“They Are Waiting for You Every Day”: Caring for the Stray Cats of Athens

A dozen cats darted out of the japanese gates of the Acropolis, then scurried behind a well-known determine pulling a procuring cart. 

Eleni Kefalopoulou, co-founder of Athens-based stray cat welfare group 9 Lives Greece, warmly greeted every one by title, ladling out parts of meals to Betty, Museum and Good-looking, Scarface, Carrot, Risotto and the others. Then her eyes lit up on the sight of 1 fluffy buyer with thick brown-and-white fur.

“Tadzio!” she exclaimed upon seeing the 15-year-old cat, whose diminishing well being and superior age give Kefalopoulou trigger for concern. Each time she goes out on a feeding run across the Acropolis and thru the streets of Plaka, Kefalopoulou finds herself worrying. “Will Tadzio come? He’s a really particular cat,” she mentioned.

For almost 20 years, 9 Lives has tended to hundreds of stray and deserted cats round their space of duty, which incorporates the historic heart and pockets of Koukaki, Omonia, Metaxourgeio and Kerameikos.

Longer, more healthy lives

Via its in depth volunteer community, 9 Lives now feeds round 600 cats a day; it additionally pays for a spread of veterinary care and tries to seek out the felines everlasting properties. The nonprofit’s major focus, nevertheless, is to assist humanely management the stray inhabitants by neutering near 2,000 female and male cats every year. Its Lure-Neuter-Return program improves the lives of the strays, Kefalopoulou mentioned.

Whereas most stray cats in Athens survive for lower than two years on the streets, cats within the 9 Lives colonies fare significantly better. Across the Acropolis, the place the group feeds a complete of 200 cats, “now we now have very outdated cats, which signifies that we’ve achieved a variety of work,” Kefalopoulou mentioned.

However way more stays to be achieved, she acknowledged. The town’s stray cat overpopulation persists regardless of the city jungle’s every day risks. The animals run a gauntlet, scavenging for meals, going through abuse, dodging automobiles and bikes, enduring excessive temperatures and even the specter of poisoning. Whereas Greece’s human inhabitants stands at about 10 million, the nation has almost 3 million stray and deserted cats and canine, in accordance with a current college examine.

9 Lives has been feeding and caring for Athens’ road cats since 2006, and their rising numbers crate strain to fund the group’s mission. “You could all the time afford these cats. They’re ready for you on daily basis,” mentioned Kefalopoulou, who owns six cats and infrequently fosters others. She grew up in Thessaloniki, and continues a convention began by her mom, who additionally helped strays. “It’s all my life,” she mentioned.

9 Lives has about 30 devoted volunteers, with many others stepping in once they can. It sustains itself by means of personal donations, fundraising campaigns and gross sales of T-shirts, tote luggage and calendars – Tadzio, her beloved 15-year-old cat, will likely be featured on the duvet of their 2025 calendar.

“We’ve no assist from municipalities or the federal government, nothing,” Kefalopoulou mentioned throughout an interview on the small wine bar she owns close to the Acropolis Museum. “There are not any funds. However might assist us with vans, with trappers,” Kefalopoulou continued.

In 2021, the Greek authorities handed a sweeping companion animal welfare legislation, which included measures requiring municipalities to determine packages for the administration of stray cats and canine. Kefalopoulou reached out to the municipality of Athens a short while later, providing “to coach their folks,” together with on the right way to use the trapping tools to soundly safe the animals. “‘We’re right here, and we’re keen,’” she recalled telling officers. “They mentioned, ‘oh sure, sure, sure, thanks,’” however by no means took her up on the provide.

A altering surroundings

Whereas instances of maximum animal neglect and cruelty are nonetheless reported in Greece, Kefalopoulou mentioned that consciousness and compassion for strays has improved within the 32 years since she helped her first stray cat in Athens. At the moment, she was working for an additional animal welfare group.

“I used to be essentially the most bizarre individual within the neighborhood, carrying cats and traps,” Kefalopoulou recalled with amusing. “I’ve been to the police station a number of occasions as a result of folks thought that I offered them to universities or clinics for experiments.” Some residents additionally instructed her it was a sin to intrude with nature by sterilizing cats. “All this has modified. Now it’s only some outdated those that ask us what we do with the cats.”

Whereas Athens’ stray cat inhabitants stays excessive, the variety of canine roaming the streets has dwindled, following a extra profitable effort to neuter and supply shelters for canines. Much less docile than canine, cats are harder to corral, Kefalopoulou mentioned.

In Athens and the encircling suburbs, there are a number of animal welfare societies, together with Save a Greek Stray and Canine’s Voice, together with UK-based Animal Motion Greece and Battersea, which works with 9 Lives on neutering packages. That’s not counting the various people who coordinate cat and canine adoptions domestically. 

The Greek authorities, by means of its Venture Argos, has directed €40 million nationwide to help municipalities’ efforts to enhance the lives of stray animals. However the funding is insufficient to handle the necessity, and Athens’ road cats nonetheless rely upon residents and teams like 9 Lives.

In Omonia, a historic district grappling with crime and poverty, two devoted volunteers deal with feedings. Amongst them is Ioanna Foscolou, whom Kefalopoulou calls a “hero” for her years of service. “Ioanna nonetheless goes out to feed the cats among the many ruins, the outlets, the alleys stuffed with drug sellers and so on.,” Kefalopoulou mentioned.

Foscolou, who feeds the cats within the evenings, wrote in an e-mail that she has bonded with the cats and considers her work very important: “The every day contact with the stray cats of Omonia fills me with the love they provide me. I proceed to feed and deal with them as a result of I imagine that I’m answerable for their lives, as a result of their survival in these circumstances that we now have pressured them to stay relies on all of us.”

Throughout a current feeding across the Acropolis and Plaka, Kefalopoulou visited a number of cat colonies, together with one with a ginger-colored portly feline named Titan. Just a few years in the past, 9 Lives volunteers have been frightened Titan had a well being drawback, so that they introduced him to a vet. The analysis: Titan was being fed an excessive amount of, primarily from well-intentioned neighbors. Complicating issues, a social media influencer found Titan and pinned the cat’s location on Google Maps. Titan turned web well-known, attracting followers who gave him extra meals. 9 Lives finally requested residents to cease feeding Titan, and posted a public touch upon the map location, requesting the identical. Titan has since misplaced weight, although his massive stomach hasn’t fully vanished.

Pleasant foreigners

Accompanying Kefalopoulou that day was Debra Coombs, a cat proprietor on vacation from Melbourne, Australia, who had introduced alongside meals packets for the cats. Coombs, who first related with 9 Lives throughout a visit to Athens in 2018, applauds the group’s mission and has stayed in contact with the group ever since. “The one helpful factor I might do is to offer cash,” she mentioned. “I can’t take [the cats] house to Australia.”

Vacationers like Coombs are crucial to 9 Lives, Kefalopoulou mentioned. “ Most of our supporters have been vacationers who occurred upon us both trapping a cat for neutering or feeding a colony,” she defined. ” They unfold the phrase by means of their pals, which is essential.”

One of many meals packets Coombs introduced went to Tadzio, who nibbled away whereas Kefalopoulou gently tended to him. She rigorously minimize by means of clumps of his matted fur, a activity that’s turn out to be routine since Tadzio is commonly forgetful of his grooming resulting from his age and well being issues. However his presence is purpose for hope.

Wanting again at Athens 30 years in the past, Kefalopoulou mentioned that “it was one other world,” one wherein stray cats have been ignored or mistreated. Right this moment, “there are extra individuals who care. In fact, it’s extra work for us as a result of we now have a variety of calls.” However that’s okay, she added. “Our work is within the streets.”