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On holiday in Crete I and my husband as usual fed dozens of stray cats which seemed to depend
on visitors to the holiday complex where we were staying. I became increasingly sad as the time to leave approached; some of the kittens appeared to be newborn, some of the grownups' bellies were pinched in as if they had experienced long periods of semi-starvation. I approached locals and asked them what happened to the stray cats once we, the holidaymakers had left the island - they said, 'A nice lady from a cattery picks them up and feeds them for the winter, looks after them well'. An overwhelming feeling of scepticism enveloped me - if so, however did this 'nice lady' (with the bottomless pit of cat food)manage to catch them?! So what should have been a relaxing holiday became a little sad as we watched the weather deteriorate with no means of knowing whether the cats would survive the long cold Keffalonian winter. I even asked the holiday rep who fed me the same story which I very much wanted to believe: the one about the Kefallonian cat fairy, that is.

And yet with a little planning I know we could solve this problem and feel happier about visiting these holiday islands each year; for a start it's obvious that the cats need urgent spaying/castration on a very regular basis so that the poor females, still kittens of only about eight months aren't landed heartbreakingly with a litter every few months - they are such caring creatures and not being able to feed their litter, they go literally down- hill. If everyone were to threaten boycotting of Greek Islands, beautiful though they are, it would not be long before these uncaring Greeks became aware of the problem on their doorstep and took the logical steps to help these pathetic creatures - after all we cannot rely on the 'Cat fairy', and goodness knows I wish she'd got here before I left the island. Another solution is, just basically to feed these poor creatures, which then would not pester the stressed (but compassionate) tourists who need to sit back and relax, and not, as I did, feed several cats tidbits of fish every meal time, in addition to feeding a dozen when I returned 'home'.

I know that the problem has now apparently been virtually solved in one of the small Cretan villages where I've previously holidayed and what a huge difference it's created! One can now thankfully relax 'catless', no longer needing to worry about a problem, which really is not of your own creation. When I got home I told my friend who's the manager of the cattery I take my cats to each year about the problem and she admitted that, in her work rescuing stray cats many needed to be 'put down' into a gentle sleep and I, for once, realized that this may be a necessary solution in poor places where, no one cares; and resources to care are even fewer care even fewer than the compassion evident in Britain, for example. However, I'm sure that for starters you and I, the animal lovers should start by taking the extreme measure which would surely focus the minds of uncaring nations - do not set foot on Greek islands, and other uncaring places, until they start to look after their animals!

Learn more about this author, Lynda Richards.
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