Cat Ambulance

 Tuesday 24th January 2023

As I went out to feed the cats this morning there was an amazing pink sky. It’s a shame but even modern cameras on phones can’t make it look as good as my eyes do. Of course, if I spent thousands on a proper SLR camera it might, but that’s a pipe dream. Last night there was a gorgeous crescent moon above the mountain by me. Amazingly maybe because of the lack of light pollution, I could actually see the rest of the moon’s shape. I tried a photo with my super zoom camera, but all I got was the crescent. If it’s there tonight, I will try so more more shots.

Here is the sunrise shot after the sun came up. The sea had a lovely streak of sunlight over it.

This morning I tried to recall the “Good Week” remark. I nearly got it without referring to my crib, so there is hope I will be ready for next week. Today, it’s time to head to vision things in my course, the Greek words for  the television etc. I drove down to Livadi, popped into the hardware store to get a hacksaw and have a coffee at Grans. In Grans, no Greek today apart from the usual greetings. It’s a bit like a local going to the pub, who has his personal beer glass behind the bar. I usually pop into the toilet, and leave the mug  on the counter, they can then make it when they are ready. They know like the bar person, what the customer wants!

Photo Interlude - The Marina today

The delivery guy was there, so we had a chat, I asked him about the scrap metal guy, I explained what I wanted to do. He said the number was on the side of the truck, I said I had rang the number, and the guy wasn’t super friendly. Aha he said that’s his dad. He said the dad wasn’t super friendly to other Greek people, so I did have a problem! I met a guy who had a little seven month old puppy, it was super friendly as they are and he was taking it for a walk. He spoke good English, so I explained what I did with dogs in the UK. I then met my friend who I am doing a walk with today, their Greek lesson had been cancelled, so we might go a bit earlier. I mentioned my idea about the food cover for the cats. I finished my coffee and drove back up, but stopped to take this photo of a lovely cactus flower.

While I was doing this, another friend dropped by, up their way up the hill. I explained I was taking a photo and found a plastic bottle, so I had picked that up. This friend has said I can order stuff through them, from M and S, they sent me a link, there is a lot to choose from,, so I need to have a good look. The products come from the M and S store in Athens. While we were chatting the jeep like my friend has, went by, I knew it wasn’t my friend, as I had seen them in Livadi, but we both know the driver, so we waved, ( I think we both do so every time anyway. At home, I cut both my tubs in half, if you have the right tools, these things are easy. I took them to the cat feeding station and fitted them on. Let’s see what the cats think.this will keep the rain off I hope.

As I walked back, I saw in an area where rubble is being, collected by the donkey man a black tub that looked even bigger than mine. So I walked down to it passing the donkey man and his friend. They were joking at my shorts and t shirt, I could see that. I picked up other bucket thing, it was a bit bent, but ok. I wanted to ask them if I could take it, so I got some, suitable Greek on my phone and showed them. Aha, he pointed, to the animals. It’s their feeding bucket. So I took it back. 

Photo Interlude - Langardi, photo of the houses, next time!

For todays walk, my friend expertly found the second path to Anghios Stephanos, from Hora. We found it by going up to a little enclave of Hora known as Langardi, I never knew it was there, another good reason to go on walks with friends! My friend knew someone who lives up here, they looked like they had a Passion Flower on the porch, but there were no flowers or fruit to confirm this to be the case. From here there was a slightly more difficult path underfoot was clover, hiding rocks, which made walking a bit harder, we just had to be careful. There were views that I had not seen before and sweeping hills below us. 

It was more uphill than the other path we went on, which was to be our return path. But for now we went through a huge clutch of hens, the most I have ever seen I think, all free range though. We saw sheep too, enjoying the clover no doubt. We were soon at the end and we came across the track, I had seen on my own wandering from Hora the other day. We went down the track and soon saw the church. We stopped off and sat where we were before enjoying our lunch. We finished up, and walked back. On the return path there were some frogs sitting out on the concrete of the wash house, we saw last time. We went down for a photo, but plop, they were gone before we had a chance!

On our walk, my friend mentioned a cat dilemma. They had been into Livadi like me and had seen a cat by the bridge, possibly lying in the sun. I had seen it too. What if it was hurt? We know the vet who was expected to be here tomorrow is not coming. What then? When we got back we drove down to take a look. Our worst fears were realised. It was crying and clearly hurt. We stroked it to soothe it.  There was a young lady by it, she turned out to be a teacher in the local school. She was trying to get help in the form and people who might have contacts, possibly to have the cat sent on a ferry? To cut a long story short, it was all arranged. We were sent a cat basked by a motorcycle courier, who is a volunteer in cat care here on this island. The cat was carefully lifted into the basket and we took it back to the teachers house, to be left in a quiet place until the ferry arrived. It slept apparently. We had to get a free ferry ticket for the cat. We ended up taking the cat on the ferry to Syros, Sifnos could have been an option, but the ferries were going the wrong way. The cat is on its way to Syros, a vet will be there to pick it up. From what we can see, it has a broken foot, hit by a car we think. You can be assured we tried to give the cat water but it wasn’t interested, it’s almost certainly in a lot of pain. I only played a small part in the recovery service, the teacher did an amazing job, my friend also. The cat amazingly may end up coming back if it recovers, we may see it again. We named it lucky. Lucky sounds nicer than the Greek word for Lucky apparently, so we stuck with that.

Footnote. I have omitted a lot of the detail about this incident as I don’t want to upset anyone. I am confident the cat will be fine after treatment. It is truly lucky.