[yipyap]

Our daughter was stationed in the center of the Ukraine in 2008 for 24 months, after 2 months living with a host family in the capitol of Kiev. Now, 'grocery stores' were a new concept over there, and we saw only a few small ones in the larger cities when we visited her. There were mostly farmers markets or small village food shops. Kim said not many people kept larger indoor pets, except for a few kitty cats she saw, and an occasional dog. There were pet shops, but the one in the town near her village only sold birds and the baby 'red-ear slider' turtles - (red stripes on sides of necks), these baby turtles were 'poached' from lakes in Canada & the USA and sold in Europe for pets, just the way pet stores & little stores did right here in the USA back in the 1950's! One of her best friends in the P.Corps, Emmy, did buy herself a little pup from a lady in a nearby city who bred them once a year. He was similar to a type of Maltese. The people in Emmy's apartment, especially the children, loved "Misha" since most families where she lived could not afford a "pet"! Emmy followed the breeder's instructions and made Misha's food at her apartment in her town. It had cooked rice, egg, and a meat (fish or ?) and some cooked veggies. There was no ready-made dog foods for sale there at all. The few times their Ukrainian friends saw "ready-made cat and dog foods" in the 'new smaller grocery stores', Kim said the Ukranian people "felt sorry for the USA animals" having to eat the same kind of food day after day! People over there made their pets foods from their own leftovers, and Kim said the animals seemed healthy on their homemade foods, probably not much different from how pets were fed here in the USA in the 1800-earlier 1900's when we were more rural in life style and there were no "dog food companies" yet. And yes, Misha got all her shots so she could pass the tests, and she came back home to USA with Emmy! Kim said there were vets, but not in every town.