9 puppies fly to Düsseldorf

In this time of year it is really very hard to find flight partners for the dogs, and having ten puppies in our care, we were getting quite desperate how to solve this problem.
One of the ACT members decided to book a ticket at her own costs and today she is flying with the 4 puppies Nils, Nimbus, Nipper and Ned to Düsseldorf. With Aegean Airlines you are allowed to take up to 5 puppies per person in the hold.

Departure was very early this morning so the 4 puppies and their flight partner had to stay overnight on the mainland, but how…?
A very nice lady who lives in Monastiraki and takes care of the stray dogs in the Keramoti area, could help us and fostered the doggies for the night. Dear Ingrid, we thank you very much and wish you all the best with your work for the animals.

It didn't take long before another member followed the example and booked a ticket with Aegean. She will fly with 5 puppies (Noddy, Nash, Quinta, Petra and Peter) on the 7th of February.

These tickets are being paid out of their own pockets, for which ACT is very grateful, but surely you will understand that they can't do this all the time.
Being left with only one puppy it means an enormous relief for the foster homes on Thassos. And hopefully they can enjoy the (relatively) quietness for a while.

A good example: Iris Gold in Limenaria

The only way to control the cat population on Thassos is neutering. Not only does it keep the number of cats acceptable, but also it prevents them to die a terrible death of starvation, illness or weakness (not to speak of poisoning!) just because there are too many.
Like for example tavern Pyrofani in Trypiti or Paradise Beach at the so called beach, now also the owner of Iris Gold has started to bring all the cats in that area to the vet for sterilization.

Many hotel and restaurant owners complain about the number of cats around their places, but most of them do nothing about it themselves. Of course the cats are hungry if nobody takes care of them and so they have learned to beg at the tables for food. Apart from the fact that some tourists don’t like that, it is not a nice sight to see the hungry and sick cats in and around the trashcans.

It is common known that many tourists avoid countries like Greece where they don't treat the animals with respect.
It would be great if Thassos will be known as an island where the inhabitants care about the animals and because of that would attract more tourists.
A good step towards that goal would be for more business owners to follow the example of Iris Gold and others.
Remember that neutering a cat is much less effort than constantly chase away the starving cats, again and again, to get angry about it and to calm the excited customers and guests.

Naturally ACT is willing to help with this. Please contact us and we will be glad to discuss the possibilities with you.

Help!

At the moment we have our hands full with eleven puppies.
Seven of them were found in November in Kalivia by a Greek girl who took care of them for a couple of days before they were hand over to ACT. To make the work easier we separated them and 4 went to a foster home in Theologos and 3 in Kalivia.
At the time we didn't know that we would get another three in December. They were found near the main road in Limenaria. These small type doggies look a bit like miniature pinschers and are very cute. Since we have only 2 foster homes on the island at the moment, these 3 had to stay with the other 3 in Kalivia.
On top of all that we took a Golden Retriever mix puppy from a man in Limenas. He didn't want the little one, but the positive side is that we convinced him to have the mother neutered and he has already made an appointment with the vet.
So this little girl went also to Kalivia where it is now more than crowded with 7 puppies, their own 2 dogs and 7 stray cats.

In this period with very few tourists it is extra difficult to get them on a flight to Germany or Holland. Very frustrating when you know that there is place for them in the foster families over there or even new families waiting for them.
What we desperately need are flight partners from Kavala or Thessaloniki to Düsseldorf, Cologne or Amsterdam.

Helping the animals has not only to do with money! Helping hands are at least as important! Our foster families on the island are really overcrowded and cannot have more puppies at the moment. This means that if someone calls us that they have found dumped puppies, we can't take them. Unless… we find more people on the island that are willing to foster. You don't have to take them in your house, as long as they have a shed to sleep and a fenced garden to play in they will be fine.
Please contact us if you can help, even if it is for once a year.

The N-puppies

The P-puppies

Unfortunately the camera broke down, so no picture of Quinta from Limenas... yet.