Animals Of The Cyclades

Goats in the Cyclades originate back to early times, around 2,500 BC. September, the month of births,
is non-stop activity. Seeing kids born one moment, make their way onto all fours the next and then quickly progress to walking a few shaky steps inside minutes is quite unbelievable; within a day, they're prancing around the fields bleating.

Driving along lonely roads at night can be dangerous due to livestock resting in remote areas such as blind corners, not an inviting predicament especially with the elevated number of airbags in cars these days. Cats in the archipelago blend perfectly with their surroundings, i.e. white walls, cobbled paths and village life in general. When I stayed in Ios, two fine young cats, one tortoiseshell, the other black with piercing green eyes, would visit regularly, always for food, naturally. They wouldn't accept to be stroked, and neither would their three tiny offspring who arrived some months after. Born wild. Dogs bark at night in far off places hearing the steps of a distant walker, like myself, perhaps on the way back from photographic exploration in some distant part of an island.

… within a day, they're prancing around the fields bleating.