A Cause Close to Our Hearts

As a devoted animal lover, I wanted to share with you a rescue story from my friends Claire and Matthew and the work they do on Lesvos with a brilliant woman named Vassilia and a little special pop-up shop of divine prints for dogs.

In Claire's words:

A Cause Close to My Heart

With your help, we can continue rescuing the stray dogs of Lesvos.

Nellie's Story

On one of our first walks out of our Greek village 18 years ago, Matthew and I found sweet Nellie. She was tied to a barrel with a chain about a meter long. Her back was arched from lack of exercise, her fur coarse and brittle, her neck was red raw and bloodied from the chain around it. Nellie was suffering from malnutrition, living in her own excrement. She had no water and had recently had puppies and was scared, timid and without hope. It was the saddest thing to witness and we could not believe someone would treat a dog so badly. It was heartbreaking.

At that moment, we decided we needed to rescue her and we promised her we would. Neither of us had ever owned a dog and at the time were spending most of our time in London. All this aside, we decided we had to find a way to make her ours and give her the life she deserved.

The process was not a simple one as she had to stay where she was until our next visit a few weeks later. We did however find someone who could feed her and give her water in the meantime. Matthew then set about phoning person after person in order to find her a safe place where she could be cared for until our return. Nobody could help, everyone who had a rescue centre was full. Until, he phone Vassilia.

The first thing she said, without hesitation was “just bring her to me.” We did just that and it was there with Vassilia that Nellie was brought back to health and gained a little, not a lot of confidence. We would visit and take her out, on our trips back to the island. She was timid and nervous but she knew we were her people and slowly she grew to trust and love us.

Vasillia would tell Nellie when we were coming and she would wait at the front gate for us. She was a clever girl. She’d see us coming and push her way to the front of numerous other dogs so we would see her, she wore a big smile and her little cropped tail would wag furiously. Vasillia worked a miracle with Nellie and cared for her until we were finally able to bring her home. Nellie was loyal, gentle and went on to live 12 beautiful years with us. She changed our lives and was always by my side. She is still very much missed.

Without the love and care from Vassilila, Nellie would not have stood a chance. This is only a small part of what Vassilia has done for the stray dogs of Lesvos over many years. We will be forever grateful to her.

Thank you Vassilia, not only from us, but from all the strays that have been cared and loved by you.

Not all heroes wear capes, some are covered in dog hair!

In order to finish Vassilia’s shelter project we started a few years back, we (Matthew Walkswithdogs, Carla Couslon, and myself) have created an online print gallery, available for one week only, until Friday, 25th of October. You can make a difference when you purchase something beautiful.

ALL profits will go to Vassilia’s shelter project.

If you prefer to help the dogs and Vassilia directly without purchasing a print, you're welcome to donate to the cause via our Paypal.

If you would like to adopt a rescue dog from Lesvos, just contact Vassilia directly on Instagram:
@lesvosxstrays
@vassilia_verymanydogs