In May 2017, Lydia Ellery couldn’t wait to visit the Greek island of Zakynthos (also known as Zante). She had never been to Greece before, and she intended to take advantage of the sunny Mediterranean climate while she was there to unwind and get away from the gloomy weather in her native London.
Ellery intended to return home with a tan, but she really brought back a lot more.
While taking in the island’s quiet coves, rocky cliffsides and charming village tavernas, Ellery couldn’t help but notice the animals. Countless stray cats roamed the streets, congregating at her hotel, begging for scraps of food.
“It was pretty sad — they all looked in a bad way with wounds on their skin and covered in fleas and ticks,” Ellery told The Dodo. “It was one of those, ‘I wish I could save you all!’ situations.”
Ellery, a lifelong animal enthusiast, started using her all-inclusive meal plan to feed the scrawniest of the stray cats since she felt she couldn’t see the kittens suffer. As a visitor, she felt helpless to intervene in the cats’ suffering, but this sense of helplessness would soon change.
One day at noon, a fellow traveler approached Ellery while he was feeding the cats. The woman stated that a kitty in the trash that might need some table scraps was tucked away.
The woman had been giving the kitten food, but as her vacation was drawing to an end, she was concerned that the cat wouldn’t survive for very long.
When Ellery approached the front of the building, where guests rarely went, a kitten, barely the size of her hand, emerged from the hotel’s garbage pile.
She could have been just a few weeks old. She was residing in an area where hotel trash bags were stacked high, which was obviously highly unsanitary, filthy, and unsafe, according to Ellery. She would have been crushed if the garbage van had scooped up every trash bag that contained her.
Ellery began visiting the garbage pile twice a day, in the morning and evening, and noticed over the course of the week that the flea-ridden kitten was always on her own. “I would sneak out fish to feed her from the hotel and she would eat it like she’d never seen food before,” Ellery said.
“Every time I came out she would run to my feet and sit by me — we became proper little mates.”
In an effort to not get too attached, she started calling the scrappy kitten Geoffrey after the unpopular “Game of Thrones” character.
Ellery started to worry for the welfare of her young pal as the day for her departure for the UK drew near. Despite her best attempts, she found it difficult to leave Geoffrey behind since she had become close to him.
According to what Ellery had read, a significant number of stray animals suffer to death during the winter months since there are no tourists to provide them with food.
After forging such a close relationship with her, “I couldn’t handle the notion of that happening to her!” Ellery changed the kitten’s name to Aggie after one of her favorite authors, Agatha Christie, after learning that it was a girl.
Ellery knew she couldn’t get on a plane without securing Aggie’s safety, but it proved more difficult than she imagined. Every rescue organization on Zante was already overstretched with strays in need, Ellery said, leaving no space for Aggie. But just as time was about to run out, one unlikely organization came through — Zante Strays, which deals primarily with dogs.
On her final day, Ellery said, “a nice woman came and scooped her up from the dumpsters and put her to a foster home.” There, she got a warm bed to call her own and was given a healthy diet, flea treatment, and deworming.
Ellery couldn’t quit worrying about the small kitten even after she was now safe. Despite their separation, she was confident that Aggie and her were destined to be together. Ellery then made the choice to adopt her.
Aggie eventually touched down on the borders of a new nation after receiving a pet passport, multiple vaccines, and a two-day boat ride.
Over the course of a year, the scrawny tortoiseshell kitten has become a healthy, happy cat under Ellery’s care. She loves to cuddle with her mom and spend time in the garden chasing (but never catching) butterflies and birds. When she comes inside, she will always bring her mom a fallen feather.
“Aggie radically increases the fun in life. She’s eccentric, independent, and adds so much presence to our lives,” said Ellery. Even though I miss being able to have supper alone, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Aggie has easily adjusted to her new life in England, even the temperature, having left her past behind.
