This debut graphic novel by Sarah Bergquist Kosumi was inspired by observations on her first trip to the Balkans in September of 2020. On that trip, she was unable to communicate in the native Gheg Albanian of her husband’s Kosovar family, so her time was spent taking in the landscape, the people, the animals, the culture, the overall differences compared to her home in California.
Day 2 of the trip, she found herself in the backseat, with her jet-lagged husbands head on her lap, fast asleep, waiting for a relative to arrive by bus. On the shoulder of a main road she saw 2 dogs, walking briskly as the sun set without any collar or owner nearby. This common sight in Kosovo, was unusual and concerning to her. It made her question how is this allowed? How do these dogs sustain themselves? What has the country done to keep the dogs off the street? Why are there not stray dogs in California? What is done elsewhere to keep the stray dog populations down? How did this become normalized?
As the trip progressed she started to press on this more: asking questions of her husband, only to learn dogs are generally not welcomed by the people, especially not compared to people in the United States. She began looking online to find what the government and non-profits have done to address the issue – only to find that attempts to spay & neuter funds were used by inexperienced people without veterinary experience which resulted in devastating surgeries (caution: the following links are disturbing 1 2).
The lives of the stray dogs were persistently in her thoughts throughout the 3 week trip. Her husband drove her along the path their family walked as they fled their home during the 1998-99 war. While listening to first hand accounts, she noticed along the road many illegal dumpsites littered with construction and household waste, not too uncommon of rural areas. Sitting on top of one pile was a puppy. Surely this dog would be too large of a souvenir, so instead she took her memories and poured it into this story: The Last Free Dog.
This multifaceted concept graphic novel touches on many topics such as familial bonds, animal rights, environmental protection and ultimately solutions to wicked problems such as stray dog populations and pollution of waterways. Through education and imagination, the goal of this graphic novel is to raise awareness of these issues faced by many communities globally.
Read more on these topics:
- “A STREET DOG’S LIFE” (2017) by Kosovo 2.0 https://kosovotwopointzero.com/en/street-dogs-life/
- “AT OUR WORST: CRUELTY TOWARDS ANIMALS IN ALBANIA AND KOSOVO” (2022) by Kosovo 2.0 https://kosovotwopointzero.com/en/at-our-worst/
- “Municipalities, shelters, vets still struggling to solve problem of stray dogs” (2017) by Kosovalive https://kosovalive.org/en/2017/07/28/municipalities-shelters-vets-still-struggling-to-solve-problem-of-stray-dogs/
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