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The past two months have been a mixture of happiness and sadness.
There have been many problems recently, especially with taking the dogs to their new homes in Germany. Organisations such as ours have been accused of taking them for vivisection, fur trade and all sorts of horrible things. This has been very upsetting for those of us who would never under any circumstances allow an animal to be used in this way, not to mention insulting. The result has been a mountain of paperwork, including a legal statement from our president stating that we will only take them to homes and not for any other use!
We have just completed another trip to Germany. This time we took 4 dogs from here, and collected a further 8 on the way, 4 from Athens and 3 from Thessaloniki plus one from Ioannina. Of these, 4 were going on to their owners in the UK. For the full story see Carole’s account of the journey (she was crazy enough to volunteer to come and help).
We are grateful to Greek Animal Rescue who paid the full cost of this trip, plus some left over to carry out some neutering.
We have to thank Jenny for her feeding duties while we were away, and all our wonderful dog walkers. The dogs get so excited now when they see them coming, and Ian and Jane have worked wonders with Choccie - she is almost normal now, but has the occasional relapse. Without all these people we couldn’t do this, and no amount of thanks is enough.
Blossom was being cared for by Barry while we were away, and lo and behold, he has adopted her, and what a happy pup she is; she loves her new dad, but we have retained visiting rights!
I made the fatal error of falling in love with a puppy that was found in the bin at Lakithra, Jake, who was carrying Parvo virus, and as he had not had any vaccinations, we lost him after one week.
We have gained a white poodle cross, Polly, she was badly matted and had not had a good time of it, she had been living rough in Argostoli. We tried to find out if she had an owner but so far nothing. We will get her vaccinated next week and she has already been offered a home in Munich. Now she is clipped, (I am no Poodle hairdresser) she looks more like a lamb!
All the cats are thriving, as are the dogs, they are as crazy as usual, and spend most of their time now helping my dad in the garden - not always appreciated though! The cats try to catch the hoe end, and the dogs can dig faster than our rotovator.
Tessa has increased her talking vocabulary; she gets on the back of the sofa and talks to anyone who comes in, demanding attention. She has discovered a way to get a prime position on the sofa now, she takes a toy and pretends to be having such a good time with it, it is not long before the rest of the gang come to have a look, she then immediately drops it and dives into her favourite place, she wins again!!!
Gerry, the little blind cat is doing so well now, but his claws are still very sharp, we now have a new saying in our house for any injuries, we have been Gerried, we are dreading shorts and tee shirts!
We are now in the process of arranging the trip to the UK in May, when we will be taking four cats and two dogs from here and collecting another four dogs on the way. All have completed their quarantine period and at last are joining their families.
We have to have two more dogs blood-tested next week: they are boarding here until their quarantine period is up, so it is fingers crossed for clear results for them.
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