The Saddest Dog I’ve Ever Seen

Over a million stray dogs and cats populate the Greek Islands

Photo by Denise Shelton

The Greek islands are a place of beauty and wonder. I cherish the time I spent there and hope to return. Where else can you walk in the footsteps of giants like Plato and Socrates, Caesar and Cleopatra?

They’ve been a must-stop on the tourist circuit as far back as the late 1800s when the scions of Europe’s great houses were sent to complete their education, be they poets like Byron or soldiers like Wellington. But among the art and antiquities, the white sand, the sea, and the glorious light artists rave over, even the ancients and Romantics glimpsed misery among the masterpieces. No doubt they were used to it. Many tourists today are not.

The picture of the dog you see at the top of this page is one I took on my first trip to Greece. It haunts me. I captured the image in Mytilene, the capital city on the Greek island of Lesbos.

I didn’t have to do anything special to get the shot. My husband and I were returning to our cruise ship after a long day of sightseeing when I spotted this dog on a bench.

I used a fairly basic digital camera on the auto setting. The dog didn’t move the whole time I was taking the photograph. He looked sick, tired, and hopeless. We saw a lot of stray dogs and…