Seeing Cats In Greece, 2011

My name is Naomi and I'm a crazy cat person. I proudly admit this. Jon is, too, though he probably wouldn't call himself "crazy." Because of this, we were very excited to travel to Greece. Sure, we were looking forward to seeing the ruins, eating the wonderful food and learning more about the culture, but we also wanted to see the cats. Because the Mediterranean is warm all year long and is by the water, it's a haven for feral cats. They probably traveled on the shipping boats long ago and are now plentiful in every Mediterranean country from Greece to Israel. In Greece, at least, many people treat them like pets so for the most part, the cats are semi-tame. Sure enough, we saw kitties everywhere! It was a cat lover's paradise. When we dined for lunch, they'd mill around the outdoor restaurants asking for food. One kept eating and eating the scraps we gave him and never seemed to get full. We named him Greedy Cat. Another cat and made herself at home in my lap. I called her Frisky. We hit the jackpot in Oia when we stopped at a cliffside cafe for dinner. The restaurant was located on a "cat highway" of sorts that led between the private homes and stores so about a dozen cats wandered through the eatery that night. One made friends with us so we named him Charlie. Some organizations are thankfully trying to do something about the cats and are having them spayed and neutered. Others feed the animals. Happily, all of the cats we saw -- 93 in all, yes we counted -- all looked healthy, especially the ones who hung out by the restaurants. We'll never forget the furry friends that we met while traveling around Greece. They made our trip even more purrfect.