In an incident of a type which is all too common in Greece as a whole, two dogs were shot for no apparent reason by a local resident in Svoronata on Sunday December 21

Niki was on her way home when she heard gunshots, and cries of distress. Leaving the car, she found a male dog had been shot and was lying wounded by the road.

The dog was one of a pair that are well known in the area, and which are fed by 3 local Greek families, who soon arrived on the scene. Naturally, there was much anger and distress, but the priorities were to locate the female, and get treatment for the pair.

Niki immediately phoned Pat, who contacted the vet in Argostoli, and as soon as the female was found, the dogs were rushed to the surgery.

The male was suffering from over 30 shotgun pellet wounds, but fortunately the female appeared to have just caught the edge of the blast.

The pair were taken back to Pat’s, where the male was put on a drip, and is now (touch wood) on the mend.

Empty cartridge cases were found nearby and it is hoped that the police will take enough interest to attempt a prosecution of the perpetrator, though it has to be said that despite clear laws prohibiting cruelty to animals, it is very difficult to bring a prosecution here. On this occasion we might stand a chance, as we have three families of very irate Greeks on our side.

At least it seems there will be a happy ending: Pat has persuaded one of the families to adopt the dogs, and they have promised to build them a large run in the garden.

Update January 4^th 2004
The dogs are now named Feevo and Athina. Coming up to the end of December and the day started quite normally - feeding, cleaning, and generally having fun shovelling you know what!

Feevo took a look at the tree outside the shed and up he went: he wanted to see what the cats where doing and if they had anything to eat up there.  We just stood and watched in disbelief, when a few minutes later Athina followed him. They made it look so easy!  No problem so far, Feevo was up and down like it was nothing. 

Then we realized that Athina was terrified every time she looked over the edge, and by now my dad was getting a bit worried about her, so he fetched the steps, and up he went...

He went up; she moved over - no way was she going to take a chance on being lifted down.  So now it’s my turn: I go up she; she moves away.  Eventually, after about an hour, we stuffed a big blanket into the fork of the tree and put some biscuits on it.  This didn't help at all, so we decided to go for a cuppa and have a rethink.

We’d barely finished our tea, when in waltzed Athina, acting for all the world as if nothing had happened!

When we got back from the party on New Year’s Eve she was missing, and as it was 3:30 am, we decided to leave it until morning.  She’d obviously thought we were a bit short of dogs, as when she returned, she had half the dogs in the village in tow. It’s got to be one of two things:

1.  She told them that the food and lodgings here were OK

2.  She is coming into season. This would be just typical as she’s booked in to be neutered on Monday!

Never a dull moment here.