Brenda An excerpt from my travel memoir, You, Me, and Kiki – as yet unfinished.
Anyone who has been to Greece knows about the cats. There are cats everywhere. Everywhere. Some are ragged and starving, but most are fed by someone, and many are well taken care of despite living outside. I warned Chad and Amaya about the cats and how they would pull on their heartstrings, but I’m not sure they got it until we arrived in Athens. As I’d told them, cats were begging for food on the streets, among the ruins, and especially in the restaurants. Most places discourage feeding cats from the tables, but we saw many people doing it. I understand why, as this only emboldens them, and, as I’m sure you know if you feed an animal once, you’ll never get rid of it. But most restaurants have food trays for the cats, so they aren’t cruel; they are just trying to ensure their guests aren’t bothered. But, no matter what, the cats always show up.
One of the cutest things they do is put on a show to make you want to feed them over the other cats. Several of them either tilt their head and look cute; they’ll rub on your legs or blink at you. Whatever it takes. And they recognize a sucker. Chad and Amaya both came under their radar as suckers. I’d see Amaya try to slip food under the table without the waiter noticing. Usually, they just look the other way because Greeks collectively have a soft spot for kids. So, Amaya would get away with what an adult wouldn’t. Then, the cats would notice me. I didn’t feed them (much), but they were so drawn to me. Amaya calls me a cat whisperer, so maybe that’s why. Whatever the reason, cats love me, and we always have quite a clowder around our table.
Of course, Chad pretended their cute antics didn’t move him, but I’d see him melt a little when they would blink at him, and he’d pass food to Amaya. They are quite the pair of criminals.
When we moved into our rental house, we inherited what we thought was a pair of kittens. Of course, Amaya was in heaven when she met the cute little tabby and calico kitties. They were about eight weeks old and adorable, as every kitten is. They wanted to be cuddled and, of course, fed, so she took them on immediately. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, the night after we moved in, we discovered there weren’t two kittens, but four, and a mamma cat who was still nursing them.
So, our new home came with built-in cats. It was not a surprise to me, but I knew it would be a challenge. We spent the first week teaching the kittens and other cats of the village their manners. As we have a private garden just off of our bedroom, which was meant to be the domain of our cat, Kiki, we had to keep the kittens and village cats out. First off, we don’t want Kiki to feel uncomfortable in her home, but we also don’t want to expose her to any illness from the village cats. So, out comes the water hose and water gun. It might sound cruel, but you have no idea what it can be like until you experience the barrage of cats in a village.
The kittens were crawling up all our screens, mewing at the doors for food, and generally driving us all up the wall. Amaya had a water gun we used to keep the kittens away from the screens and to keep them from screaming at us all day and night. We also used the hose to keep the cats out of the garden. It only took a few days, with the occasional reminder, to have a nice slew of cats around who have respect for our space.
We always keep water out for them and give them a little food once a day. Many of the other villagers feed all the cats, and all of the ones in this village are well-fed and very healthy-looking, so we aren’t worried about them. We mainly started feeding Mama, as we call the kitten’s mother, as she was weaning them and looking somewhat depleted from her kittens. She very quickly started looking better, especially as we gave her some of Kiki’s high-quality soft food.
Amaya is home-schooling, and we often find her outside at the table doing her work, journalling, or meditating with one or more kittens in her lap. As much as having so many cats around can be annoying, even though I love cats, seeing her have instant friends has been so lovely. She loves spending time with them, which has made her transition to living in Greece much smoother.
Kiki is twelve and not used to other cats anymore, so it’s a little harder for her to adjust. She used to live in Greece. She was born in Italy and was feral when she found me, so she is used to having many cat friends. As she’s a Siamese and very social, I thought maybe she would enjoy the kittens, but not so far. So far, she just considers them annoying interlopers. Perhaps once they have a few more manners, but I’m not holding my breath.
You have to get used to many things when living in a foreign country, especially when the culture is very different from your own. There is the language difference, the climate, and many other things. The Greek attitude toward animals is one of the differences. At first glance, it may seem they don’t treat animals well because they aren’t like North Americans, who pamper their pets and ensure most dogs and cats are spayed and neutered. But I find them to be very compassionate. Most village cats are fed by many people and are treated with kindness. I feel that the Greeks are pragmatic. They don’t fret over something they can’t change; they do their part to help. I like that a lot. So, as we are part of a village now, we are doing our small part. We have discussed getting the kittens spayed and neutered, something I did in another village I lived in years ago. We feel that will help to keep the population down, and it’s something small we can do.
