IN MEMORIAM: ANDONIS

(the house of Andonis)

The Greek Olympos had that many gods they sometimes get into your head. I have tried hard to learn all their names and connections but if you are not careful you make mistakes and mix them up. When writing my last column about quinces I said that the goddess Aphrodite distributed lots of golden apples. However, she only gave away three – to Hippomenes – and although she played a part in story of the apple that (eventually) started the Trojan war, she was not the one who threw it into the crowd of wedding guests. That was Eris, the goddess of strife. So I was very sloppy writing this and I apologise (see my story about Apples from Lesvos).

There are many stories about the man I am going to write about now, but I choose only to pass on what I know to be facts and leave darker stories for what they are.

Everybody who has been to Eftalou, knows this man or at least the place where he lived: close to the Panselinos hotel between the road and the sea there is a complex of shabby structures made out of drift wood where a bent old man lived with dozens of dogs and cats: Andonis. You could only see what lay behind those shacks if you looked at them from the sea. It was a tiny stone house in which this man from Molyvos used to live.

Adonis was born by the sea here in Eftalou where he grew up with his brothers and sisters, together, it’s said, with lots of cats and dogs with which they slept to keep warm in winter.

Andonis married and had children but although his wife had a house in Molyvos, Andonis preferred to live in his little house by the sea and refused to abandon his many cats and dogs.

He was crazy about his animals and whenever he thought somebody might harm them – even if it were an unsuspecting tourist trying to stroke one of his cats – he might suddenly appear, screaming and rushing to save his beloved animal from the hands of a quite innocent animal lover.

If a cat got lost pandemonium broke out and he would run into the garden of the hotel, cursing people because he was sure it had been kidnapped by a tourist. His love for his animals had no limits, neither did the number of strays he took in. Early every morning his wife would come from Molyvos with food for him and all his charges.

Andonis came from a fishing family and he loved going out to sea to catch more food for his animals. Maybe that is how he met the seagull which for years lived at his little jetty, and was always there when he’d been fishing.

Even when big storms blew in the winter, no-one could get him to move into the village. His sons would beg him but he stayed with his animals. In the end it was cancer that made him move out. Two summers ago he started going home to his wife in the evenings, and last winter he no longer stayed at his seaside home with his animals. Although they were still fed by his family, they were in truth abandoned. And this is why they became the terror of the Eftalou boulevard. On the internet they became known as the ‘hellhounds of Eftalou’!

It is a very sad story because the abandoned dogs eventually ate the cats and then ran wild. They still lived on the street but some were not quick enough to jump away when cars sped by. Somebody even put poison down — and so last summer there were only six left.

As they roamed around and their territory expanded, they even came and killed one of my cats and, although I will never forgive the way they tore it to pieces, my heart still bleeds as I hear them barking and struggling to survive without their master.

One week ago the cancer finally took Andonis away and his dogs will never see their master again. It is likely that they will be taken to an animal shelter so that Eftalou will be safe again. Even though they were a real plague these last years, I will miss them, as I do Andonis. We will never see his crooked old back shuffling along the boulevard; we will never hear his shouts when he lost a cat or a dog did something he didn’t like. We will never speak to him when he was sitting at his little house, secretly eyeing the wandering tourists. He would always answer me with an avalanche of Greek words, most of which I never understood — and Andonis loved to talk.

One of his dogs has a new home at my place and I dearly hope that the others find places to live and people to look after them; and that Andonis too has found peace without his animals. Even though his dogs caused us many problems we shall miss this icon of Eftalou. So I am wondering if there are dogs and cats in the timeless fishing grounds where he now is. Goodbye, Andonis, I wish you well.

(with thanks to Tony Barrell)

@ Smitaki 2010

Angry!

Last week there was one day when I was very angry. A few days later, there were people mad at me.

The previous column, in which I talked about wild boars that were released by a bunch of hunters and in which I went on to say that I was disappointed because the butcher here is not permitted to sell boar meat in his shop, made a number of people angry. They thought that with this story I promoted hunting on Lesvos.

A correction is inappropriate, because I write what I want and I will not change my already published words, even if that is a possibility on the Internet. And I'm not suddenly going to deny that I love eating game, because it's true that I used to be very happy going to the Ardennes in order to eat a deer steak or a boar fillet.

It made me very sad that people perceived my column as a plea for the hunt on Lesvos, because that was not what I intended. I am against senseless hunting. So I do not understand anything about the hunting of birds, which is rather popular here on the island. But so saying, I still can enjoy a dinner of game, which I used to eat in a country where they hunt in order to protect that same game from overpopulation. This is called game conservation and I'll agree with anybody who says that Greeks don't have much notion of game or forest conservation (although the chestnut forest near Agiasos is neatly maintained, and here I mean the trees and not the wild boar), let alone that there is more than one Greek who doesn't have any respect at all for animals.

Because here comes the second issue of this column: it really is a sad coincidence, but one night last week a hunting dog arrived at our house, very frightened and hungry. She wanted to join our pack of dogs (only 2) and was looking for a place to eat, drink, sleep and live.

Now I don't want any more misunderstandings: I HAVE NO ANIMAL SHELTER! Even though for the winter I took in ten cats from the neighbouring hotel, so that the cat population around our house counts now more than twenty cats, and even if we decided to take in the new friend of our winter dog Albino, the black Labrador Black Jack (also known by tourists as Vodka, but what a name! You want to promote alcoholism?!), I HAVE NO ANIMAL SHELTER!

An animal shelter is very easy to start here on the island. In October or November you just take a stroll around the village and your shelter will be filled with abandoned dogs and cats. You will find sad mewling fluffy creatures that are seeing their first winter and have no idea how to survive and you will find heaps of sad looking dogs, already hardened by a first winter, who try to survive and will wait impatiently for the tourists to reappear.

In the winter animal lovers can only go around with a heart of stone. Because you cannot rescue every animal you come across. Unless you actually want to start an animal shelter.

So last week I was very angry. With the Greeks who so easily neglect animals, with the tourists who are not here all year round to feed and pamper the animals, so that in the winter I get stuck with a bunch of spoiled cats that all climb on your lap, all want a place inside my house and all prefer the most expensive cat food.

And now I'm stuck with the third dog that found our house this autumn. The first one was taken to Holland by friends who found a home there for her. It was very hard on me, but the second I refused to feed for three days and then he got the message and took off to I know not where. The third was this hunting dog, who was so skinny and scared that I didn't have the heart to chase her. So I gave her some food, and gave her food...

Now I have a real problem, because in addition to the care of 20 or more cats and 2 dogs I also have a husband, and we fully agreed that no more animals were to be taken in. He's right: we didn't come to Greece to start an animal shelter. So I'm looking for an animal lover who wants to take this dog, because when this thin creature has regained some strength, she can no longer stay in the Smitaki home. And maybe you think I am a cruel person, but I value my marriage above this beastly mess, which is the current situation around our house.

Greece, where animals easily die from bullets or poison, is a very cruel country for animal lovers. But while I learn to harden my heart, the Greeks learn more and more to respect animals. And let there be no more misunderstanding, because I now have to try and place a hunting dog!

Copyright © Smitaki 2008

Tourist, Wild, Home and Foreign Cats

I just feel like I'm on holiday once the summer starts. Not just because the weather is warm and each day I can swim in the sea. It's mainly because I no longer have to cook enormous pans of pasta and I no longer have to worry if I have enough food in the house.

The more than 20 cats that I feed in the winter goes down to some days just 3 cats. Instead of tens of feeding bowls only one long one is in use. Most cats in the summer take a very long holiday. The biggest group disappears into the nearby hotel as soon as the first tourists show (actually, they originally come from the hotel!), another group goes to some tourist apartments where there are people that take care there's a permanently full feeding bowl and a lot of attention.

I should organise Cat Holidays. Not for the cats, but for the tourists that feel that they have to take care of these animals during their holidays. It is very sweet, I'm not complaining that they're spoiling the cats, but does anybody realize that there can be consequences from their spoiling the cats? The cats (and some dogs as well) learn to beg for food during dinner, they learn to sit on your lap and they get used to the luxury of sleeping on a bed and being an indoor cat. Originally they are Wild Cats, that have to look after themselves. And this is how a Greek Wild Cat turns into a Tourist Cat.

Another nasty habit of some tourist is that they take cats from the street to their hotel. They probably cannot resist these furry animals and they think: in the hotel they're better off, they get food and attention. Do they ever stop to think what happens to these cats when the hotel closes at the end of the season?

Look, I don't run an animal shelter, but I do try and keep the cat population on an even level. This means that in the wintertime I take the cats to be sterilised and some male cats to be castrated. At the beginning of the summer all the cats are done. So how come that pretty quickly all those cute little kitties appear in the hotel? Please, the hotel is also not an animal shelter!

You don't want to know what happens in November and December when all the hotels are closed. Suddenly Tourists Cats are on their own on the street, no tourists left to give them food or to give them attention. I know that a Greek Cat Life is much harder than the life of a Dutch House Cat, but sometimes I wonder if a Tourist Cat might have a harder life than a Greek Wild Cat. In the summer a Tourist Cat gets accustomed to all the good food and loads of attention, in the winter he has to forget all this wealth and look to his old instincts to survive as a Wild Cat. Think this over whenever you spoil a cat during your holidays.

Luckily enough there is another type of tourists that during their holiday fall in love with a cat or dog and take the animal home. These cats become Foreign House Cats, with a life that many cats here dream of. Sometimes I think about starting an export business for cats. Besides olive oil and feta there are so many cats here on the island that I'm pretty sure you could get rich on them. But then I also think of the many animal shelters in Holland. I mean Dutch Home Cats also are not all happy and often look for a new home.

A book was recently published (in Dutch) called 'Foreign Four Legs'. They praise the import of animals from abroad because they say that the Dutch shelters are so much better than those abroad. Well, what can I say...

Anyhow, here on the island are two shelters that can easily be compared with those in Holland (except they're very poor). There is the Wildlife Hospital in Agia Paraskevi which is meant to be a hospital for injured wild animals like birds and turtles. Their intention is to heal the animals and get them back in the wild. The other shelter is EreSOS for animals in Eresos, a shelter for about 7 dogs (but they generally have about 20 dogs) and a house full of cats.

So the Wildlife Hospital is no shelter for wounded animals, although they look like it. They have amongst other thingd=s some impressive birds like owls and buzzards that cannot go back to the wild anymore and they share their house with a large number of cats and dogs. I mean, how can you let go of a cat that after an operation turns into a cat on three legs, or what is there to put back when you save some puppies from the rubbish bin? For more information about what animals they treat and for visiting hours you can go to: http://www.wildlifeonlesvos.org/.

Then in Eressos there's the growing and growing shelter that care for cats, dogs, donkeys and horses (yes, sometimes Greeks also let down donkeys or horses). Just as elsewhere on the island, the people from the shelter find new born kittens in the rubbish, or they are just deposited on the doorstep of the shelter, or they free chained dogs that are left in the middle of the blazing sun, just to keep the foxes from the sheep. Don't ask how the animals come to their shelter! In the shelter they are fed, taken care of and then they try to find a new home for them (often abroad). Just like the Wildlife Hospital they are an organisation with people working 200% and depending on gifts and volunteers. You can email EreSOS: info@eresosforanimals.com or phone: (00 30) 22530 - 52148.

Copyright © Smitaki 2008

A Dog's Life

A while ago I read a book by the American writer Ted Kerasote: 'Merle's Door'. The subtitle is: lessons of a free thinking dog'. The writer found the dog as a pup during one of his canoe trips in America and took it home. He developed a strong relationship with the dog, that ended in an experiment giving the dog as much freedom as he wanted. For example he made a cat door for the dog, so that Merle could come and go inside the house whenever it suited him. It is a moving book full of wisdom, philosophy and psychology about dog behaviour.

I am no specialist with dogs and I never tried animal psychology. But I can talk about letting dogs live in freedom. Our dogs, Albino, Whisky and Rocky have as much freedom as Ted Kerasote's dog. For example I never chose the dogs, they arrived one day at the house, acting like they were really pathetic dogs and wanting food. And then they thought: "Not a bad house, I'd better stay". Here I must say that as with the cats, nobody is allowed inside the house. But we do not let them freeze. When winter arrives we make dog and cat houses on our terrace, in order to protect all cats and dogs from the cold winds and the rains.

In winter nothing happens here in Eftalou. A few walkers, a jogger and some cars are the few users of the Eftalou Boulevard. So the dogs hang around the house, play with each other and wait until you take a walk, as if they did not stretch their legs the whole day long.

Coming out of the house three weeks ago, a bunch of 20 cats and 3 dogs awaited you. They all wanted attention. Now that the season has started, it is perfectly silent outside. Tourists are a group of people our dogs and cats think are irresistible. People having a holiday have more time for them, and probably also nicer food. So we are soon forgotten, each day the dogs go out and most of the cats have disappeared to where they came from: the hotel.

The first summer Albino came to Eftalou as a pup he spent at the hotel. Just like the past 2 summers, he now goes to the hotel where he socialises with the tourists and the hotel dog, who are hanging around the pool, and even more important, around the cafetaria. In between he sometimes comes home for a quick check to see if we might be up to something interesting. But when he sees us working in the garden or at the computer he soon leaves. You see him thinking with his bright brown eyes: I have better things to do!

Whisky, the dog that walked alone from Plomari to our house, has other interesting things to do. She thinks she is a tourleader. So she picks up everybody moving on two legs on the Eftalou Boulevard. She walks them to the Hot Springs, returns with other people to the village of Molyvos or makes a tour around different hotels. Whisky is no pool dog, but prefers walking all day long. In the afternoon she comes home for a little siesta. Waking up she waits for her dinner, which is mostly not what she thought she would get. Then she turns her back on me and jumps into her basket, where she can dream about her favorite pastime which next to escorting tourists is hunting foxes, birds and squirrels.

Then we also have Rocky, or, we used to have Rocky. Rocky's playmate Vrini recently moved further into Eftalou. Vrini first used to come back and sleep here, but now that Vrini no longer comes around often, it seems that Rocky has moved in at Vrini's new place.

So you see: not all dogs walking alone on the streets are pitiful animals. Sometimes I really get nervous when I see them standing in the middle of the road, wagging their tails cheerfully. When the tourists appear, the speed on the road increases. In the summer you get these stupid eager beavers thinking that they look good by speeding.

When I see these speed idiots, I think about getting them tied up. I mean getting the dogs on a chain, although I would prefer to tie up these race monsters. However, it is out of the question tying up Albino, because he is badly traumatized by anything that looks like a chain or a rope. As soon as you try to tie him up, he is so scared of losing his freedom that he has already run for miles. He might have been an escaped chain-dog!

And then we have Whisky, who in Plomari used to walk on the lead so easily. With her solo tour Plomari to Eftalou I think she proved sufficiently how well she needs her freedom. You cannot tie her up then, can you? And then there is Rocky. He is the most stubborn dog of all. Even when you tell him seriously that he has to stay home for a day because I have to cut his curls that cling together, he nowadays has disappeared before you can even serve him his breakfast.

We used to have a poodle Stratos who went each morning at six o'clock to a neighbour to do yoga. The woman only had to lay out her mat and Stratos sat on it, looking straight forward, as if he was already deep in a trance.

Last year they used to deposit small pups at the school in Molyvos. Parents do no like to say no to their children or to a small lovely doggie. In this way many a pup found a home, instead of being killed. I only ask myself how many of the children and parents have kept on with the growing pups and how many of the dogs are back on the streets.

Every year the cat and dog populations shrink because of an idiot who scatters poison. Last week it happened again with a few dogs. One victim was even sitting in a garden behind a fence on a chain! Malakkas!

Stray dogs that find a master or a home are really lucky. A luck they know how to keep. Because who doesn't want a life of every day getting served drinks and food and having the whole summer a long holiday by the pool? That is a real dog's life!

Copyright © Smitaki 2007

Whisky on the run

Today is Clean Monday, or, as they call it here in Greece, Kathara Deftera. It's the final day of the carnival and the start of Lent. Today the carnival parade will pass through Molyvos. This year the theme is the mayor. Not as colourful as prevoius years, but no doubt the creative minds will make something good out of it.

Greek families are gathering to celebrate this day and they will just eat vegetables and shell fish. Products from animals which have a blood system are not allowed.

Today the cold North Eastern wind doesn't show his anger. Good, because the temperature will rise to fine spring levels and the people on the carnival wagons will not turn blue from the cold. On the other hand it will cause the children problems to get their kites in the air, an old tradition still very popular on Kathara Deftera.

Worries about the dry winter can be put aside on this joyful day. We will see how the summer fares with so little rains. However, my worries are not so easily put aside every time I hear barking coming from the garden. Deserted Eftalou is full of life this weekend, because all the Greeks came to their holiday houses and even the hotel is having guests.

The dogs have to get used to hearing voices around again: crying and laughing children, screaming adults, women who pass by to pick chorta. And then our dog team is reinforced with an old member of the gang: Whisky.

Yes, sorry about the name. But when she came to our house last winter, her black & white fur immediately made me think of Black & White whisky. Although she is not a black & white Scottish terrier, she is more like an English sheepdog, a border collie, who like a well trained sheepdog, can drive Greek donkeys out of your garden.

So, Whisky didn't get her name because I like whisky. Well, I like the dog, but not the drink. Last year, we had too many dogs. So we were very happy when in May a friend of ours wanted to adopt Whisky. I thought that Whisky needed a home. A place of her own to sleep and a lot of attention, something I have no time to give with 15 cats and 4 dogs. So Whisky went to Plomari where she became a real dog lady. I thought she was happy there.

But I was wrong.

Last week our friend from Plomari phoned me to tell me that Whisky had disappeared. He left his front door slightly open and for some unknown reason, Whisky went on the run.

You know that here on Lesvos cats and dogs disappear all the time. It's even very difficult to remember who lost a pet or not. Last week a friend told me that his dog was poisoned in the centre of Kaloni. And the stories about a bunch of cats all poisoned in one day are too many to tell.

For days our friend in Plomari looked for Whisky. But understandably we soon thought she was a victim of poisoning, or had a road accident, or ran into hunters who always think that dogs are foxes in disguise. I really thought Whisky was already in heaven.

Six days later we came home late at night in Eftalou and I could not believe my eyes: amongst all the dogs running to the car, there was Whisky, as if she'd never been away. How the hell did Whisky travel from Plomari to Eftalou?

When I looked at her feet she seemed to have walked quite a bit. I don't know how many kilometres it is from Plomari to Eftalou but for sure I know it's about a 1.5 to 2 hours drive. In one way or other Whisky managed to find her way to her old home. Over the mountains to Kaloni and then again over the mountains to Petra, Molyvos and Eftalou. How did she do that? I don't suppose she hitchhiked...

So we think that Whisky was a little homesick for her old house where she had the freedom to run all day and play with her pals. She prefers her freedom to all the attention she got in Plomari.

I was very happy that Whisky was alive and well. On the other hand we still have too many dogs. So it makes me laugh and cry at the same time. I don't want all these animals! What canwe do with such a smart dog who clearly showed what she wants? We will not send her back to Plomari. What else can we do?!

Copyright © Smitaki 2007

Tales of cats and dogs

We have 15 cats and 3 dogs. Don't pity me. They only need my full care in winter. In the summer the dogs go for breakfast at the nearby hotel where they spend the rest of the day by the pool, entertaining the guests. It is the same with the cats. Most of the cats wander off to the many houses and their summer occupants, who can give them a real treat.

But when the hotels close and all the summer visitors go home, everybody returns to our place. So I cook pans full of pasta, I open huge tins of dog food (they are cheaper than cat food), I drag home heavy bags of dry cat food. We make sure that the female cats get sterilized and I cry my eyes out when cats disappear. Cats and dogs don't live long on this island.

When I feed them in the morning, a hungry pack of cats and dogs are ready and waiting when I come out of the house. A new cat, Ptolemeus, even jumps with all four paws onto my legs, digging his claws into my skin to get more grip, in order to reach the food first. It is a hell of a job to teach him better manners (especially with a big bowl of food in your hands).

I also try to discourage a dog who is obsessed with Homerus Wiggle. This is a young cat, a new member of the family that decided to survive after he got in an accident. He walks on the back of one of his feet, has a hip fracture and a badly healed foot fracture. His tail moves all the time like a divining-rod: tik-tik-tik. The Wildlife Hospital in Agia Paraskevi took him in for 2 weeks observation, but decided that this small survivor had to live with what he got.

They say that cats have 9 lives. Homerus Wiggle has, as far as I know, already used up two. In the morning it works like this at our house: Vrini, the neighbours dog, which also hibernates here, gets so excited when food arrives (or his owner), that he runs up and down like crazy, chasing the cats. The older cats are used to his wild running around and ignore it. Even the new small cat Wittgenstein is not bothered by all this commotion. But poor Homerus Wiggle, who is not that fast a runner, is scared as hell by this outpouring of joy and runs as fast as he can. Which makes all the dogs chase him, so excited to have a quarry.

So a few days ago I came out and saw Vrini barking happily next to Albino who had poor Homerus between his teeth, shaking him violently. I really got angry and took a stick and attacked Albino, who dropped Homerus immediately. Homerus fled as quickly as he could. Albino shot off with his tail between his legs. I got Vrini on the leash.

I would have done this with Albino as well, but Albino really hates to be on the leash. When we put him on a rope once, he stayed stretched at the limit of the rope for a full day. Somebody told me that I should get him used to the idea of a leash. Leash him and then let go of the leash. When I tried this experiment, letting go of the leash, Albino was so afraid that he run away as fast as a greyhound (he is no greyhound, but a kind of Schnautzer) and did not show up for 2 days.

The morning that he had Homerus between his teeth and I thought Homerus had used up all of his nine lives, I had a serious problem. What to do with a dog that is not happy amongst so many cats and regularly gets into fights with them? I seriously thought of sending him to the next world, because where would I find a new home for this dog on an island where it is common sense to leave cats and dogs to make their own life?

The third dog, Rockie, sleeps, eats, dreams, plays and even mounts the cats, as if there is no difference between a cat and a dog. His only problem is that he finishes his dinner as fast as a vacuum cleaner, gives a big burp and wants to continue his dinner at the cats plate. Cats do not eat at such a high speed. So I try to teach Rockie not to finish the cats dinners as well. But I have to stay close, in order to save the cats food.

However, Albino was saved by Homerus Wiggle. The morning after the incident, he came back, carefully and in one piece, wiggling his tail furiously. So I postponed my decision about Albino, but I sternly told him that from now on he is on probation. For now he seems to understand.

I really got upset by what happened. It was a day you were cursing all the animals and asking yourself why you took them in. On Sunday morning, peace seemed to be restored. I gave the cats their food and counted the colours, my way of seeing if everybody is present: 2 big grey ones and 2 small ones, 3 ginger ones and one small ginger, 2 white-grey ones, 1 white with black, 1 black with white, 1 all colours and the 2 cats that live indoors (and get fed indoors). Everybody was there, until I counted 3 grey-whites. Something was wrong. Then I saw a white-ginger cat, a variety of colours we do not have. And then suddenly a large column of unknown cats marched into our field. HELP!

It was the cats from the neighbouring hotel, who are abandoned, since the hotel is closed. I was happy to see that the food was finished, so they did not see that they missed a good dinner. When they didn't get any attention from me (I really tried to ignore them, which was very very hard) they went back to where they came from.

This summer the hotel had 26 cats! And when I asked the manager what he was going to do with them during the winter, he answered: "They will have to look after themselves. The strong ones will survive." Gggggrrrfffffff. Because I know where the cats can survive, but no way will I open a hotel-cat-asylum. Last year I already took their remaining 3 cats. 3 is a reasonable number. But 26?!

It is awful here at this time of year. Everywhere you see cats and dogs looking for food and a new home. I try not to look and not to think. Yesterday I even saw a fox sitting next to 2 cats. The Greeks still have to learn a lot about getting along with domestic animals. And I have to harden up and learn to deal with them. If a dog trainer has some advice for me concerning Albino, I'd be very glad. I have no idea how to deal with dogs, I am more of a cat woman. I'd better not tell you the story of how I ended up with 3 dogs.

Copyright © Smitaki 2006