It's no secret that Mr. Star and I are huge animal people. I mean, we had one of our dogs serve as our ringbearer and I run my own small dog boarding business. So wherever we are, we are on a constant lookout for cute animals -- we just can't help ourselves.
What we weren't expecting (more with the unexpected-ness in our travels!), was the vastly different attitude there is towards animals in Greece. Whereas here in the U.S. we make attempts to capture and domesticate stray animals (or at the very least maintain feral cat colonies), in Greece it is considered perfectly normal and acceptable for stray cats and dogs to roam the streets and countryside as they see fit. As it turns out, these animals are cared for by the locals and seem to be well-fed and happy. We didn't think they were suffering in any way, but of course wanted to take them all home and give them love! We decided that if we moved to Greece, between the two of us and what animal suckers we are, we'd have to have a whole farm full of adopted semi-stray animals :)
There were large stray dogs everywhere. EVERYWHERE! This was just ouside of the entrance to the Acropolis. They looked happy, though! Just look at that guy.
We felt even more badly for the donkeys on Santorini. They carry people up those 500+ stairs between the old port and Fira all day long. I would have loved to ride one, but felt too bad about making one carry my butt up the mountainside!
A stray dog and her puppy in Vourvoulos (where we stayed) on Santorini. We tried to give them crackers from our hotel room and they didn't want them, so they weren't hungry by any means! But when I say there are stray dogs everywhere, I mean it...
I fell in love with this teeny tiny kitten that lived at our hotel on Santorini. One morning she even came into our hotel room and fell asleep on our couch. Until the hotel manager came looking for her and scolded her for being so forward, haha.
This kitty just came right up to us at dinner our last night on Santorini. Even after two weeks, we still couldn't get over how many animals were just chillaxing everywhere!
This was probably my favorite animal sighting of the whole trip. We were driving to Epidaurus to see the theater and got stuck behind an old truck full of chickens. We just turned to each other and were like, "I guess we're really not in New York anymore!" It was very funny.
We were also surprised that we hardly saw any wildlife the whole time we were there (besides cats and dogs, of course!), because we spent a lot of time in rural areas and driving through the countryside and never saw so much as a deer or a raccoon or anything! Do they have those in Greece? I don't know, but we sure didn't see anything!
Do you get excited by the animals you run across in your travels?
If you're following along, the Star honeymoon recaps are:
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