Markissia

Hello there!! My name is Markissia (Marquise that is!) and I am three years old… no, I am not trying to hide my true age, OK, technically, I am eight years old but in reality, it feels like my real life started only three years ago. The first years of my life were painful and full of sadness, that’s why I have chosen to bury them deep inside and never to talk about, or remember them, for that matter.. However, everything changed for me, on a freezing, yet sunny, winter’s day in 2009.

Back then I used to “live” in the yard of Thriassio Hospital in Elefsina (a disgusting place, don’t even get me started!!). Anyway, there were more stray dogs like me there and a few nice people were taking care of us, poor souls. I had nowhere else to go, so I ended up staying there for two whole years. Well, it was not the best place but hey, I usually had some food. Fate however (and SAPT of course) had slightly different plans for me, so on that freezing, yet sunny, winter’s day, I suddenly found myself in a strange, unknown place, with two unknown people. In the beginning I was very afraid, worried and suspicious… I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I don’t easily trust people and I most certainly don’t give in to them!!! First of all, they will have to prove that they deserve my love and affection… But I can assure you that once I feel that love, it is forever and ever!!

That winter’s day was almost three years ago and my life now couldn’t be more different to what it was back then!! My life has changed, I have changed… I have everything that I was deprived of all those years…Love, care, protection, holidays but most of all, my very own pack!!! Penelope and Christos (the human members of my pack) totally adore me and Kika, the younger, four legged member of our group, is my best friend..

As for me, a Diva, a Marquise (what?? you think my name was given to be by chance?? Ha!), I finally found the place that I deserved in this rotten society that had only showed me a cruel face in my early puppy-hood and adult years… (Oh, come on!! Please tell me, what was a lady like me, with a title of honor, doing for God’s sake in a cold and empty terrain, roaming the streets alone, hungry and neglected???) Me!! There is no doubt that I was born to belong in high society!! Me, that in my free time I practice the favorite sport of the noble and Kings, hunting – although I have to say the human members of my pack do not approve of this particular activity, but what can they possibly know about instincts??- or, when my busy schedule allows me, I pay visits to school children or disabled people with the rest of the four and two-legged members of SAPT’s team, accompanied of course by my beloved Penelope!

Ah, now I can finally dream of the future with optimism and hope… Ah, life is good …

Markissia passed away in July 2021 at the age of 17! She was truly loved by her Penelope but also by the hundreds of children who touched her and she touched their hearts back