Well it’s only the 9th day of the New Year but Greece has already had its first strikes and I’ve already found my first abandoned animal! Junior and I were out walking the dogs and we were followed the entire way by a very small, very cute puppy who obviously had no idea where he was or where he had come from. I had to tell Sean that we had been followed home (yet again) by a stray dog as Junior refused to tell him in case he shouted. Obviously another dog – no matter how cute – is not practical and so Sean phoned our friendly neighbourhood vet/pet shop and they said we could take it down to them and they’d look after it until it found a home. We went to get some pet food on Saturday and the little thing was still there but at least he’s being looked after and is not wandering the streets all alone.
I find the Greek way with animals very hard to stomach and the atrocities you hear about are enough to make your blood boil, but even the every day manner, not necessarily cruelty, is difficult to understand. A case in point is our next door neighbour. Colin, the dog that followed us home initially, has sort of adopted next door as her home and although she comes over to ours to play with the dogs and get treats, she chooses to sleep outside next doors. We told them that we had no problem with that as Colin was a bit of a free spirit anyway and would do as she liked. So far, so fine. However, we’ve been feeding a small cat for months, who we believed to be a stray. Turns out it ‘belongs’ to the neighbours. We know this because the said neighbour kept coming out and shouting for the kitten (this after we’ve been letting it in and feeding it for a good few months’) and giving our house dirty looks. He finally asked Sean not to feed the cat or let it in our house, to which Sean replied that we didn’t realise it was his cat and we’d stop looking after it. This seemed to sort things until before Christmas when he shouted across to Sean that we were practically kidnapping his cat and he was fed up with it. Well……..if you know Sean you’ll know that he seldom loses his temper, but when he does……..stand well back. He marched across to the blokes house, who on seeing Sean coming suddenly ceased to be all brave and shouty and instead hid behind his front door, and Sean practically dragged him over to our place and showed him that we leave a window open for our cats every night so that they can get in and out whilst we’re sleeping and that if ‘his’ cat was getting in then that was how she was doing it. Now, here’s the most ludicrous part, he accused us of ‘training’ his cat to jump up onto the boiler house roof and then through the window into the house!! I don’t think he’s ever had a cat before if he thinks you can train one. The annoying thing is that he won’t let the cat into his house, he expects it to sit on his doorstep come rain or shine so that he can come out and stroke it when he wants! The icing on the cake of this whole story is that just before New Year he went on holiday………for 8 days………..leaving the cat and Colin…………and not once did anyone call in to check on them or put any food whatsoever out for them. When an animal is used to getting their food from a particular place they’re not suddenly going to realise that they have to fend for themselves because that food source has gone on holiday! The lack of thought and compassion of some people just makes my mind boggle……….
