by Dogs can have their quirks, and Pela, a rescue dog living in Athens has an adorable one. She loves to stare at kittens. She tracks them down and then just stares a them for hours, according to her rescuer Valia Orfanidou.
Valia, who is an animal rescue advocate founder of The Orphan Pet, has three rescue dogs. Her other two rescue dogs simply ignore the stray cats that roam throughout Greece. But Pela is fascinated with them. In fact, Pela wouldn’t stop staring ant one kitten in the night, prompting Valia to rescue him.
She says in the video that if she was to narrate what happens when Pela encounters a new kitten she would say: “The little kitten stands still. So does the dog. Nothing happens for 5 minutes…”
Valia muses as to whether Pela’s motherly instincts are at work. What is she feeling? Is she confused as to what she should do, recognizing that the cats are not her species? For Valia, she has more overwhelming feelings over all the stray cats she encounters, trying to help those she can.
The Orphan Pet
But Pela’s simple action of staring at kittens also seems to help ease a burden.
“The Kitten Starer…silently communicating with them,” one person who watched the video remarks of Pela. As to what Pela is communicating, we’ll never know. But it is a gentle, curious conversation, one that is a welcome distraction from the everyday complexities of animal rescue.
The Orphan Pet
