Crete Kennels: Happy Anniversary!

Peter and Kimberley write: By the time the Bugle goes to press, another anniversary will have been and gone (and many congratulations to Peter and Kimberley from the Bugle team. Here’s hoping that Crete Kennels goes from strength to strength) . It was two years ago on 1st April 2007 ( all Fools Day !) that we arrived in Crete to start the building of Crete Kennels. As you can see from the photos on the right some dramatic changes have taken place in the meantime!

Now that we are approaching the Catholic and Greek Orthodox Easters, we are fully booked with guests. We’ve got a full range of dogs — from Chihuahuas to German Shepherds! And of course, to celebrate this festive time, we’re getting the Easter Bonnets ready along with the chocolate drops. As always, all our guests will go home with photos of their holiday here with us.

Since we have been open we have welcomed almost 150 different guests here (and many have come back for return visits). And they are all different personalities! This year we have been saddened to hear of the passing away of four of them and we know they will all be missed by owners, friends, neighbours and by us.

On an equally serious note, we must add - if your dog is tied up all the time, does not like people or other dogs, never gets treated as a pet – then it IS actually a guard dog. And with all respect to owners’ holiday plans, we will not take guard dogs. This is for the safety of all our canine guests as well as ourselves. It is surprising the number of owners who ask us to lock their dogs in for the duration…while still promising that their dog is a pet!

PS We were very sorry to hear that Marianne is closing her second hand shop ’Magpie’s Nest’ – the shop was a source of many of the (safe) toys for our guests to play with and take home (Spitha is shown playing with her elephant!). We wish her good luck in whatever comes next.

Canine Tip for the Month: Looking ahead towards May… please remember to get the new mosquito collar for your dog, depending on the weather, it could be needed well before the next edition of the Bugle!