How it all started

Dear reader,

My name is Jenny, I am a volunteer at Skiathos Dog Shelter. I will try to give some background of the shelter.

Who? When? How?

You will be able to follow our everyday happenings throughout the weeks and months of the year.

We will tell you about our dogs, and also give you a chance to get to know us volunteers.

Oliver, Ben and Bill ( in the back)in the shelter today 2025

To start off, we want to share our history with you. This will give you a insight in to how, and why our volunteer work is so precious.

Just as the title states, we will open the door to the past and travel back to the 1990's.

If you haven't yet visited the island of Skiathos, our shelter is located up the winding mountian roads, towards Kounistra Monastery, it is tucked in and protected by majestic pine trees, and breathtaking views of the Aegean Sea .

And this is where our story will take place.

In the year of 1976 a lady named Helen Bozas first set foot on the island for a holiday and she thought she had found paradise, until she noticed the amount of stray dogs and cats. Back then there was no volunteer programs or veterinary schemes to help keep the population of the strays down.

Helen then came back in 1980 and settled on the island permanently. Helen had given up her job and apartment in London, she found love and got married on the island and had two children. For the next ten years her life was busy raising two young children.

Helen also had a fair amount of stray dogs and cats showing up at her gate, hungry and looking for food. At some points she had almost 40 animals plus her own pets that she cared for. This is where Helen's story starts.

During the last couple of months she has been kind enough to let us take a look in her diary's ( 15 years of them) and articles she had written for GAR's ( Greek Animal Rescue) Newsletter through the years.

Now, we will let her own words tell the tale.

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Helen Bozas back in the 1990's

"- A few years after I had settled in the island some people started a shelter for dogs in town. I thought, at last, no more packs of dogs or emaciated confused dogs wandering around dying slowly of starvation or poison.

The shelter, unfortunately, didn't last very long, three months approx.

No one was prepared for what an undertaking it was.

Also it was in town and the noise and smell became a serious problem, finally the group dispersed.

Thanasi Yanoukas was the only one who didn't abandon the dogs already dumped there (about 15 of them). He negotiated with the monastery at Evangelistria and got permission to use the area where the monks kept pigs at Kounistria Monastery. Close to the landfill site for rubbish (the current location today). He found some workers and they built a basic shelter for the dogs.

I became involved before the shelter was built and the dogs were being kept in a fenced area above the monastery at Kounistria.

At the time I had found some other foreigners living on the island and we worked out a daily feeding programme.

It was a hard winter, wet and cold. And gradually the volunteer workers gave up one by one and I was left alone.

Thanasi had a full-time job but he sent me one of his workers daily to help me clean and feed.

Within three months the numbers had risen to over 100 dogs."

A cold and snowy shelter

This is where we will leave the storytelling for now. If you wish to continue reading Helen's story follow our blog.