This September the 27th Paul is he is taking part in the Spartathalon, running from Athens to Sparta, which is just a mere 152 Miles!! 246 km!! - to give you an idea that is roughly the distance from London to Wales! Which is an epic distance especially in the Greek heat! Paul is very excited to be running the Spartathalon with the British Team, a proud achievement at 51! He starts the race at the Acropolis in Athens and ends at the statue of Leonidas in Sparta. Most people who know Paul know that he is passionate about his running, what many do not know is like me he has a fondness for cats!

So combining the two passions Paul is going to be running the Spartathalon to raise money for Nine Lives Greece which is a cat rescue based in Athens, follows is the story as to why we want to help them in-particularly:

This is the story of our cats - We started with our 2 Scottish Fold cats, Orry and Melza who are fluffy, privileged and adored, then followed dear little Dima in January, he had a sad start to his life, found at 2 days old with his 3 siblings at a busy wholesale market after his poor mother was killed by dogs shortly after giving birth, sadly his siblings passed away one by one, only Dima survived, after the vets he was fostered by Cordelia who along with her team runs Nine Lives, he could not have been more loved, her love for him was contagious and we are now lucky enough to have the sweetest, funniest clever little cat. Now that I was following the Nine lives page I discovered Touby, another cat with a sad story, she was happily living in a shop until her owner died she then finds herself on the streets to fend for herself, she is a very friendly cat who craved human company, many people did not appreciate her friendliness and would kick or throw things at her, making it dangerous to remain on the streets. She was rescued by Nine Lives, then we saw her story, not so many people want a five year old cat, but she was so full of love and such a friendly girl we couldn’t resist her.

I would often see the pictures of various kittens rescued but when Cordelia sent me a pic of a dear little kitten she had seen at the vet, I knew she was for us, the little blue/grey kitten had infected eyes and was surely blind in one if not both, then followed a pic of her brother a cute grey and white boy who Paul fell in love with. There were 3 kittens and their Mum found and taken to the vets as were vulnerable, the infection the little girl who we have called Aphaea has in her eyes is very common and could so easily be avoided as spread by the constant breeding and disease they pick up, neutering would avoid this suffering. Aphaea has had an operation now to remove one of her eyes as she had a painful abscess behind it, she currently has stitches but dashes around as any normal kitten. We are excited to say that soon, in October her and the little boy, currently known as Apollo will be coming to join our crew. (Yes we are mad!)

Along with gaining our dear little cats I have also made a lovely friend in Cordelia who I have huge admiration for, she and her team work tirelessly in the seemily never ending job of rescuing kittens and cats in need , neutering, raising awareness and helping the ill and injured cats along with feeding the many colonies in Athens and rehoming where they can.

Until meeting Cordelia I had no idea of the huge number of cats there are in Athens or that many of the females are having 4 litters of kittens a year, many just babies themselves.

Thank you so much for reading this, please check out Nine Lives page, it is updated daily with the stories of the lovely cats they help. https://www.ninelivesgreece.com

Any donation would be hugely appreciated and would make a massive difference to the help that can be given to the vulnerable cats, anything raised goes directly back to helping them.

I am travelling to Athens with Paul and will do updates from there to share the stories and updates for the epic race and any cats we meet along the way!

If you would like to follow the race or see more about it here is the link - https://www.spartathlon.gr/en/