When Bex Fletcher and her family arrived in Greece for a week’s break, she had no idea she was about to fall in love with a local...
Stepping out of the taxi in front of our villa complex, the warm Greek sun was beating down and I felt myself relax.
It was July 2022 and me, my husband Simon, then 49, and sons, Henry, then 18, and Joe, 14, were on the first day of our week-long family holiday on the Greek island of Zante.
Wheeling along our suitcases as we walked to reception, we noticed two puppies running around our feet. Without thinking, the four of us bent down to stroke the gorgeous little dogs – one was mainly white with a sandy-coloured head, and the other was a biscuit colour with white booties on its front paws.
‘You’ve got two lovely puppies here,’ I smiled at the receptionist, as they sniffed around us nervously and looked up with their big brown eyes.
‘They’re not ours,’ she explained. ‘They’ve been dumped in a cardboard box.’
We had two Jack Russell dogs called Dude and Wilf, so the thought of these vulnerable puppies being dumped hit me hard.
After that, every time we walked past reception to go out to the beach, shops or sightseeing, we stopped to fuss the puppies and made sure their food bowls were full. I’d noticed that they weren’t being fed properly.
‘Someone’s giving them chicken bones to eat,’ I said to Simon and the boys one day when we walked past and I spotted all the tiny bones in there. As dog owners, we knew that small bones were dangerous because they are brittle and can splinter when a dog chews them.
‘And there’s a busy road nearby,’ Henry pointed out.
We were all worried for the safety of the puppies so by day three I’d made a decision.
‘Let’s take them back to our villa to keep them safe and feed them properly,’ I suggested. Needless to say, everyone agreed!
We bought proper dog food for the puppies and started to bond with them. So much so that it wasn’t long before they began sleeping in the boys’ beds!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned ‘Trust your instinct and follow your heart. Animals really are part of the family.’
Gradually, we saw the dogs’ confidence growing too, and as the days passed, they became braver. But as the end of our holiday started to draw closer, there was one thing really playing on my mind.
‘There’s no way we can just leave the puppies here homeless,’ I said to Simon and the boys.
Although they agreed, we didn’t know what the alternative was so I started to think about how we could help. After some online research, I found an organisation called Zante Strays and got in touch with them.
Unfortunately, they were f
