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Closing the doors at the Mid Canterbury Animal Welfare Centre for the last time was heartbreaking for octogenarian Rallou Keeley.
After managing the Ashburton centre for 20 years and putting in over 30 hours a week, Rallou said she’s not sure what happens next.
“I am going to give my brain a rest, but after that I’ll see.”
Once word got out about the closure in July, Rallou said there was a steady stream of visitors calling into the Seafield Rd premises to say goodbye.
“They would ring before they came to check I was here, (and) knowing I don’t take milk in my tea, one lady brought her own.”
Rallou said saying goodbye to the elderly people who would pop in to pat and talk to the cats was particularly difficult.
“Many elderly people love the cats but are in a rental or can’t afford to feed a cat, so they would come to me and spend time with the cats and volunteers. The public loved me because I genuinely loved the animals, it was all about the animals,” she said.
Looking back, Rallou said the generosity of people to help get the centre off the ground and carry on, would stay with her forever.
From Vetlife who let them set up on their East St property at no cost, to the volunteers who spent hours knitting pet blankets, cleaning enclosures and feeding animals, to the people who donated food or funds, Rallou said.
“People are so generous I cannot thank them enough.”
The difficult decision to close the centre was made after Vetlife’s plans to expand their building meant she would have to find new premises.
“We didn’t have enough money for that,” Rallou said.
It was a bittersweet time and Rallou has chosen to take a philosophical attitude.
She said her age and the fact it was getting harder to find volunteers meant more of the work was falling on her.
Rallou moved to New Zealand in 1963 as part of a post-World War 2 arrangement with Greece to bring young women to the country for training and work.
Growing up on a farm in Greece gave Rallou a love of the simple life.
“There were six of us in a two-bedroom house,” she said.
Prior to leaving Athens, she said she had a two-month crash course in English.
Once in New Zealand, Rallou worked in the kitchen at the Silverstream hospital in Wellington.
It was there she met her late husband John, who was an orderly and nurse aide.
The pair were both working nights at the time. Rallou said there were 25 girls working there “but he chose me, a half-Greek, half-New Zealander who spoke not much English”.
When they first moved to Ashburton, they owned a fish shop in Allenton and then their mutual love of animals won out and John took on an SPCA inspector role in the town.
Rallou said John would often be heading out the door for no apparent reason, and asking him what he was up to would elicit the “mind your own business response”.
“I knew he was taking animal food out to a farm where an animal owner needed a bit of help.”
In such cases people were not usually being deliberately cruel — the problem was a lack of knowledge, Rallou said.
Their love of animals didn’t stop at the SPCA or welfare centre door. Rallou said if they had lambs at home for their children they would take them on holiday too.
“Once we set up camp, they would sleep in the awning.”
When a young family member developed lactose intolerance, Rallou and John simply added the family goat to the mix and headed south with her in the car too.
heather.mackenzie@alliedmedia.co.nz