Very clean, filled with love, intelligently managed – like their acronym spells out: Let's Be S.M.A.R.T. (Successfully Managing Animal Rights Today) – the cat shelter founded in 2006 by Julie Kelley, 4^th from left, a builder who splits her time between Astoria and Greece, is a marvelous display of her love for animals – and Greece.

“I came here for several summers and saw the stray animals and decided one day to move to Greece and establish an organization – it is a registered NGO – to both help stray animals and focus on educating people as more of a solution that just taking in strays.”

One of her dreams is to inspire Greek-Americans to adopt the cats – the organization can deliver them to the United States – as a living souvenir and connection with the homeland.

She owns the house in Kalivia near Athens that houses the cats and the two paid managers and volunteers from all over the world who work with the local authorities and turned the house into a ‘Cat Paradise.’ Learn more atwww.letsbesmart.org.