A dog that has been seen at nearly every demonstration in Athens over the last two years has turned up again during the recent protests against new austerity measures.
In the last couple of days I had seen different videos and I saw the same dog in a few of them. I mean, I thought it was just similar dogs, now I know for sure that is the same one.
Athens is full of stray dogs, there's absolutely no comparison to London or any other UK city. Most are sociable and when there's any commotion in 'their' territory, they join in.
Kanellos is by now nothing more than an urban legend. The dog did indeed get a kick out of demonstrations, though I rather doubt that a preternatural ability to tell political rights from wrongs was the reason, although as much has been naively suggested. Some people indeed looked after him, and he followed them loyally to protests.
Kanellos's first appearances in demonstrations started in the early 1990s. Besides it being unlikely that a 20-year old dog would be physically able to run around during clashes between the police and protesters, there are blogs documenting the dog's life and death. In his last days, Kanellos, who was apparently looked after by a student, was so arthritic that a special doggy 'wheelchair' was constructed for him. He died on 2 July 2008, and you can see photos of the dog on his 'wheelchair', and of his grave at the link below.
3 comments:
In the last couple of days I had seen different videos and I saw the same dog in a few of them. I mean, I thought it was just similar dogs, now I know for sure that is the same one.
Athens is full of stray dogs, there's absolutely no comparison to London or any other UK city. Most are sociable and when there's any commotion in 'their' territory, they join in.
Kanellos is by now nothing more than an urban legend. The dog did indeed get a kick out of demonstrations, though I rather doubt that a preternatural ability to tell political rights from wrongs was the reason, although as much has been naively suggested. Some people indeed looked after him, and he followed them loyally to protests.
Kanellos's first appearances in demonstrations started in the early 1990s. Besides it being unlikely that a 20-year old dog would be physically able to run around during clashes between the police and protesters, there are blogs documenting the dog's life and death. In his last days, Kanellos, who was apparently looked after by a student, was so arthritic that a special doggy 'wheelchair' was constructed for him. He died on 2 July 2008, and you can see photos of the dog on his 'wheelchair', and of his grave at the link below.
http://kapetank.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/o-kan%CE%B5%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%83/
I noticed him in the news videos. He seemed to be right into it, caught up in the atmosphere.
Maybe it's just fun to bark at the police.
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