HydraArk Stories

Amazing Adventures of Nidderdale’s Spartacus

A team of Hydra cat lovers pulls an all-nighter to rescue an Hydriot kitty lost at the Athens International Airport. [read more]

Thank You, Mary Gladstone!

We wish to thank Mary Gladstone for her wonderful donation of a special painting, which was sold for the benefit of the HydraArk during her recent show at the Melina Mercouri Exhibition Hall.

The proceeds from the sale of the painting will allow HydraArk to continue it’s work helping the animals of the island. Mary, we and all the animals of Hydra thank you for making a difference.

Three’s Company

This May one of our volunteers was notified of three openings for spring kittens in a sponsor’s garden. As nature abhors a vacuum, the next morning, Heidi found an orphaned kitten, now called Paloma, wailing outside her hotel room. One slot filled.

The next day, Popi, who hosted this May’s GAWF neutering session, found a six-week-old orphan just down from her house, but she already has three or four kittens living at home, and another 60 or so cats to feed. So, slot two filled.

On the third day, a little grey muchkin (see above photo)— he’s probably four or five weeks old—found his way to the GAWF clinic at Popi’s way up on the mountain. So, now three happy kittens are keeping each other and two turtles company as they grow healthier and stronger over the summer..

Little Alice

Alice, a sweet three-month-old girl, was found an orphan when she was much tinier than in the picture. For several months, she received a lot of love and attention from some of HA’s volunteers, who managed to have her accept reconstituted milk for kittens as well as solid food. She really wanted to make it! And soon she had a nice round tummy.

Carol from GAWF found her healthy and strong. After an adventurous trip from Hydra to Athens (she had never been on a Dolphin in her life …) she was taken by pet taxi (in the picture) to Lucille in Lagonissi. We can’t thank her enough for everything she is doing to help our kitties. Lucille found her the home she deserved: last Sunday, Alice was officially adopted by a nice family who is going to give her all the care and love she could ask for. We will miss Alice on Hydra, but we are happy for her, and we wish her a beautiful life!

Midge

Here is the proof that a sad story can end happily. When Katherine and her husband found Midge (they called him “Gremlin”) at the harbor one night, he was soaking wet and just skin and bones. They to him back to their apartment and fed him as much as he could eat, which was a lot! After three days, he looked much better and grew quite lively.

However, the landlord objected to having him in the apartment, so they were forced to take Midge to Takis’s Park and leave him there. They came back to feed him two times, but he had disappeared. They left Hydra not knowing what happened to him.

Katherine and her husband were overjoyed to learn a year later that an HA volunteer found Midge in Takis’s Park. He went to live in a sponsor’s garden but contracted a nearly fatal flu. Through a team effort over the winter, especially on the part of Valerie, we restored him to health. Midge is now a happy house kitty living in a warm and loving home on Hydra.

From Silvana Bozzolini, June 2009

I love all animals and cats in particular. They are so clever, they have beautiful souls and sometime act like humans. A few years ago, on Hydra, I saw a poor hungry kitty. She was not far from a pebble beach, where also other cats had gathered. From my place to the beach it was a long walk, but I could not help bring some food to the sweet that appeared to me very thin and in bad health conditions. She was the first cat who came to me with a weep eye and hoarse voice.  In the evening I was chatting with the owner of a shop, when the lady just warned me that right behind me, a tiny white cat was looking for me. It was the same cute girl that managed to find me!!! I still wonder how she had been able to cover all that distance and show up next to me! She was more or less 3 months old. To make a long story short, I named her ‘Naki’ and adopted her without hesitation. Now she weighs 6 kilos and she is the queen of the home.

When she was a kitten she had a little black spot on her back, which eventually turned into a heart….Curiously, sometime before meeting Naki, I had created on my mother’s grave a heart made of blossomed plants. My mother had never really loved animals during her life. I interpreted the appearance of the heart on Naki’s back as a sign of reconciliation between my mother and my little friends.