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Hello everyone! Today, I’m going to talk about the cats of Athens. You may not know this, but Athens has thousands of cats. That’s a lot of cats. And they don’t just stay in Athens. You can see tons of cats in certain areas of Greece, such as Delphi. When we went there, we saw tons of them. But Athens is where most of them are. They are there because the Greeks brought them in to kill the rodents of the time, just like how the Hawaiian sugar cane company brought mongoose to Hawaii to kill rats. Sure, that caused an ecological disaster that is still a problem to this day, but at least they killed the rats and made money! The cats proliferate because people take care of them by leaving food, water, and houses outside, and the Mediterranean climate is perfect for cats.

Some locals pet the cats, but I don’t do it because I fear rabies. Rabies is a virus that can be transmitted through bites from infected mammals, and cats are mammals. Needless to say, I tend to stay away from the cats. My mom is scared of cats because she has ailurophobia, which is the fear of cats. Did you know that the popular comic book character, Big Nate, also has this phobia? That’s how I first heard of it, and then my mom told me she was also afraid of cats. The cats were the one part of Athens that she didn’t like. Many tourists pet the cats for no reason, and the cats seem to tolerate it.

“Another thing I noticed about the cats is that most of the time, they are in a group of two or ten cats. There are lone cats here and there, but they just do their own thing. We actually found one of these lone cats at the top of the archaeological site of Delphi. It was just there and kind of creeped my mom out. Anyway, the point is that the cats are an iconic part of Athens, so I don’t think they will be going anywhere anytime soon. They add a really nice aesthetic to the city. In fact, the cats probably help increase the tourist revenue for Greece a bit because the tourists might want to buy stuff for them or be attracted to Greece because of the cats.”

“The cats aren’t aggressive either. If they have rabies, they will obviously be aggressive, but the other cats aren’t aggressive at all. However, the pigeons are a different story. The pigeons are crazy. They fly right in front of your face, and they have no fear of humans whatsoever. A pigeon flew right to my legs. Stay away from the pigeons as they will attack you ferociously. Well, maybe not you, but if you drop your snacks, they will definitely come for them in a huge flock. We accidentally spilled some peanuts onto the ground, and 20 of them came and devoured the peanuts in 45 seconds. It was crazy! We got spooked and left after that.”

“If you try to attack a cat, I don’t know what’s going to happen to you, but you probably won’t catch the cat if that’s what you’re trying to do. I’ve never seen the cats drinking milk, and I’ve never seen anyone leave food out for them, so I’m not sure if they would appreciate it if you left milk for them. That’s because milk is actually bad for cats. All the propaganda showing that cats like milk is completely wrong. The only milk they can have is cat’s milk. When I found this out, my entire childhood was flipped over, as I had always dreamed about having a cat and feeding it milk. So don’t give cats milk, everyone. There are actually numerous artifacts and websites about the cats of Athens. Some artifacts show them taking care of pests on farms while some websites show how to take care of them. Cats are truly one of the best parts of Athens.”