Here’s another one of my good buddies.  His name is Zoukia, he is about 10 months old and he is from Greece.  He has only been in the UK for a couple of months so his English is not that brilliant.  He was rescued as a kitten from the streets in Thessaloniki after he was found very skinny and dragging his paw around.  Sadly, there are many stray cats living on the streets in Greece who face great hardship and suffering, often at the hands of humans.  So some of the locals, with support from kind people in the UK and around the world, have invested time, money and effort into building shelters, caring for poorly and injured animals, trapping and neutering strays, and educating the people about animal welfare and humane and effective ways to deal with stray cat populations.

Anyway, Zouks had obviously been in a car accident which left his front right paw paralysed, so he was taken into care.  Unfortunately he did not receive any treatment to his paw, but at least he was off the streets.  Eventually he was flown to England and adopted by someone in this country and many thanks to the Greek Cat Welfare Society who paid for his trip and his veterinary treatment.  His broken paw was amputated but it has not stopped him from living a full life.  He is now one of the most mischievous cats I know!

He loves to run down the garden, leaping into the hair to catch butterflies.  He always misses because he’s not fast enough, it pathetic!  I could catch butterflies if I wanted to, I just don’t like to get all sweaty so I tend not to bother.  If he sees one of the other cats he lives with, he’ll gallop towards them, and either bound into the air like a spring lamb and land on top of them, or he’ll charge towards them and stop at the last second, an inch away.  You should see their faces!  If looks could kill.  Here’s me laughing, but its not so funny when it happens to me.  The cheeky rascal had the audacity to sit in front of me the other day, staring, then he crouched down, wiggling his back-side, hopped up towards me and started batting me across the noggin with his only paw.  Messed my fur right up!