# Urgent help/advice needed with dogs in Athens. Please spare a minute to read



## LauraW (Mar 13, 2011)

Hi all,
I am an English girl who moved to Athens in February for work reasons. I have been living in company-provided accomodation until recently with 2 other English girls, colleagues, who also moved here at the same time. 
We found a stray dog living at the bottom of our garden when we came, and rather than kick it out, we decided to let it stay in the garden and feed it. Unfortunately and unbeknown to us, she was pregnant, and gave birth to 4 puppies shortly after. We didnt know what to do, and certainly didnt want to kick them out on the street, so we did our best to try and find them a good home. We did actually manage to rehome 2 of the puppies at a lovely farm in the Pelleponese, but sadly the other 2 puppies and the mother were not so lucky and we couldnt find anyone who wanted them. 
There didnt seem to be such an urgency at the time as we were happy to carry on feeding them as they are such lovely, affectionate dogs, and we had planned to stay in that house. 
Unfortunately, last week, our house was repossessed by the bank as the owner had not made the payments, so we all had to leave. We have now been put in small high rise apartments and are unable to take the dogs. We are absolutely devastated and have tried everything to get around it, but there is nothing we can do to keep them, and we are not in a position financially to get our own accomodation.
We have spent days driving around so called animal shelters, only to be turned away in tears (It seems most are over-run already). We dont speak Greek, and are coming to a dead end in our mission to try and find these dogs somewhere to live.
At the moment we have had to leave the dogs on a nearby piece of wasteland and we are going back everyday to feed them and give them water. This is not a long- term solution as the puppies who are now 5 months are not at all streetwise, and we worry that they will not survive. (especially with the local habit of leaving poison down for strays)
My question is (and I thank you if you are still reading at this point), does anybody please please know of any person or organisation that can help us find somewhere for the dogs to live? 
We are absolutely desperate and feel responsible for making sure that these beautiful, innocent dogs find somewhere to live.
If anybody can help, please please let me know,
Many thanks in advance and thank you for taking the time to read my plea


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## The Grocer (May 30, 2010)

Hi there,
Have a look at

Greek Animal Rescue - Working to alleviate the suffering of animals in Greece

and

Athens Canine Rescue Home Page

Hopefully they may offer some help......


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## mrsDayLewis (Nov 18, 2008)

Hi laura!

Im a volunteer with one of the major shelters, and the problem is that you have these dogs and they are not abandoned (yet). Each shelter deals with dogs from that specific area... not Athens wide.
Many dogs are re/homed to new owners outside of Greece... within EU a dog can travel in a crate for about 50e with most airlines. lane: There are specifications of course .. micro chipping, dog passport etc etc, but we have sent dogs to UK, Canada, South America etc. So, my advice to you would be to ask outside of Greece, ask your parents or family members back home to sponsor a dog or similar.
Also, make out fliers which you can take to the Embassies.. Brit, Canadian, Finnish etc.

Let me know if you need more help.


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## LauraW (Mar 13, 2011)

Thank you for the advice. We have alreday tried GAR, and considered rehoming them outside of Greece, but the problem is that the puppies are only 5 months old and we have been told that they must be at least 10 months old to start this process of vaccinations etc for them to travel abroad.
We are more than happy to sponser them ourselves, wherever they go, but I think unfortunately they are too young right now.
Another suggestion made to me, was to advertise them on a website like aggeliopolis for a new home, but I have struggled with the Greek, so I may have to ask for assisstance from a Greek speaker.
Thank you for advice so far, I appreciate your suggestions


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## panos1313 (Aug 31, 2011)

Sad as it may sound, i believe a viable way for a shelter to _MAYBE_ accept the dogs, is to abandon the dogs outside the shelter during night or something.

Giving the puppies away via ads on aggeliopolis and 1-2 more relevant sites is also a solid option. I could help with translating in greek and even putting up the ads, but you'd have to handle the phonecalls and just hope the interested party speaks english (whish shouldnt be a problem as most people under 35 or so do speak english)


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## mrsDayLewis (Nov 18, 2008)

LauraW said:


> Thank you for the advice. We have alreday tried GAR, and considered rehoming them outside of Greece, but the problem is that the puppies are only 5 months old and we have been told that they must be at least 10 months old to start this process of vaccinations etc for them to travel abroad.
> We are more than happy to sponser them ourselves, wherever they go, but I think unfortunately they are too young right now.
> Another suggestion made to me, was to advertise them on a website like aggeliopolis for a new home, but I have struggled with the Greek, so I may have to ask for assisstance from a Greek speaker.
> Thank you for advice so far, I appreciate your suggestions


Your information about the dogs needing to be older is false! I took a dog aged 4½ months from Greece, via Latvia, to Finland - it was in fact easier than having an adult dog because after 6 months of age (or there abouts) the criteria for innoculations etc changes. Also, the criteria for dogs from EU going to other EU countries is different from going to outside EU. Most airlines will not accept puppies under 12 weeks too.
Each country has their own specifications, which can change annually. Embassies can also give good advice regarding animals accepted by their nation.


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

yeah I'm with mrsdaylewis on this one. a friend of mine took a stray puppy from Greece to Italy with no problems. In fact she had the entire thing arranged in one day - a Sunday no less - by banging on the door of a vet's house until she opened up and did the passport. I have no idea if the vaccines were actually given or just stamped as given. But the point is that it's been done.


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## lindavdriet (Nov 14, 2010)

if you are on FACEBOOK you could post their story there with some photos, I had 2 handicapped dogs adopted through Facebook to Canada and Germany.
Try and contact the organisation PET FOOD BANK IN GREECE on facebook, they might help you.

Good lucK!


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