Paleohora is a small village in southwestern Crete, an island on an island if you so want, encircled by water from three sides and high mountains on the fourth. Situated on a small peninsula in the Lybian Sea, it is kind of an island on an island. Quiet and calm during the winter months, when people mainly tend their olive trees, tomatoe gardens, sheep & goats and other agricultural enterprises, full of life and laughter in the summer when tourist fill the streets and beaches and restaurants.
Maybe you have already been here and know what i am talking about. Maybe you'd like to come and see for yourself. In that case please visit one of the many sites and blogs about Paleohora as a holiday destination. E.g. http://paleochorasoul.blogspot.gr/ or www.kritiguide.com
In this blog i don't want to talk about the many great things Paleohora has to offer but about one of the problems we have to deal with: animals.
Abandoned animals, mistreated animals, starving animals, hopeful animals, wonderful animals.
Stray cats and dogs are part of Greek's public image as is Greek Coffee and the Acropolis. But while a few kittens between your restaurant chairs may look rather cute in your holiday picture book, what happens to them when the tourists are gone for at least half a year is indeed all but pretty. Suddenly all the yummy chunks falling from the many tables throughout the summer are gone. The tasty biscuits provided by friendly people every morning on their hotel balcony have stopped to appear. What is left is an army of hungry cats and kittens that raid the waste bins all over town and make a mess of every garbage bag that has been left outside for more than a couple of minutes. Those cats multiply and so do the problems they cause and face. Many of them die of poison, left for them or the rats that also haunt the garbage bins or get hit by cars. The survivors often suffer from cat flu, feline immunodeficiency and others.
Another, ever growing problem are puppies left at now deserted beaches, dogs that can't or won't be fed anymore, dumped to fend for themselves and roaming the streets, looking for food or a kind soul to take them in.
With the financial crisis holding the whole of Greece in an iron fisted grip, more and more people find it impossible to keep their dogs sad faces like these can be found more and more all over town.
Again they are prone to meet all sorts of dangers on the streets.
Since the founding of PAWS a few months ago, we have come to care for over 20 dogs and provide food for an indefinite number of cats in Paleohora.
To keep them out of harm's way, we have fenced in a small area, away from cars and people, where we feed them and give them at least a roof over their heads, while trying very hard to find them a new, permanent home.
We started out with 2 little fellows in October.
Had to upgrade some in December:
Notice how peacefully cats and dogs can coexists if needs be :)
January saw us adding another extension:
But with the latest anonymous "donation" of puppies we have reached the limit of what can be done there. There is no water, we have to carry every bottle there by hand, no shade to speak of when the summer comes and simply not enough space to guarantee even the most basic hygienic requirements.
We decided that a more suitable place needed to be found. And find we did! Manolis Padadogiannakis, the owner of Pizzeria Odysseia on the pebble beach, offered us the use of a piece of his land and we started to build right away.
Much needed storage space has been created.
All this is costing a smart sum of money (1.200 Euro so far), so please allow me to post our bank details and a very convenient link for donations at this point.
Chaniabank: IBAN GR1006900060000000173167001
BIC: STXAGRA1
or:
https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/cSGpe?fb_action_ids=222933184519159&fb_action_types=fundrazr%253Astory_update&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
Every euro we get goes directly into animal care. Be it for food, medicines or the new shelter.
Also check out our webpage for more information on what we want and what we do!
www.paws-paleohora.gr
That was a lot of information for a first post. Thank you for staying with me until now!
Speak to you soon :)
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