Lydia Ellery couldn’t wait for her trip to the Greek island of Zakynthos sometimes called Zante in May 2017. She had never been to Greece before, and planned to spend her time relaxing at the resort and soaking up the Mediterranean sun while escaping the rainy weather of her native London.
Ellery’s goal was to come home with a tan — but she ended up bringing back so much 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.”
She began referring to the scrawny kitten as Geoffrey in an effort to avoid developing an overly strong attachment. 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.
Despite knowing she had to ensure Aggie’s safety before boarding an aircraft, Ellery found it to be more challenging than she had anticipated. Ellery said that there was no room for Aggie since every rescue agency on Zante was already overburdened with stray animals in need. However, just as time was about to expire, a strange group, Zante Strays, which mostly deals with dogs, came through.
“A beautiful woman came and picked her up from the dumpsters and put her to a foster home on my last day there,” Ellery said. “There she had a comfortable bed to call her own, was fed well, and had been flead and wormed.”
Even though the small cat was now safe from harm, Ellery couldn’t help but worry about her often. Despite their geographical separation, she was confident that she and Aggie were meant to be. Ellery made the decision to adopt her.
Aggie eventually reached the borders of a new nation following the acquisition of a pet passport, multiple shots, and a two-day boat trip.
