November 14, 2008

St. Theresa of the Dogs

I went to Evangelismos metro Station today to look at an apartment.
Mr. Sotiris Mousouris* who showed the apartment was a former assistant
secretary general of the United Nations. He is retired now, but heads several
major volunteer organizations to help people in Greece and in Africa lead better
lives. He was very pleasant and gave me a drink of water and chocolate. His apartment and the one he
showed had great views of Lycabettus Hill and the Parthenon.

I left and went into the Metro Station where a large dog was resting in the lobby.
A male Metro employee told his underling to get the dog out which she tried to do with a push broom.
She wasn’t having much luck, and a pretty British/Greek young woman turned to me and said how much it upset her, the way dogs were treated in Greece, often turned out and left to fend for themselves, never mind spaying/neutering in this macho country! One of us suggested that food might help to get him out of the station, and I offered to go with her to get it. We walked several blocks to a fast food shop, and she ordered two burgers with cheese on a long bun and a bottle of water. She told me that her name is Deborah and she is from the UK and works in the British Embassy. Her mother is Greek, so she grew up speaking Greek. She and her family love animals, and they have property on the beautiful island of Hydra where they either have 10 dogs and 20 cats or 20 dogs and 10 cats that they have found abandoned and/or hurt and that they want to rescue. She said that she feeds the animals in her neighborhood every day. Her parents call her the St. Theresa of dogs since she is always bringing them home. She also said that my husband and I could come and stay in one of the bungalows they are building on Hydra! Very generous!

Back at the Metro we were unable to find the dog, but we did find the woman with the broom and asked her. At this point the dog had gone down about 45 steps to the bottom of the station near the tracks. Now several workers were trying to get the dog up as they feared he was in danger being so close to the train. They used a sort of shepherd’s loop/hook and continued to shove, at least gently, with the broom. Deborah tried the double cheeseburger, but he wasn’t interested.

At least the workers at the Metro Station are not completely heartess. Unfortunately there don’t seem to be dog shelters or people to come and get stray dogs. The previous night I had watched two dogs barking and running out into a four lane busy road near the hotel. They did this repeatedly with no sense of watching out for cars. I spoke to some policemen at a nearby police station. They said that the dogs were barking at the cars, and that they did that every night, and there was nothing they or anyone else was going to do about it.

Back to the Metro Pooch, they finally led him out with the
Shepherd’s hook. I think he took the elevator! As I left, a
poodle came walking through the upstairs part of the Metro.
It is endless, the parade of homeless animals and very tragic.


* Sotiris Mousouris
Sotiris Mousouris (1936- ) served as assistant secretary-general heading such UN departments as the Centre against Apartheid, Political Affairs, Secretariat Services for Economic and Social Matters, and the Office of the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Pakistan (1982-1995). He joined the UN in 1966 as an economist working in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and as assistant director at the Centre on Transnational Corporations, which he helped establish. Born in Greece, he studied at the University of Athens and at the Harvard Business School. Since retirement from the UN, he was appointed president of the Organization for the Construction of the New Museum of Acropolis and as special envoy of the Greek Foreign Minister. He currently is president of the Greek African Chamber of Commerce and Development.