Walking the dog at

Kyrenia Animal Rescue Centre

By Chris Elliott

Having lived in Cyprus for a number of years, it was always a pleasure to take family and friends to visit the Kyrenia Animal Rescue Centre up in the Five Finger Mountains to see the rescued dogs and cats and then as a special treat, for the dogs or visitors, go walking with a dog.

The dogs being the creatures they are, get so excitable when visitors arrive and most of them crave attention from the likes of you and I and given half a chance they would adopt us. Some folk have found themselves to have been adopted by street dogs perhaps 3 or 4 times over which is great because the dogs are no longer living on the streets and are being given much care and attention which is what they crave for.

Since those early days I have been back a number of times to take photographs and write about events at the KAR centre when groups of school children or students visited the centre as part of their studies.

KAR have a very active educational unit led by Maggie Smith and supported by Carole Widdison and they spend a lot of their time visiting schools and talking to small children and older students about how to care for dogs and cats and give them a good life.

So it was that I went back to the KAR Centre this past week to meet up with Maggie and Carole and a party of 11 students who had come with their teacher Sevdie Toker from the Eastern Mediterranean University as part of their studies. It was very touching to see these teenagers interacting with the dogs and one or two of them seemed to return to a dog they had taken a shine to. The students were telling me they have a Facebook page CIP Animals of Cyprus where they record their activities and adventures.

The other thing that  surprised me was the many new cages that had been built since my last visit with many people and organisations making donations towards the cost of the latest developments at the centre.

When you consider that KAR have currently 260 dogs, 30 puppies and 48 cats to care for on a daily basis, our readers could help by adopting a dog or making some form of donation. Currently KAR also have 8 dogs which are being neutered before putting them back on the streets.

To find out more of the aims and activities of Kyrenia Animal Rescue please visit their website by clicking here

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Just making friends

EMU arrive at KAR to walk the dogs

Carole Widdison is out walking the dog

Walking the dog at KAR

New cages built with donations

And another friendship blossoms

That loving touch

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