Animal welfare, Symi style
Hi. First of all, here’s a heart-warming tale and update from Suzanne who looks after Symi Animal welfare.
“In March, 2016, I received an email re: horses over in Nimborio…
It would not be the first time that SAW has been informed of equines in poor condition on this island. Since I became the team leader of SAW, I have tried to take an interest in all the islanďs animals, and my first equine case involved a very emaciated 6 yr old mare, Niki. At my insistence, the owners did call in the vet to see her, and her owners hopefully are now better informed about equine feed care and well-being.
The horses I saw that day in Nimborio were 2 mares and 2 colts, the mares were very thin, I knew the owner, so could speak to him about the animals. He told me the 2 mares were for sale, for a cheap price, so, I had a good look at the young chestnut mare, about 13.2 hands, and decided I could give her a better home. The rest of the deal I left to my husband and, a few days later, Tara arrived at our farm in the mountains and started her new life with us. Here she would have all the hay and feed she needed, a stable for the winter, and a large enclosure just to walk around in.
The other mare, a 9 yr old grey, was sold to a farmer who has a working team of mules and ponies, her foal went with her. As for Tara, 8 months later, she is in good condition, has a shiny winter coat now, enjoys being groomed, comes to me when I call her, is quite vocal, and is being trained to be a riding horse (with a western saddle), to trot along the mountain trails of Symi, and hopefully she is happy with her new home on the farm.
We love all our animals, they are our life ….
Suzan @Filimonas’ farm, Ayios Dimitrios, Symi.”
You can follow Symi Animal Welfare and help with the cause at http://symianimalwelfare.org/
Back to me: So, it’s more than cats – though Suzanne and her husband have organised us with some more winter cat feed for the local strays that we looks after, so they have a winter of food to look forward to.
Meanwhile, we have our own Symi cat welfare to take care of and, to that end, there will probably be no blog tomorrow, and maybe not on Friday either. Jack, the Alarm Cat has not been well. Neil rang a vet on Rhodes yesterday and told him the symptoms (being sick a lot). The vet said to bring him over ASAP for blood tests – and he needs his ears looking anyway -and so we decided that, as the vet would be away from Thursday, that today, Wednesday, is the soonest time we can take him. There are other vets and they are all just as good and conscientious and speak ‘sick cat English’, as we don’t, and this one, Panayiotis, said to call him at around 8.30 in the morning and he would pick us up from Rhodes Town and drive us, and cat, to Kremasti, where his surgery is. (Talk about going the extra mile! But that’s Greece for you.)
The reason for the early phone call-to be is due to the Blue Star boat coming in and leaving by 5.00 a.m. in the morning. So, as I write this, on Tuesday afternoon, we are now settling down to an early night, a 3.30 a.m. alarm call, and discussing the logistics of getting the noisy, and otherwise quite active and healthy, AC into his box at 4.00 a.m. tomorrow, ready for a long day: boat at 5.00, vet at 8.30-ish, boat back at 17.00 and home around 18.30. That’s about 14 hours for Jack in a box, unless he must stay over.
No doubt there will be some kind of blog post about this is due course. Meanwhile, please excuse me while I go and prepare for a very early start and a long day with a large, vomiting, deaf, heavy cat in a box.
