Greek stray cat's charm and loving personality compels British holiday couple to bring him home

Couple say a kitten "adopted them" after they found him meowing outside their hotel room in Greece. I say this sweet, Greek, stray, bicolour cat used his smarts and charm to compel the couple to adopt him 👍😎. That purr can be so persuasive.

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Toni Czogalik, 23, and her boyfriend were on holiday on the Greek island of Rhodes in October 2022. There was a thunderstorm outside. And there was a small, six-month-old black-and-white kitten outside their hotel room as well and he was meowing to be let in. He was soaked through.

It's probably pretty clear that the thunderstorm frighten the cat and he was looking for some comfort and used his charm and persistence to adopt this British holidaying couple. 

Toni said:

"One night on holiday there was a thunderstorm, and the kitten came to hotel door crying and soaking wet. We looked after him for the night and ever since then he kept coming back to our room and wouldn’t leave us alone. "

They named him Nermal and decided to adopt him. The video explains the difficulties of doing this and also the persistence and intelligence of Toni in achieving her goal. 

She had to go to a veterinarian to get Nermal micro-chipped and vaccinated. They bought a cat carrier from a local pet shop and an ID bag and some treats for the journey to the UK. 

Nermal was then flown from Rhodes to Athens and then he travelled by boat to Italy from where he was driven to the UK to be reunited with Toni. 

He arrived on November 8 and settled in well as you can see from the video. Toni explains the hurdles she encountered but she was aware of them:

"It was really difficult, the first few days I messaged every single charity in Greece that dealt with cats. We first took him to the vet to find out if he was healthy and microchipped. He wasn’t microchipped, so they said he was definitely a stray. The vet then gave him a microchip, rabies vaccination and a health passport, where I then began the process to have him flown over." 

The rescue cost £800 and it took four days in all. I'm not sure who drove him from Italy to the UK. It might have been her boyfriend. Perhaps they hired a car which must've added to the cost substantially. 

Toni and Nermal. Image: Toni and boyfriend.

Toni says that she loves looking after Nermal and she thanks all those who helped her to bring him back to the UK. She said: 

"We fell in love with him as he is the friendliest and most loving little kitten I have ever met. He is so cuddly; he wants to jump on and cuddle you all the time. We are so excited to spoil him and give him the best life in the UK. He is loving life; he is so spoiled. The volunteers were amazing - without them, we wouldn’t have been able to do it." 

It's the kind of task which is a bit daunting but when you fall in love with a stray cat there's nothing else you can do but take him home.

Young tabby cat appears to comfort his owner in a video

The news headline for this video is that a cat is trying to comfort their crying owner. I think this is a reference to the tear that you can see from the left eye of the cat's owner. Although, to be frank it is not clear that this man has been crying. 

Sometimes people shed tears for a range of reasons other than the emotional state of the person. Snoozing can lead to the production of tears as eyes can tear up when a person goes to sleep.

Although I will give the benefit of the doubt and say the guy is upset and his darling and charming cat is comforting him.

It is a charming video although I have seen many similar videos and I have personally experienced this kind of cat behaviour myself. I am sure many others have too.

The video comes from the Twitter account of Sander from the Netherlands. Although it is not clear that this is him or that he made the video.

The cat's caregiver is snoozing it seems to me, and his young tabby cat wants to cuddle up. His cat wants a bit of contact because cats like that sort of thing. Often you see cats who are friendly with each other lying next to each other.

And you often see cats touching their owner. They thrust their foreleg out and touch their owner on the face or hand. That is what we see here, and you'll see it happen all the time. It is a silent method of communication by a cat to their owner through their behaviour.

Mutual support between cat and person. Screenshot.

For example, my cat touches the edge of my duvet near my head when I am in bed her wants me to lift it up so that he can crawl underneath. Another example of communication through action rather than a vocalisation.

So, this young tabby cat wakes up his owner with a gentle touch by his right paw near his mouth and then he snuggles up. It is beautiful and it is what I would expect to see in a close relationship between person and cat.

Of course, it goes without saying that the relationship must be strong and the bond good. This is not the case in all households.

And, as mentioned, this is a young cat. I sense that this man might have raised this cat from a kitten. This enhances the bond between human and cat.

Sometimes kittens who've been raised by humans have their human caregiver imprinted on their mind as their feline parent. They genuinely believe that the person is the birth mother which as you can expect leads to a strong and lifelong bond.

Why should a cat want to lie on their human caregiver like this? Perhaps this is a silly question but perhaps not.

RELATED: 15 facts on cat bunting.

Cats like the smell of their owner through their body scent. They like to scent exchange which means they want the scent of their human caregiver on them, and they want to transfer their body scent onto their human caregiver. Emotionally speaking, this merges the two entities.

It is reassuring for a cat to do this, and I believe that domestic cats seek reassurance many times throughout the day. I believe that humans should be aware of the need to reassure their cat.

The human world can be a bit scary for a domestic cat who is a fraction of the size of a human. They live in an unnatural world to which they have adapted successfully.

Domestic cats are very alert and emotionally sensitive partly because their senses are so finely tuned. Small sounds can, for example, create temporary anxiety. Strangers in the home can make them anxious. Long periods of absence by their owner can leave them with separation anxiety.

RELATED: Size difference between humans and cats makes them vulnerable and fearful, a dog study suggests.

There are lots of possibilities for a cat to be anxious and it is the duty of a good cat caregiver to prevent these feline anxieties and to reassure their cat in a mutually supportive cuddle as we see in the video.

Stalker abducted former lover's cockapoo in campaign of hate

NEWS AND OPINION: A classic story of an embittered man who harassed a pretty woman and abducted her attractive dog.

Hannah Rasekh with her cockapoo and the man, Bashar Ayoub, who harassed and threatened her. Hands up, this is a Sun montage. If The Sun objects, please tell me in a comment.

The basic story is pretty commonplace and rather typical but with a twist as a dog was involved. Sorry no cat stories today 😢😎.

Hannah Rasekh was born in the UK and has a Palestinian heritage. She is an influencer on social media and has a boutique in Al Amman, Jordan. 

She met Bashar Ayoub in Dubai in 2017. Bashar Ayoub is a property developer with some wealth, and he lives in a £2 million flat in a posh part of London (Belgravia). Hannah Rasekh lives in South Kensington, West London.

She decided to split up from Bashar Ayoub claiming that he had "emotionally and psychologically" abused her. Bashar Ayoub was obviously enraged, and he embarked on a campaign of harassment and nasty threats. 

I set out some of those threats below but before I do so I will bring into the story Rasekh's cockapoo, Ted, who was abducted by Ayoub. 

He turned up at her home while she was not there, but her parents were as they were housesitting and said that he was a friend who had offered to walk her dog. He took the dog and did not return him. He therefore abducted Ted. We are told that he returned the dog several weeks later.

He couldn't stop himself harassing her because even after Hannah Rasekh had contacted the police and the police were actually inside her home, Ayoub called her 85 times. The police warned Ayoub not to contact her but within hours he started his campaign again and phoned Rasekh 64 times together with sending her abusive messages.

In one he said: "Die you thief you thieving whore, I pray you die, I pray you die every day, you whore."

He also said in another text: "I'll rip you apart, all of you, your whole family you c****. He sent 35 emails to her between January 4 and January 5 in 2022 in which he called her a "bitch".

His behaviour inevitably led him to the criminal courts where he admitted one charge of stalking with fear of harm and violence between April 4 and September 5.

He was granted conditional bail. The condition is that he does not contact Hannah Rasekh directly or indirectly. 

He must wear a GPS tag to ensure that he does not go near her home. He will be sentenced at Westminster magistrates' Court on December 8. The max he can get is 10 years in jail.

My thanks to The Times newspaper.

Aircraft transporting 56 rescue dogs crashes on Wisconsin golf course

There are many aircraft criss-crossing America transporting rescue cats and dogs from and to various animal rescue centres in order to facilitate rehoming. In this instance a plane carrying a crew of three and 53 rescue dogs from Louisiana crashed last Tuesday morning on a golf course outside Milwaukee. Apparently, they lost an engine and had to crash land.

Dog rescued from plane crash. Screenshot / CBS 58. Note: the red coloration that you see on the dog's body is the lady's gloves and not blood.

The crew were not seriously unharmed (described as not life-threatening injuries) and the good point about this story is that the general public has rallied around as there have been hundreds of offers to adopt the lucky survivors.

The Humane Animal Welfare Center of Waukesha County (HAWS) said that they had been inundated with enquiries and donations about the dogs. They were being flown from Louisiana to Wisconsin.

A communications spokesperson for HAWS said:

"Our phones haven't stopped ringing all day. The response from our community has been absolutely overwhelming. We've had so many people that have enquired about adopting. Or is there some way they can help with donations or come in to help with the dogs - bringing in towels and toys and treats and that kind of thing. Our faith in humanity has been restored because of the care and compassion that we've seen today."

It appears that the dogs were not substantially harmed either and around 24 HAWS staffers and volunteers were waiting to pick them up from the airport and therefore they were not that far away from the crash site and were able to get there quickly.

There were concerned when they heard the news that the aircraft had made a crash landing at a golf course. But, fortunately, perhaps because of the pilot's skills, none were seriously harmed.

HAWS quickly achieved donations of more than $2,600 in a Facebook fundraiser in addition to $2,000 from other sources.

The amount they raised in a matter of hours was equivalent to what they would raise in weeks normally. The dogs are being treated for injuries and their personalities assessed. They are also being assessed for any mental trauma that they may have acquired because of the crash landing.

Cat abandoned when his owner died but neighbours stepped in

This is a story that, for me, begs some questions like 'How did it happen?' It comes from a local online local meeting site called 'nextdoor.co.uk' and this branch of the site concerns residents living not very far from me. Here is the post:

"A few weeks ago, I posted a rather different picture of this fine cat who was accessing our enclosed garden at night. I used a paper collar and after the second attempt I was contacted by a lovely lady who lives very locally who had been feeding him twice a day. She identified him as a stray boy who had been abandoned after his elderly human died. Poor boy. So now he is neutered, vaccinated and microchipped, and will never be lonely, vulnerable, hungry, fearful or cold again! A new beginning for Julius, who revealed his 'soul name' to me - we have no idea what name he had been called by his previous human. It was lovely to make a new friend too, in the shape of the dear lady who had been feeding him and generally watching out for his wellbeing too."

It is self-explanatory. The cause of the abandonment is concerning as you might have thought someone would have checked up on the cat. 

Julius, a cat who was abandoned when their owner died. Image: nextdoor.co.uk

I think it is reasonable to assume that neighbours would have known that the deceased woman lived with a cat companion but apparently not. 

It does point to a potential problem of elderly people living alone when relatives have pre-deceased them and perhaps, they do not have a will. They just die and few people if any know about it.

The story dramatically improves as neighbours step in. Firstly, one neighbour feeds the 'stray cat' who was a domestic cat. And a second neighbour then adopts him and calls him Julius. They don't know his previous name as there was no ID.

It appears too that he was not neutered or microchipped. That problem has been sorted out as well.

The end of the story is good. And there is a bonus in that the two neighbours mentioned got to know each other

Should domestic cats have wet noses?

No, positively not unless your cat has condensation on their nose leather because they've been outside in freezing weather, or they have a URI. But under normal circumstances a cat's nose should be dry but not hard dry and therefore very slightly damp because there is always a little bit condensation and the air from the lungs is moist. To stress: there may be a bit of moisture there but to the touch the nose leather should not be 'wet' per se. 

I think the problem here is that people are mixing up cats with dogs. Wet noses for dogs are normal but that does not mean that they should be wet all the time. 

There are a range of conditions for a dog's nose leather. But I sense that people think that a dog's nose should be wet and the same applies to cats. Wrong, I am afraid.

Pic: MikeB.

Other than that, I don't understand why some people think a cat's nose should be 'wet'. That's plain wrong. It'll be wet if they have an upper respiratory infection as mentioned. Of course. 

You only have to think about humans and how the end of their nose looks and feels normally. It is not wet. 

About the tip of a cat's nose (nose leather).

Sometimes cats lick their nose as displacement behaviour i.e., distracting behaviour when they can't make up their mind. This may cause the nose to be temporarily a little bit moist but that is it.

Cat Displacement Activity.

I have lived with cats for decades and my current cat for 8 years and touch wood he has been healthy throughout those years. His nose has always been dry and at the most a little damp because of the moist air from the lungs and condensation. I don't mean bone dry and almost chapped but nicely soft but not moist or wet.

Enough said really. I could waffle on but what is the point?

Pet food bank allows unemployed man on welfare to keep his cats

For me, this is a story which looks at the cost-of-living crisis, unemployment, anxiety and depression, domestic cat caregiving, alleged laziness and the state of the Scottish economy! It goes well beyond cat caregiving.

Chris Forrest became anxious that he would have to give up his four black cats, all males and two sets of siblings. They look great. He says that he depends upon them to help him with his mood. They are, in effect, therapy cats for him.

But he lives on employment and support allowance (welfare) in Scotland because the BBC says that he is unable to work due to severe anxiety and depression.

He lives in Granton, Edinburgh, Scotland. His cats are like his children he says. He said: "The cats keep me going-they interact with me and get me up in the morning as they need to be fed. I am in a much better place having them, I'm more chilled out and relaxed."

Chris Forrest and Shadow. Image: BBC Scotland (believed).

There is a really nice picture of him smiling broadly with one of his black cats on his back on the BBC website. He does not look depressed in that picture.

Because of rising prices, I guess, and what is euphemistically called the cost-of-living crisis in the UK, Chris is dependent upon a pet food bank set up by Mike Dougan, the community outreach and development manager of the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home according to the BBC.

He started the pet food bank when he discovered people were sharing the human food that they had got from food banks with their pets. That's interesting. Clearly it is not a good idea to give your cat exclusively human food because it does not contain the required nutrients for cats. Human food is not "complete and balanced" to use the terminology of pet food manufacturers.

You don't need vouchers to receive pet food from this pet food bank and they also provide other items such as food bowls, toys and harnesses. They do a great job I think and certainly if pet food banks help people to keep their pets it is a great service because nobody wants more cats and dogs surrendered to animal shelters.

Chris says that "The pet food bank is a lifeline. I get so much from my cats; the cats make my day better and I talk with them more than I do humans."

He's a great cat caregiver and lover but I do question his way of life. It is very difficult to talk about depression and anxiety and I don't know Chris. But one way to tackle these mental health problems is to get out and be active.

Working at least part-time is a way of managing depression and anxiety. Staying at home if that is what he does is a sure-fire way of exacerbating anxiety and depression.

I'm not saying that Chris is lazy. But a lot of Scots think that other Scots who are on welfare are lazy. Sir Jackie Stewart, the famous F1 racing driver, accused fellow Scots of being lazy and too dependent on jobs for life in 2007.

And in a survey a high number of Scots thought that poverty is caused by laziness. I read somewhere that less than 50% of Scots actually contribute to the wealth of their nation.

Scotland has consistently spent more than the country earns. There is a sense south of the border that Scotland is living beyond its means. And you wonder if as a nation they can work a little bit harder but that will no doubt rub people up the wrong way.

We have to face the fact that there is a section of society who become dependent upon welfare. And we have to face the fact that certain health conditions are only diagnosed on the basis of what the patient says namely health problem such as back pain and depression and anxiety.

You can't diagnose depression and anxiety other than through what the patient tells the doctor. I'm not saying that this is what is going on with Chris, but it does happen, and it needs to be challenged by the authorities. It is a sensitive area, but a lot of people believe that not only Scotland but also Wales and England have become a little bit lazy.

The UK has a poor productivity record. There are a lot of people out of work in the UK because they are ostensibly ill after the Covid pandemic. These are men and women of working age. Are they genuinely ill? Are they shirking?

The Covid pandemic lockdowns and the furlough scheme, I believe, engendered laziness in the population. And it is a great excuse to stop working by simply saying that you have Long Covid. Long Covid as a way out of working in this country and it has to deal with it more robust in my view.

I wish Chris Forrest well. I hope that he finds he can get back to work at least in some capacity because I think that it will do him good. And then he will be dependent upon a pet food bank or any other charity.