first veterinary practice in Slovakia itself was situated only in Zahorie, or at similar places, where big farms ranged and the animal health care was indispensable.

Bucko’s ambulance rose in 1979 and was situated in Raca. He started there as a second chief veterinarian. His specialization was large animals. “Years ago, this was the only specialization you could get,” he said.

The reason was that people didn’t have so many pets like nowadays. The only animals they used to breed were horses, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, so he couldn’t choose specialization. After many years of experience when people moved to bigger cities, he thought of upgrading his specialization to small animals, which is now his specialty.

He is now a doctor with many years of experience and his new practice is situated under the Koliba Hill, a few minutes away from town center of Bratislava. Many people walk around this area, not because they are ill, but because their animals are. They come there with dogs, cats, parrots, rabbits and many other pets with health problems to ask for help.

Bucko’s friend said he had always been very good in surgery. His stitches were always so strict and ideal. After few months there was nothing left, just little scar.

A trainee, Zuzana Jurisova, recalls her first week of working in Bucko’s ambulance: “It was incredible to see him work,” she says. “It was my first week in, when doctor was doing dog’s Caesarean operation and I was just observer making a video and pictures of an operation. Suddenly, the situation became more complicated, so I had to lay down the camera and help him with small puppies. Ten very small cute brown shar-pei puppies were suddenly born and waiting for their mummy with sticky eyes. It was my incredible experience when I could help to deliver these amazing small creations.”

Bucko is not afraid, like many other doctors, of young veterinary students who come to gain real experiences. Most doctors don’t like to offer them a part-time job, they say, for fear they may open their own practice in next few years and steal their clients.

But his thinking is different. He thinks it is just their ego, and these doctors don’t think about the future of veterinary medicine. “I was working in three other ambulances, but only here could I get practical experience,” says Zuzana Matejkova, one young student. “Dr. Bucko knows how to give enough space for young students and also knows how to support them.”

Since 1994, Bucko is also an international referee at dog and cat competitions. At least three times a year, he attends competitions in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. It’s like a second job, but mainly his hobby and out of love for animals.

His work is very important for him and because that he wrote many articles in newspapers and magazines, and has also written several books on veterinary medicine.

“I think I reached many experiences during my study, work and life that I can share,” he says.

Today he is still ten years from retirement and already has a plan what to do after. He would like to have a small cottage near Krupina, where he would breed horses, sheep and others. He would like to spend all of the work week there, and during the weekend work in his practice.