Having a pet is no easy job. Cypriots have grown to love animals over the years. We still have a long way to go but we are not as bad as they make us out to be. MARIA SOCRATOUS finds out for herself
Irresistible puppy
FLUFFY is a black and white peki-a-poo, a cross between a poodle and a Pekingese whose owner is a young girl of 8. “I have always wanted a pet. We tried having a hamster but my mother killed it, accidentally, by poisonous fumes. She used a window cleaner on the French window near his cage and the poor thing died. By the time I came back from school she had replaced it with an almost identical one. But I could tell the difference, this one was not as energetic as the other one. He also had a liking to the kitchen wooden units. One night I came down to get some water and I saw him running loose in the kitchen. After a few more escapes and a number of holes in the kitchen units my mum gave it back to the pet shop. I think she was more than happy to see the back of it,” Katerina said.
“I kept pestering my mum for a new pet nonetheless. The pet shop was on our daily route to and from school and one day I begged her to stop and pay a visit to our wayward hamster. In a confined area there was this little fluffy ball and as I was peering down to see what it was, it jumped on me. It was the cutest puppy I had ever seen. Two weeks after that first encounter and that puppy was mine.”
Fluffy is no longer as fluffy as he used to be but is a clever, friendly dog that loves to be caressed and taken out for long walks. By the time he was house trained it nearly drove Katerina’s mum to a nervous breakdown. “He is part of the family now, it’s like having another child and a mischievous one at that. But it’s rather hard leaving him behind when we go away for the weekend or abroad.
“Last Easter, he was a few weeks old, a tiny puppy in need of love and care; we couldn’t bare the idea of putting him into the kennels, so he came along to the hotel with us. This time round I think it will be a lot harder to keep him a secret,” Katerina’s mum said. “The dog is the king of the place as he roams around all rooms and the garden freely. The only restrictions imposed on him are the beds and sofas. He is not allowed to chill on either. During the winter months he prefers sleeping in, crashing on Katerina’s small bedside carpets or on anywhere he fancies.
“Sometimes, he sleeps on the carpet on the porch guarding the house and the family. It’s so sweet when he does that or when he barks at strangers coming close to the house. You feel safe having him around, even though he is so small in size. It was worth going through the havoc period when I see the joy it has brought into Katerina’s life. They are inseparable now,” her mum said.
Farmyard substitute
The Williamsons, a family of six, were used to having many animals in their back yard. The menagerie of animals included rabbits and ducks running along with chickens, different breeds of pigeons and other feathered friends. Mozart was the pedigree St Bernard dog the children loved.
“When we moved from the country to a town house they all had to go; the children were devastated but we now have Jasper to make up for their loss,” Karen said. Jasper is a cute Labrador puppy of a few weeks that creates havoc in the household. “I need to take him for training before he drives everyone mad,” she added.
Jasper has a liking for slippers and runs after anyone wearing them. Many destroyed pairs lie on a pile in a kitchen corner. “Dogs are like babies, you have to set boundaries. They have to be disciplined for their own good. He knows which rooms he is allowed to enter; but he is quite cheeky and sometimes he sneaks into the one room he is not allowed and he has a triumphant look on his face.”
Another vice of Jasper’s is his liking for human food instead of dog food. “It’s my husband’s fault. The poor dog was given a taste of our food and from then onwards when ever the family sits down to dinner he is there waiting.”
Fear factor
For the Nicolaou family the idea of a pet dog was not unanimous. Two members wanted to have a dog but one adamantly refused. Finally they reached a compromise. “The dogs – we now have two – stay out in the garden and are not allowed to come in at any time. I have a phobia of dogs; I don’t like having them near me, licking my hand or jumping on me.
“Over the years I have overcome my initial fear and I can go near them and sometimes caress them. But that’s as far as it goes. My husband takes care of them, their feeding times, their vet visits and all that. I have to admit though, that I enjoy it when I sometimes join my husband and the dogs on their run in the fields.
“When our daughter was young we used to take the dogs with us when we went camping to the beach ,” Georgia said. The two female collies have an area of the garden fenced off for their own use only. Twice a day they are taken out for a long run in the nearby fields. “The two dogs are mother and daughter. When Sandy gave birth to three beautiful puppies we decided to keep one and gave the other two to people we knew they loved animals.”
