The kind owners of a cafe in Greece are making headlines for their extraordinary generosity towards dogs. ‘Hot Spot’, located in Mytilene, on the island of Lesbos, serves as a coffee place during the day and doubles up as a shelter for dogs at night!

Kindness towards animals is apparently quite common among the Greeks, but the generosity displayed by the management of Hot Spot is being hailed as unprecedented, even by local standards. They began their practice of letting strays spend the night indoors in July, when a waiter took pity on a dog that was stranded outside at around 3 am. Since then, they’ve been opening their doors to the dogs every single night.

Photo: Eustratios Papanis/Facebook

“When the bar closes each night, the dogs come and sleep here,” a waiter at the cafe said. “We don’t have a problem. From July, every night there is a stray dog on the couch.”

Contrary to expectations, business has not slowed at Hot Spot because of its unusual night-time visitors. Instead, the act of kindness has made it even more popular. Recently, a photograph showing dogs comfortably asleep on the cafe’s couches has gone viral on social media, boosting Hot Spot’s notoriety even more. 

Photo: Google Maps

Lesbos is also in the news as a place that has welcomed refugees with open arms. “More than 700,000 refugees from Syria and other Middle East countries have entered Europe from this island this year and solidarity towards humans and animals was remarkable. The locals have increased levels of solidarity towards environmental and humanistic issues,” said Eustratios Papanis, the man who clicked the photograph that went viral. “The new generation is more sensitive and well informed.”

via The Dodo