Another day in Paradise

Hello dear ones, warm greetings from the shelter,

It's crazy how quickly time flies. Soon my time here will be up, and I can hardly grasp that it is almost over. You get so used to this place and develop an actual daily routine. Not to mention, every day spent with these dogs is simply wonderful.

Today was a really great day. The sun was shining early in the morning, and the dogs were also in great spirits. You already know by now who my little favorite is. And I have to say Timmy has really stolen my heart. He is just too sweet. He always looks so happy when he sees me or when I come to visit him and Magnus in the kennel. And when he has his time to play outside with the dog group, he often prefers to check where I am. When I’m busy with another kennel, he sits at the front and waits until I finally come back outside. I would really love to take him home with me. He is just an amazing dog, and we have built a bond already, even though I have only been at the shelter for a short time. I think saying goodbye will be very hard and will surely break my heart... but I don't want to think about that just yet.

Aside from it being a truly lovely day, something rather unusual also happened today. Around noon, a young couple drove to the shelter. They were Canadians returning from an excursion. They had picked up a dog that they found tied up two hours away from Chania. Olivia spoke with the couple. She mentioned to me that unfortunately, it's something you have to expect when coming to Greece, to see unpleasant things and suffering. Apparently, it's also normal here for people to keep their dogs in a field to guard it. The dogs are taken care of, but the conditions are still rather suboptimal. In any case, the couple wanted to do something good but ended up taking someone else's dog. We don't know what happened to him. They apparently called another shelter to see if they could take him in.

The shelter in Souda is simply overcrowded, and there really isn't any space. And when a dog is adopted, another one immediately takes its place. There's a waiting list of stray dogs that will be caught and brought to the shelter when there is space again.

Sadly, there was also some bad news today... you probably remember the cat mother and her three kittens. The mother passed away 20 minutes after arriving at the shelter. Unfortunately, one of the kittens also didn't make it. The other two are still fighting and are slowly getting used to wet food. So there is still hope, but they are unfortunately not out of the woods yet.

After work, we strolled through the beautiful alleys of Chania again. It is wonderful. I will surely miss it a lot.