I was in Volos waiting for my friend Elyse to arrive via rental car when Niko called me. Niko doesn’t call very often, but when he does, I know that it is because he needs help with a dog.
The last time he called, we ended-up with a stray 70-pound male dog with multiple ailments. Niko told me that Eremos desperately needed housing so his medical conditions could be treated. These included daily antibiotics for an internal infection, and an external application of foam shampoo every-other-day, due to a fungal infection. I agreed under the condition that once the 30-day antibiotic treatment was over, we would be done with the foster situation. My cardinal rule is that I am only willing to foster dogs that are on their way to their forever home, so there is no chance of me keeping them forever even if I fall in love. Niko was asking me to break my cardinal rule.
It was January when Eremos arrived, and although it is Greece, it still gets chilly. I made an outdoor bed from a rubber mat and a warm quilt under our back porch. Eremos immediately destroyed the quilt. He also ate the bamboo fence, aggravated Molly and Lada with his goofy personality, and turned out to be aggressive when behind our fence. Out on walks he was fine meeting strangers, but when people walked by, he became ferocious. After the 30-day period, I called Nikos and reminded him of our agreement. He said that we could bring Eremos to the already very over-crowded shelter. Although I was relieved to see Eremos go, I cried when he left because the uncertainty of his future.
When Elyse finally arrived in Volos, I told her that we needed to stop by the Koropi vet’s office to meet a dog. Elyse replied, “of course we do.” Elyse and I have been friends since Bulgaria so she is very much aware of the Thompson family’s relationship with stray dogs. Before I agreed to break my cardinal rule once again, I told Niko that I needed to meet the dog first. This was to ensure that the dog wouldn’t bother Molly and Lada. Unfortunately, Molly has had a setback with her Leishmania and hasn’t been feeling so great, which includes having open wounds on the tips of her ears that don’t heal—she needs special attention and medical care.
Elyse and I arrived at the vet office and met Cookie, a bashful 25-pound male dog living in a cage. The name comes from his coloring, which someone thought resembled that of a chocolate chip cookie. Cookie was brought to the vet on Jan. 4 with a crushed paw. The Greek vet did her best to heal the paw so it wouldn’t need amputation. Once the paw was “healed” she didn’t have the heart to put Cookie back on the street, so she kept him in a small cage in her office. He was only out of the cage around 30 minutes each day. He hadn’t learned to relieve himself outside, so his cage was stinky, and so was he. Poor Cookie.
It took a couple minutes to get Cookie out of his cage since that is all he knew for three months. Once we got him outside, he brightened-up and became curious. His sweetness was immediately obvious, as was the need to find him a new living situation. So much for cardinal rules. I called Niko and told him we’d foster him. There was no way that we were going to bring him home in the rental car since he was smelly, so Niko agreed to bring him to the house the next day.
Immediately Cookie became a part of the family. The first night, I cleared everything out of the bathroom and scrubbed him for over an hour. Once I let him out he immediately ran to the nearest corner and took a big poo! Fortunately that was the one and only time he had an accident in the house. Once we started taking him on our long walks, twice a day, he immediately learned proper toilet habits. Cookie still likes to sleep in a crate at night which is a big relief. He happily snuggles-up every evening and stays there until morning when he starts to whine a bit. When I open the door, he looks-up with his sweet brown eyes, requesting belly rubs before he skitters outside to explore the yard. Sometimes, if it is still early, he’ll ask to come back inside the house to sleep a bit more in his crate.
During the day, he likes to play with Lada, explore the yard, and lay quietly on a rug in front of the door. Cookie is amazingly well adjusted, especially considering all he’s been through. His paw is a bit deformed, but it doesn’t seem to bother him much. He can’t quite keep up with Lada when she runs, but overall he has adapted. In the next couple weeks we will take him to an animal orthopedic surgeon to see if anything needs to be done to ensure his paw won’t be an issue as he gets older. He is less than a year old.
Although we love Cookie dearly, he needs a forever home. We have our hands full with Lada and Molly, plus I like to have the capacity to foster dogs when needed. Cookie is the most perfect dog I’ve ever met—and that is saying something. If you know of someone who is looking for a sweet friend, please pass along this story. We can deliver him anywhere in Europe, and he can accompany us when we return to the US later in the year.
You are one amazing lady. So proud that you have so much love and compassion. You have always been an inspiration for many. I love you my daughter. Your awesome. 💕
BRAVO - BRAVO - BRAVO! Love the fantastic picture of the three dogs - how about a coffee top table book of dogs? If there is a doggie heaven you both will be invited - for sure.