The Cats of Greece- contd.

 By Clem Latham

In Athens, the cat saga continued. By the time we left Athens, the cat count was up to 66, and my phone photos became full of random stray cats. Something very interesting about the stray cats in Athens was how you’d see them in random ruins throughout the city, going about their business as if they weren’t living in a piece of ancient history. It led to some of my favorite sights- seeing little cat food and water bowls atop the ruins of ancient Greek buildings. My favorite cat I saw was living all the way at the top of the Acropolis- it seemed unbothered by the intense winds and tourists milling about, and practically posed for me.

    This photo has to be one of my favorites, as it combines Greek cats with Greek ruins (the Temple of Athena Nike is visible in the background). It really warmed my heart to see how well the stray cats were treated in all of Greece, because it is not the same in America. At one point I witnessed a clump of 13 cats in one spot, just because someone was feeding them at that time. I personally feed the strays in my area at home, but neighbors often have… choice words about that. It really was so nice to see a culture that loves their strays. I also enjoyed how much cat merchandise they had in turn. I ended up getting my mom (a fellow cat-lover) a postcard with “The Kitty-Cats of Greece” on it, not to send her, but just as a souvenir to get across just how many cats there were. Overall, Greece is certainly the place to go if you’re a cat lover!

The Cats of Greece

By Clem Latham

Delphi is definitely where I first noticed that Greece has a lot of cats. And I mean a LOT. After having seen two cats at a rest stop on the way to the Delphi, I just kept seeing more and more to the point where I started counting! I believe that by the time we left Delphi (having spent less than a full day there in total) I had seen around 25 or so cats. Considering how small of a city it is, that’s quite a lot! One important thing to note about these stray cats was how friendly they were. The strays of Delphi would come right up to passersby and meow at them and were very receptive to petting. As much as I wanted to pet them all, I was very wary about the possible fleas they might’ve carried. I later learned from our tour guide Steve that it is part of Greek culture to not get their strays spayed/neutered, which of course leads to stray populations only growing over time. It has to do with a desire to not take away the animal’s “manhood” so to speak. The people of Greece do feed and give water to all of these stray cats, so in a way, they're an important part of the community. I interact with a decent number of stray cats back home in America, and the difference both in their behavior and how we view them culturally is stark. In America, strays are very cautious and scared of humans, no matter how long you may feed them for. It’s also considered the right thing to do to get them fixed. However, as mentioned before, Greek cats are very lovey-dovey with anyone who dares give them the time of day!