Sunday, May 9, 2010

JOLIE, the Turkish Cemetery in Rhodes and ZOE

My dear friends, first of all thank you for all your wonderful thoughts and touching words! As I had promised in my previous post, here is a special post about JOLIE and the wonderful place she lived in... the magical old Turkish Cemetery.
The old Turkish Cemetery is a little Eden amidst the pulsating life of the city of Rhodes... a magical enchanted garden under old magnificent eucalyptus trees and one of my favorite spots on Rhodes.


As I wrote before, I met Jolie as a kitten in the summer of 1998, on my second trip to Rhodes... Here you can see her with her brothers and sisters and with her mom!




The next summer (1999) I met her as a mom with her kittens... That was before she was neutered.



Jolie was a sweet, lovely cat with a strong character and... she was a real princess!




As I wrote in my previous post, Jolie lived 12 happy years in the old Turkish Cemetry. She was the "symbol cat" of the cemetery and everybody knew and loved her! When I came into the cemetery I always called "Joliiiiie!" and she came running to me... she was so sweet and I will miss her so much. I can still hear her voice and see her walking on the cemetery external wall... The Turkish Cemetery won't be the same without her... My friend Sirpa takes care of this cat colony together with other lovely people, and in the summer tourists help too. This is Sirpa (she is from Finland and lives in Rhodes):


And this is me with Nerina!


One more sweet inhabitant of the Turkish Cemetery:


And... WHO is this??? Surprise!!! It's my sweet ZOE!!!!!
(summer 2003)


My sweet little angel JOLIE, play happy and free in the new garden of Eden you're in now... with your friends.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

what a lovely post, Annuk. I am sorry about Jolie, but you are right, she is playing happy and free in her new garden of Eden. Lovely pictures of all those felines! thank you for sharing. You know I LOVE cats too.
Nancy x

pantarei said...

Cuccimou...this post was so touching and moved me to tears.The photo of her that I love the most is the one by the oleanders!And you know something ?YOU are the Turkish Cemetery sweet Guardian Angel..your love and detication to the kitties makes you deserve it!Love you and thank you for sharing this beautioful post.Mi manchi!ti aspetto!xooxo

Annuk said...

Thank you so much my sweet sensitive friends for your wonderful words!!!! You really warm my heart up! Thank you Nancy for your sweet blog post! And thank you my sweet cousin for your touching words... now it's MY turn to be moved to tears... See you soon! xoxo

Shebbodesign said...

Oh Anna, I have begun to cry when I saw her first pic and, now I can not stop crying.. I should learn to be calm and accept the deaths..I beleive that; each death is also a rebirth.. All of us are mortal creatures and "death" is a natural law..On the other hand, death of the aminals makes me so sad.. If I go to Rhodes one day, I will visit old Turkish Cemetery, and I am sure I feel JOLIE'S soul and light there.....

Kimba said...

What a beautiful and wondrous place! Thank you so much for sharing it with us :) I have a feeling that Jolie is there in spirit with all of the other fur babies that have made that magical place their home ♥♥

Annuk said...

Oh my sweet warmhearted Friends! It was so special to SHARE with you!!!!!! Your words are such a warm comfort to my heart...
And my sweet Sebnem, your tears are the proof of your wonderful sensitive soul... I am sure Jolie feels your love and that she is protecting all her furry friends still living in the old Turkish Cemetery...

Nancy Grönholm said...

What a wonderful post; it made me smile again :)
Such beautiful and playful eyes she had, your Jolie! 12 years is so short - too short, but the cemetery seems like it could be the next best thing after a big comfy bed. I suppose there's not much traffic there? I worry so much about "my" wild cats crossing streets :( Are Jolie's kittens still there? They may not care for their mothers as they once did, but it's a link, somehow!
And how sweet your Zoe looks, dozing in the sun - how come on all images I've seen of her, she's sleeping in the sun? ;)
You know, Buddhists are said to believe that cats are actually the resting place of the souls of spiritual people. Whether you believe that or not, they do have souls and I'm certain that Jolie knows you loved her very much. :)

Annuk said...

Oh Nancy, it was so great and important to share with you, as you can understand! Oh yes, 12 years are too short... but for an outdoor cat living in a cat colony it's still a good age... and yes, she had a very happy life.
Cats can get out of the cemetery, but Jolie never left it, I never saw her outside. As you know, in big cat colonies some cats end up moving somewhere else due to competition, but Jolie has lived all of her life in this wonderful place.
JOLIE's SOUL is still in that lovely place she loved so much and that was her Home... And sweet Nancy, do you know something?? ALL of my friends who commented on this post do KNOW that cats have wonderful souls!!!!!

THANK YOU ALL MY WONDERFUL SENSITIVE FRIENDS FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WORDS!!!!!!!!!

Pixel Wild Child said...

This is such a sweet post my dear Anna, I love animals as you know and I am always moved by people who care so much and do their bit to help.
Jolie was very lucky to live 12 years as a stray cat, it is amazing, unfortunately the don´t usually live for so long... she was a princess indeed, and Zoe is awesome too, as much as all the other cats...
Thank you for sharing it with us!!!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful photos, those kitties are so lovely and beautiful! And you're very pretty too!!:)
Who's that tiny little furry person with the big ears?? Zoe is very pretty!:)
Lots of love to you two!!:)

Anonymous said...

Jolie was so beautiful!

Annuk said...

Thank you dear Cristina and Lillya :)!!!!!

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