As the days neared Lydia Ellery’s vacation, she could not be more excited for a break. The UK resident had organized a trip to Greece, and although it had taken ages, everything was finally in place. Lydia, a professional Minecraft gamer, had decided to visit Greece’s Island of Zakynthos, and once May of 2017 finally rolled around, she was anxiously marking the days off her calendar.
When Lydia arrived in Greece, she was dazzled by the sights.
But the thing that really drew her attention was the island’s overwhelming number of stray cats.
The kitties would hang out in groups around Lydia’s hotel, begging passersby for food. And Lydia, as a lifelong animal lover, couldn’t stand to see them suffer.
“It was pretty sad,” she told The Dodo. “They all looked in a bad way with wounds on their skin and covered in fleas and ticks.”
“It was one of those, ‘I wish I could save you all!’ situations.”
Lydia racked her mind, searching for ways to help the island’s strays— but, as only a tourist, she kept coming up at a loss.
Hoping to make any kind of difference, Lydia eventually started using her all-inclusive meal package to start feeding the hungry, scrawny cats. She still found the situation bothersome, but at least she was doing something to help.
One day, as Lydia was feeding the stray cats around the hotel, a strange woman approached her. The woman told Lydia she had also been feeding the stray cats while vacationing here, and now that she was heading home, there was a tiny kitten she feared would not survive without any help.
When Lydia went to the area indicated by the woman, she found a tiny, tortoiseshell kitten hidden in the hotel’s outside garbage area.
When she picked up the tiny creature, it was barely as big as her hand.
“She could have been a few weeks old,” Lydia said.
“She was living where all the rubbish bags were piled up from the hotel, which obviously was very unhygienic, dirty and also dangerous.”
“If the rubbish van had picked up all the trash bags with her in them, she would have been crushed.”
After finding the kitten, Lydia would go outside and feed it every morning and night.
“I would sneak out fish to feed her from the hotel and she would eat like she’s never seen food before.”
“Every time I came out she would run to my feet and sit by me. We became proper little mates.”
Lydia eventually noticed the kitten was always alone and feared what would happen once her vacation came to an end.
That’s when Lydia started trying to find accommodations for the little kitten— whom she had named Agatha, after Agatha Christie, her favorite author. Turned out, however, that helping the little kitten wasn’t as easy as she had thought. All the rescues and shelters in the area were already flooded with strays.
But just as Lydia started giving up hope, a shelter stepped in to help her, finding Agatha got a loving foster home.
“On my last day there, a wonderful woman came and picked her up from the bins and took her to a foster home.”
“There she was fed well, de-flead and de-wormed and had a warm bed to call her own.”
Although Lydia had managed to help Agatha, after she got home she couldn’t get the cat off her mind!
Deep down, Lydia felt like the two of them were destined to be together— and so, she started the long process of adopting Agatha and flying her all the way to her brand-new home.
Now, one year later, Agatha has grown into a happy, healthy cat. She loves to cuddle the woman that saved her, and spends her time chasing butterflies in Lydia’s backyard.
“I hate to think what would have happened if [the rescue] hadn’t helped me rescue her,” Ellery said.
“She is a beautiful, unique little girl, and I’m so happy I chanced upon her that day in May of last year.”
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