Cats in the Mani

All over Greece there are cats. It's famous for them. The tourist trade exploits foreigners' love of cats in calendars, postcards and all manner of souvenirs. Tourists come every year and feed them; outside (and inside) their apartments, in the streets and in the tavernas. Feral and semi-domestic cats are reknowned for hanging about at the tables for tidbits from customers' plates and the taverna and restaurant owners tolerate them, encourage them, even. It's the same here in the Mani, at least in the coastal towns and villages. But what do you think becomes of the cats outside of the main season? Many of the eating establishments close for the winter and the cats have fewer places to beg food from. They may become nuisances at ones that stay open and they are likely to find themselves in the hands of someone who thinks they are doing the community a favour by killing them.
To be fair quite a lot of people here look after cats, after a fashion. That is to say they will feed them and give them shelter, but other forms of care that you and I might take for granted are unlikely to be administered or may even be against their principles. This is where Greek thinking is often utterly illogical. Take, for instance, the idea of spaying cats. I may be wrong, but I don't think Orthodox christians are ordinarily opposed to contraception. However, when it comes to their animals they will not have them done. Perhaps it's the cost. During January and February the tomcats go calling and the females get pregnant. In the Spring the females give birth to their kittens who are are then promptly taken by the cats 'owners' and drowned (because there are too many cats) or they may be dumped for others to look after or to fend for themselves. Dumped kittens, even feral ones, cannot last long on their own and will often be taken by truly wild animals such as foxes. In fact, if a mother cat is able to hide and try to raise her brood away from human intervention, this will always be a danger and she is likely to lose most of them (which begs the question, why do humans interfere?). Kittens taken from their mother too early are also at risk of fatal diseases as they will have been unable to build up their immune system. Getting pregnant season after season is not good for the health of a female cat. And many cats get pregnant more than once in a season because losing their kittens means they can come on heat again much faster. When it comes to having tomcats spayed there is an almost total macho resistance to interfering with their 'natural' life.
Another example of illogical thinking goes like this: 'You shouldn't feed feral cats because they need to be hungry so that they keep down vermin.' Now this is nonsense - cats will catch and kill mice, rats, voles, etc and eat them, but not enough to keep them healthy and if they aren't healthy they can't catch anything. But because they believe the cats don't kill enough vermin (presumeably because people feed them), they put down poison instead. What happens then is the cats eat the poisoned creatures and may die themselves. Some folk don't bother with any of the justifications; they simply put down poisoned meat to kill the cats directly. It isn't just feral cats that get killed, of course; it's also people's pets. Coupled with all the kittens being exterminated, this should mean there's a reducing population of cats, but on average that's not the case. Someone is not playing by the rules. Somehow enough kittens and adult cats are surviving to keep the tourist trade alive...just!
When we first came to Stoupa we discovered that many of the feral cats were being fed. An English woman had established a number of feeding stations and a routine to look after the cats that come to them. She is supported by several helpers and donations from people both here and in the U.K. No doubt she is regarded by some of the locals as a bit odd. However, Greeks' attitudes to animals in general (except perhaps for farm animals) and domestic pets in particular have changed for the better over the last couple of decades or so and continue to improve. City dwellers (but also some people in rural areas) are more likely to keep pets and look after them well. In Athens and other main cities there are numerous organisations established to protect and look after street cats and dogs. Wildlife programmes on the TV are becoming more popular. Having said that, Greek men are still noted for going out and shooting anything and everything that moves. And that includes domestic and feral cats and dogs, paticularly if they feel they might spoil their hunting. Neighbours of ours, a Greek couple, recently found their two pet dogs shot dead and left by their wall in a plastic bag! Admittedly they did let them roam free.

After being here for a while Sue discovered that there was a feeding station for cats at Pantazi beach, a 10 minute walk from our house. This was established and supported by an older Welsh couple and to cut a long story short we were eventually involved (against my will at the time) in regular feeding. At the same time we tended to a couple of donkeys, but that's another story. There are usually around 15 cats, give or take one or two irregular visitors, who come to the boxes for food. The boxes, made from old chests and scrap wood, provide shelter for those that have nowhere else. Clearly, though, a number of the cats do have homes to go back to. We have settled into a routine where the older couple feed in the morning and we feed in the evening, although in summer they really only need a big meal once a day.

They might be feral or semi-domestic, but each cat has a unique appearance and personality and between us we have named each one accordingly. The current alpha female is Momma, although the others are always vying; there's Fluffy Mavro (she's a black long haired cat), Sissy, Bandetta, Aggi, Beauty, Phoebe, who is so small she can be mistaken for a kitten, and Trixie, who visits from the taverna around the corner. Many of the males think they are the alpha male particularly HRH (George 2), Al (Scarface), Hector and Shadow/Valentino, who is a very elegant long-haired cat. There's also Quentin, Georgie (Yiorgo), Cookie, JBS (Jerry-Bonz Senior because he's similar looking to young JB who sadly died from Feline Distemper last year), but the star of the feeding station is Marmalatha [Μαρμαλάδα - which actually means jam], so-named because he's a lovely ginger and white colour. Marmalatha was brought to the station as a kitten last year by Stefano, an Italian man who was living, at the time, in Sedona which is a village half way up in the mountains. Stefano is thought by many to be quite mad (he, himself thinks he might have a brain tumour); he certainly seems eccentric and over the top in his opinions and behaviour. He claimed that Marmalatha was in danger from the 'crazy mafia' of Sedona and brought him to the beach to save him. Because he has always been handled, Marmalatha is easily the most approachable of the group and can be picked up and cuddled; in fact, he will ask you to, although less often now as he has got older and become a fully fledged adult tom. We had hoped to arrange to get him spayed (via a street cat programme), but Stefano, who is Catholic, went wild at the idea and opposed it vehemently. He says all the Greek people are crazy, but this is one opinion he seems to have in common with them. Other cats have come and gone, but the core group still regular wait at the boxes to be fed. When we call they all come running to meet us; it's quite amazing to see!

The boxes themselves have undergone various moves and changes. Originally placed next to the bank of the gorge by the road bridge, they were vandalised soon after we had tidied and painted them early last Summer. We assumed that this had been at the instigation of the beach bar owner who didn't want the cats near his bar. So we moved them to next to the path on the other side of the gorge. This path leads up to our house and also to the villages on the hillsides. As part of the general cleaning up of the area we have now been asked to move them to a more secluded area off the path. This is fine as we think it will benefit the cats as well. We are going to take this opportunity to use better boxes because some of the current ones are falling apart. This will happen just as soon as the local council (δήμος) clear away the accumulated rubbish.

Spring has arrived and soon, and throughout Summer, we can expect people to dump kittens at the boxes despite our requests for them not to. If we are lucky we may find homes for them, if not we may sadly experience more dying or just disappearing in the night. We have to be strong: The boxes are meant to be just a feeding station, not a cats home, even if some of our core group do stay there most of the time, and we do not have the resources to do much else.

You may think there can be no genetic difference between feral cats and the average domestic moggie found in the UK, but our experience of rescuing and taking in a kitten dumped at the boxes has shown us how different they are. Although our kitten is slowly settling now, her behaviour has always been far more wild than anything we've experienced before. Jessy, who we brought from the UK has certainly found her quite stressing! It's the same with the male kitten our next door neighbours adopted and when the two get together it can be bedlam; we have to hide or glue down everything! Like the people of the Mani, the cats have adapted to the environment and landscape which, despite its beauty, can be tough and unforgiving.