Charlie is a LION!

Thank god, a great Vet (Dr Inna) and many, many prayers, Charlie Cat is home. A little under the weather definitely but home all the same. Poor little thing. He looks like he has been in the wars – and is hating being bathed morning and night to wash anything off his skin – but he is back where he belongs.

Dr Inna reckons hes as strong as a lion and the luckiest little cat she knows. He seems to have been sensible and kept still after the bite, stopping the venom moving quickly around his body and to his heart. I’m so very, very grateful to have been given him back, I cannot find words.

I must find some though, for “Snake George”, a wonderful Austrian man called Hans-Jorg Wiedl, whose life work is the care and conservation of nature. He has lived in cyprus since 1986 and is always there at the end of the phone for anyone who has a problem with a snake in or near their home. On Wednesday, he rushed to the home of our neighbour and expertly moved the viper away from the house and into a box. He’ll release it somewhere safe where it will live happily in its natural habitat. Most times, these rescues are done without any other animal getting hurt: Charlie was unfortunate and had probably annoyed the snake very much. Luckily, he’s lived to tell the tale.

Snake George does excellent work and is currently looking for new premises to work from but is finding it hard to find somewhere in Cyprus which the locals will accept as safe and from which he can work. I hope he finds somewhere soon.His free and enthusiastic caring service to the people on this island is invaluable – as is his care for nature.

I don’t like snakes but I’d rather an expert, like this wonderful man, had the job of dealing with them humanely rather than just killing them.

That said, if I see the big blighter who hurt my poor little cat, I’ll kill him!!

A final word for a friend of Tinas, our lovely accountant, who got rid of a snake from her car windscreen by turning on the wipers – and is now known as “Windscreen Viper”……