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Exploring Naxos, Greece: The Cats of the Old Town

Four months ago, I went to Naxos, Greece, with my parents and Emilia. It has taken me that long to share photos. Life is busy. I’m also pregnant, and was in the midst of the morning sickness phase when we travelled, so mostly stuck to exploring the Old Town not far from where we stayed in Hotel Grotta. It didn’t disappoint.

As with most trips to Greece, I came home with a memory card full of photos – a significant proportion of which were of cats.

Walk through the Old Town, and you’ll see them stretched out in patches of sun, creeping along crumbling walls, pouncing and playing, eating food left out for them by kind locals.

Some of the cats have homes. Others are wild, stray animals. There are organisations working to sterilise them to help control the breeding, and looking after them as much as possible. We met one woman who is involved in these efforts and says that cats with clipped ears have been sterilised.

Everywhere I walked, I spotted cats: sleeping in doorways, pawing through rubbish, watching the world go by, having standoffs with other cats, licking their fur.

Some meowed and followed after me hoping for food, until I came to the edge of their territory. Others paid me no attention whatsoever.

The only other places I’ve seen such a high concentration of cats have been in other parts of Greece, in certain areas of Spain, and many years ago, around the streets of Rome.

I’ve put two of my favourite Naxian cat photos up on Etsy if anyone loves these four-legged felines as much as I do. (Print 1, Print 2)

Hope you enjoyed the cat photos. I have a few interviews in my inbox to set up here, so hopefully it won’t be months again before my next post!

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    Exploring Naxos, Greece: The Old Town - Little Observationist
    July 14, 2020 at 1:59 pm

    […] watched stray cats with clipped ears darting across the pathways (which deserved a post of their own), lifted Emilia’s stroller up and down many steps that led us along white walls dripping with […]

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