06/12/03
We had the jumble sale today, and made an incredible 1,377.20 Euros, and on the Sunday we prepared a traditional English Sunday lunch for 49 people and made a profit of 366.60 Euros, so we are back in the black again.  I was very touched by the support we had, and by the number of people who threw their all into helping us to prepare for the weekend, and who worked their socks off for the two days, thanks to them all.

Last month the neutering programme on Ithaka went very well, we collected 8 cats and two dogs on the Saturday, and they had their ops. on Sunday, and we then took them back on the Monday - lots of ferries but an enjoyable and productive weekend. We owe thanks to Mark and Adele who kindly came along and helped, and more importantly used their transit van for the transporting of the animals, thanks from all of us

The three puppies that were very shy are coming along better now, although one is still a bit wary of strangers, but we are hopeful that we will be able to win him over. Anna and Indie, are overconfident and were causing some of the problems with their constant butting in, so Patrick and Jane kindly fostered them for a week for us to give the others chance for some attention. Antonia is going to take one at a time and make sure they get loads of attention.

Sonny has settled very well and is actually much better with the cats, he gets on quite well with the young cats, but thinks it is acceptable to chase the big ones!!! We have news for him…. All the other dogs love him, but Choccie of course, has to have a little go at him now and again; will she ever learn?

This coming weekend we are going to spend some of the money on a neutering programme in Poros, we will collect the cats on Saturday and take them to Lefteri on Sunday for their ops. Every little bit helps; next year a few less kittens for us to worry about!

We have permission at last to start the building of the new house and that means that we can start on the kennel area. We are hoping that the mayor is still going to help with the labour etc.

Claudia and myself went to Mousatta to pick up a dog that was in Dagmar’s garage.  The dog is not well, he has a bad ear infection and his eyes are very swollen and sore. The vet prescribed some medication and antibiotics. The first day I combed him through and got a whole bucket full of dead hair from his coat, and the second day almost the same amount. He is looking good now, his eyes are less sore and his ears don’t bother him so much. I will use Frontline on him tomorrow now that the dead hair is out of the way. He is definitely a dog that hates cats, he is quite serious when he tries to bite them.

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26/12/03
Christmas at our house is pretty much a non event, the animals still need feeding and cleaning, and they still get up to all sorts of tricks, just to keep us on our toes. The two new arrivals are both doing well, the male dog is named Feevo, (not the correct spelling), and he is now doing very well.

It all began to go pear shaped on Christmas Eve when David collected a parcel of goodies for the animals that had arrived at the couriers. What a parcel! Full of all sorts of goodies for them. Being full of the spirit of Christmas, we decided to let them have a bag to share, the dogs shared theirs and the cats enjoyed a bag of cat treats, so far so good…I then sorted out some treats for the puppies and cats that Antonia is fostering, being of a suspicious nature, I put these, as I thought out of reach, and popped over to the cattery to fetch the Siamese that is boarding here for the holidays. She likes to come over to the house for a while each day. 5 minutes max was all the time it took, on my return there were 3 very happy dogs, Tessa, Sadie and Petra, plus several pieces of cellophane wrappers, and not one treat for Antonia’s animals left! After carefully explaining to the 3 culprits that they would not get anything on Christmas day, I again sorted another pack, this time I put it in the cupboard, problem solved. This was only the start of a bad day for us, and a great time for the animals.

We rarely all go out at once, but we were going out to dinner at a friends house that evening, we made our usual preparations, everything out of reach that was of interest, a quick chat about what would happen to any dog that chewed the furniture etc etc while we were out, and off we went. As usual we left the patio door open so they could come and go as they pleased, (we are very security conscious and it would take a very brave burglar to try our house). We enjoyed a wonderful meal, and where only gone about two and half hours so were not too worried about the dogs, however…

Imagine this:

Batty: Hey guys where are the humans tonight?

Tessa: Would you believe they have gone out and left us on our own, and not only that the parcel is hidden! Can’t find it anywhere, and there are more treats in the bedroom, but we can’t get the door open.

Bess: It might thunder as well, and they know I hate that.

So the kittens huddle together and come up with this idea...

Batty: Righto chaps, I volunteer to climb the dresser, and see those card things, I knock them off and you chew them. I will send down some of these glass things as well, don’t know if you can make use of them, but go for it.

Sophie: And I will climb the worktop and you can have all the pens, and coasters I can knock off, being the smallest I can’t do the heavy things, but I will do my best.

Sadie: This is exciting, I bet they don’t go out for a while after this.

Lulu: I am not getting involved, I hate being told off, what about you Bess?

Bess: At my age and with my status, of course I don’t want anything to do with it, but you and I will just do our usual thing and sleep through it.

Older cats: We don’t want to do it either, so we are off to see what the hunting is like, we don’t care if it is raining, but we know there will be trouble.

Batty: OK wimps, we younger ones will do it ourselves, you know the humans are a bit soppy, and if Sophie is involved the man human will just say “she is a lovely little thing, just a little devil”.

Guess what we did when we got home? You could spot the guilty ones immediately. David picked up Sophie and said “have you been a naughty girl then?” my statement is not repeatable.

Christmas day, we went out for a drink, we were a little concerned, but Douglas said he would baby sit for us, so it must be OK.

On our return there was a suspicious piece of plastic equipment on the table; we have not managed to identify it yet, but that was all. We had been home 5 minutes when they got us again, this time they emptied a bag of cat litter on the veranda and then did a runner!

I decided to start the diary because there is no place to sit in the living area, so what’s new. We can’t wait until Boxing Day comes.

Boxing Day – I decided to go to the new land and take some photos for the site, I thought it would be good to see the site as it is now and add to it during the building work. I got so caught up in the beauty and peace and quiet, I got all the way home before I realised I had not used the camera once!! Will try again later in the week.

Home about 15 minutes and the phone rings, “ we have just picked up a blind dog on the road, it is very thin and we need some help”.

 I explained that it was impossible, we had no room, and then said “please ring me when you get to the gate, as our dogs will terrify it!!!”

I am so good at being firm. So – Sonny is indoors and this one is in his pen for tonight

He is so emaciated, and definitely can’t see much; he needs a visit to the vet to see if anything can be done for him. He is very loving and can eat like food is going out of fashion. It is not nice to see him bumping into things though, so we will take the advice of our vet as to what the best thing is to do.

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Kefalonia Animal Trust is a Registered Greek Charity. No: 73221102003