Earthquake Puppy gets a kiss from volunteer flight partner Wilma upon arrival in Amsterdam.
Photo: Courtesy Gaia Dogs

by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris ~

One dedicated animal rescuer working alone can accomplish a lot. But how about several genuine animal lovers working together? Well, the sky’s the limit for dreams coming true, as proven by this recent example of international teamwork to save a sweet, beautiful but wretchedly mistreated, disabled mother and her pups.

Chained, starving, broken, and pregnant

Rhea was injured, starving, pregnant, and tied up to an old dune buggy till Peter Lee rescued her.
Photo: Peter Lee

On the Greek island of Kefalonia, just before the earthquakes hit last January, animal rescuer Peter Lee found a terrified young setter tethered to an old dune buggy with no water, food, or even shade. She was emaciated. She had a long-since broken leg that had reset itself at an odd angle. Plus, Lee soon discovered, she was very pregnant.

Lee unchained her, loaded her in his truck, found her a temporary home with kind-hearted Kefalonian Anta Papadatou, and made an appeal on his Facebook page. Could anyone help with the costs and re-homing of this lovely girl and her pups soon to arrive?

Here at RescueDiva.com, our hearts are mush for all animals, but the abused mamas and mamas-to-be among them get to us a little bit extra. An abused mama-to-be with a disability? Awfully hard to turn away.

The desperate mom’s puppies were born into loving hands.
Photo: Anta Papadatou and Peter Lee

The primary purpose of Rescue Diva is to sell our home-made romantic fiction stories and use proceeds for emergency cases exactly like that of the needy setter, as well as to donate to small, in-the-trenches rescue groups, with a focus on spay/neuter efforts.

So right away we answered Lee’s plea, pledging to cover all of the little family’s expenses including boarding, veterinary care, documents, and travel costs, and also to arrange for loving forever homes.

It is with great joy that we announce that we have fulfilled our pledge.

Hurdles along the way

As the pups grew amidst the frightening shakes and rumbles of the earthquakes, their mom had her paws full trying to care for them.
Photo: Anta Papadatou and Peter Lee

First off, because the setter had to bravely raise her brood during the swarm of tremors that shook the island for several weeks last winter and spring, we named her Rhea, in honor of the ancient Greek earth goddess, and dubbed her babies the Earthquake Puppies.

We held a fun contest wherein an anonymous supporter donated 50 euros to the local shelter Animal Rescue Kefalonia (ARK) for the privilege of choosing quake-themed names for the five furry kids—Quake, Geo, Jolt, Richter, and Seismo.

(The Earthquake Puppies never lived at ARK, but they wanted to share their bounty with the 350-plus dogs and cats who do live there, and who are valiantly cared for on a shoestring budget.)

In April, when Rhea demonstrated that her leg disability did not prevent her from jumping over Papadatou’s fence, we arranged to move her and her babies to paid boarding with Julia and Keith Preston in their safe, comfortable pet hotel on the island.

Rhea’s previous life of abuse and deprivation had left her wary of new situations.
Photo: Anta Papadatou and Peter Lee

The Prestons took the whole family to nearby vet Dr. Amanda Micheletti in the village of Sarlata to complete all their necessary examinations and vaccinations, a process that Lee and Papadatou had begun with Dr. Lefteris Psarros in the island’s main town, Argostoli.

Also, when mama Rhea regained her health and strength, they took her in to Dr. Micheletti to get her spayed.

They lavished gentle love on Rhea to help her get over the shyness and fear that remained in the wake of the abuse and neglect she had suffered at the hands of her previous owner.

Earthquake Puppy strolling in the garden at Keith and Julia Preston’s pet hotel with one of their resident dogs.
Photo: Julia and Keith Preston

“It must have been scary for her to be picked up from a familiar place, albeit tied up, then taken to a foster home for a short while, then on to us,” Julia Preston sympathized. “That’s a lot for a mum to contend with in a short time. And you never know what has happened to them before you get them. But at least her pups have only known good treatment.”

Along the way, the Prestons discovered that Rhea did not respond normally to sounds. Dr. Micheletti confirmed their suspicions. The pretty setter was deaf.

It’s enough of a challenge to re-home a dog with a crippled leg. Add in another disability like deafness, and the ante goes up. Would there be anyone open-hearted enough to adopt her?

International teamwork saves the day

Veteran animal rescuer/rehoming specialist Claudia Stellatou delivering Earthquake Puppies to the Kefalonia airport for their flight.
Photo: Pat Dolman

There are only 11 million residents in Greece—about a third of them apartment dwellers in Athens—and no more than 30,000 inhabitants on our little island of Kefalonia. We are far outstripped by the populations of unwanted dogs and cats. It can be nearly impossible to find responsible homes for them locally. So we often turn to rescue groups abroad for help.

Thus the effort to save Rhea and the Earthquake Pups went international.

Claudia Stellatou at Animal Rescue Kefalonia (ARK), where she volunteers to help hundreds of animals find new homes.

Claudia Stellatou, a veteran animal rescuer on the island and a member of the Austrian animal welfare group Tierfreunde Kefalonia kindly agreed to coordinate and oversee the adoptions and the travel of the little family.

With her usual ingenuity and tireless work, Stellatou liaised with Ingrid Kramer of Germany and Rineke van der Waal of Gaia Dogs in the Netherlands, who soon found adopters for Rhea and her pups.

Of Rhea’s adopters, Stellatou said, “This family will adopt Rhea in spite of her deafness and her crippled leg. They said they do not mind at all. How lucky Rhea is! I don’t know how Ingrid always finds such nice people. They already have two rescued dogs, so Rhea will have dogs to play with. The other good thing is that they live in a rural area with almost no traffic. However I recommended they not take Rhea for a walk without a leash as she wouldn’t hear them when they call her name. She only responds when she has eye contact with you.”

Flying off to dreamy new lives

Pat Dolman, head of Kefalonia Animal Trust (KATs), found time amidst her own packed schedule of fostering and fundraising to help Stellatou see the Earthquake Puppies off safely.
Photo: Claudia Stellatou

In late May, Stellatou arranged for Rhea’s puppies Quake, Richter, and Seismo to travel by airline to the Netherlands with volunteer flight escorts Sylvie, Dagmar, and Wilma, who had also served as volunteers at ARK. At the Amsterdam airport the Gaia Dogs team met the pups and took them to their new homes.

“They are so sweet that everybody at the airport fell in love with them,” Stellatou reported to us afterward.

A couple of weeks later mama Rhea departed with her volunteer flight escort Lisa to Munich. Another volunteer, Steffi, picked the dog up at the airport and fostered her until the next day, when her adopting mom drove 600 kilometers across Germany to pick up her new best friend.

Earthquake Puppies lovingly greeted upon arrival in Amsterdam.
Photo: Courtesy Gaia Dogs

This week, Pat Dolman, head of Kefalonia Animal Trust (KATs), helped Stellatou take the last two of Rhea’s pups, Geo and Jolt, to the local airport so that they could tag along to Germany with their flight escorts, a German couple visiting Kefalonia on holiday, who had kindly volunteered to help.

Stellatou says that Geo and Jolt might get to see their mom again soon, “because Ingrid re-homes ‘our’ dogs only within a certain distance from her so that it’s easier to make follow-up visits after the dogs are adopted.” Thus they won’t be living far from mama Rhea.

Rhea, now named Molly, enjoying a beach in the Netherlands with her new ‘siblings.’
Photo: Courtesy Ingrid Kramer

Stellatou added the following heartwarming note to this story… Volunteer Steffi’s schedule would have allowed her to take Rhea to her new home after just a few days of fostering, but the dog’s mom-to-be was too eager to wait. The adopter decided to schlepp the 1,200 kilometers round-trip herself so as to hold her new pooch in her arms all the sooner.

To those of us who’ve done many rescues and re-homings, such eagerness is one of the best possible signs of a loving adopter—a delightful dream come true.

Read more about Rhea and her pups:

Animal Heroes: Julia and Keith Preston’s contagious joy in the hard work of saving lives

Another Rescue Diva success story! Mandi (formerly Diamandi) was pregnant, sick, and alone on the streets of Kefalonia. Thanks to help from the fabulous group Graeske Hunde and the sponsorship of Spicy Stories Save Lives, she is now a Danish princess in the loving arms of adopter mommy Gitte Kit Cordsen and the rest of her devoted family.
Please help us save more like Rhea and Mandi. FOLLOW us (free!) and buy one of our romantic fiction stories. Thanks for caring!
Photo: Gitte Kit Cordsen

Earthquake Puppies: We’ve got new names!

DIVA DONATES! We at RescueDiva.com love making dreams come true, and are pleased to have donated nearly 2,000 euros for Rhea and the Earthquake Puppies, covering 100% of their expenses from day of rescue to day of adoption. 🙂

To create these happy endings, we depend on sales of our romantic fiction stories.

Please use a couple of bucks to enjoy a fun read, to spice up your life, and to replenish our rescue fund.

We, the animals, and our fellow rescuers will thank you kindly!

For more animal adventures please FOLLOW Rescue Diva by clicking the ‘FOLLOW’ button above. You’ll receive email notifications of our new articles and fiction stories. We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else. And it’s free!

Rescue Diva proudly sponsors needy animals in the U.S. and around the world.

For example we help Kefalonia Animal Trust (KATs) provide free spay/neuter for hundreds of animals per year, which is one of the best ways to prevent the abandonment and misery of puppies like Noah and Kyla. Please give to KATs via PayPal or bank transfer. Spay/neuter and education are the animals’ best hope for a better future.

Also please consider Animal Rescue Kefalonia (ARK), another group on the island who run a shelter  and work miracles with terribly few resources.

Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is a career journalist, author, and editor. Her fiction includes 17 novels for Simon and Schuster, E.P. Dutton, Avon, and other major publishers (under the name Kathryn Makris), as well as a teleplay for CBS-TV, and a short story for The Bark magazine. She has written hundreds of articles for regional wire services and for outlets such as National Geographic Traveler, The San Francisco Chronicle, Travelers’ Tales, NBC’s Petside.com, Animal Issues Reporter.com, and Examiner.com (Animal Policy Examiner).

Together with coauthor Shelley Frost, Katerina wrote a step-by-step guide for hands-on, in-the-trenches dog rescue, Your Adopted Dog: Everything You Need to Know About Rescuing and Caring for a Best Friend in Need (The Lyons Press).