Your webmaster (hv) with the dogs from Lavra

Cat in front of the refectory from Lavra. Both pictures taken in may 2007.

The nutricious diet on Athos is not only good for the monks bot also fo the animals:
We are often asked what we feed Asta, and people are usually perpleí when I tell them the Mount-Athos Plan (or Greek Plan as I also call it).
Around the time that we got Asta from the breeder I also happened to be on one of my visits with the monks and hermits of Mount-Athos. The hermits I was staying with had a number of cats for “mousing” and dogs for hunting (some hermits do in fact hunt and eat meat, although it is generally frowned upon by the monasteries). I noticed that throughout the day the hermits would collect, in two separate bowls, the various vegetable cuttings and meal leftovers – meat, fish, etc. in one bowl for the cats, and just about everything else for the dogs (including some meat and fish). At the end of the day, the two bowls would be put out in the courtyard and the animals would gather for their “feast”. Having been brought up on Alpo and other pet-food commercials, I was skeptical! I asked one hermit about these feeding practices and he seemed puzzled by my question. The very notion of throwing out good food and then buying stuff to feed the animals was inconceivable and probably, in his mind, downright sinful! The animals all seemed very healthy, affectionate, and energetic…and I was inspired.
source: KAFENEIO
hv