Cat Duty

Sunday 8th January 2023

This morning, I have a minor mission of mercy, well sort of. Several of my friends are directly involved in the care of what I call stray cats, but to be honest these people are so kind, the cats might well be their own.  They feed the animals, will spend time with them and even catch and transport them to the vets to be neutered or for other health needs. This is all done using their money. There is an organisation on this island that is involved in arranging this care, but it’s not always clear how this is organised, they do feed the cats in the car park by Hora and it’s possible they do other things too, but it’s not transparently so. Then there is the folks who come once a year to neuter cats and my friends and others are there to aid their work. The municipality on the island ( DEMOS)  is also meant to provide funds for cat care, where funds are available for people who look after stray cats, but again it’s a bit like muddy water.

Photo Interlude - Church at Rammos ( slightly wonky ! )

This morning my friend has successfully caught the moma cat  and her two kittens that I fed last year, while they were away, for a trip to the vet. The two kittens will be neutered and the moma cat, looked at, as my friend thinks she might have a tooth or mouth problem. One of the kittens has a funny looking eye, and despite my friend giving the kitten two courses of anti biotic drops, it’s still not looking good.  My assistance is minimal, just helping bring the cats down from where they live, to my friends car. It’s steep steps, not ideal if you are carrying cat carriers. In the afternoon, the process will be reversed.

After the cat moving, I drove down to Rammos where there is a lovely church and a small community of people. From here it’s a short walk to a small beach, where I got sunburnt last year.  I stopped off, because I haven’t been there for ages and it was on the way to Vagia beach where I hoped to catch a bit of winter sun. 

Vagia is a lovely beach, with sun on it all day and the shelter of a handy mountain. And it’s part of a bigger bay that I have mentioned before. There was only a handful of litter and it would have been churlish not to pick it up. I decided not to climb the mountain track, as I did last time, but just go to the far end and sit on the rocks and soak up the sun. As I walked along the beach there was this huge iron ring, embedded in the sand, probably in Greece’s finest concrete, been there for years, some kind of ship anchor point years ago? At the far end, where I was to soak up the sun, there was another anchor point, this time up on the rocks, probably both related to the iron ore extraction period of this islands history. 

I find it quite remarkable and incredibly lucky that I am perched on a rock, trying to learn Greek on my own on a beach, on an island with only a few thousand souls on it. Of course, it’s not going to last, as Easter approaches, it’s going to start getting busy, but that’s the way these islands are able to sustain their existence, for better or worse.

Eventually before the sun set, I was on my way back to help carry the cats back up to their home. While I waited for my friend to arrive, I noticed the cafe/bar where I had my five Euro beer last year, there was an upturned horseshoe by one of the doors. Maybe they are a universal good luck symbol around the world.

For the strays, they have to have an evening in a house, to recover fully from the various treatments they have been lucky to have. Tomorrow they will be wild and the two youngsters won’t be able to procreate and add to the cat population. Thanks to the kind people who care about them.

Footnote

My landlord came and had a look at the shower problem and said he and a plumber would come later on to get it fixed. When I got back after all my outings, sure enough all was well. Thank goodness for that, the shower was usable, just.