Once, I was attacked by two pit bulls. The result was stitches and bruises. I’m not afraid of dogs. But I don’t love them unconditionally. And yet I know that dogs can be healers. Even abused and abandoned ones. My overseas friend, Carla Walker, proved this.

CARLA’S BEGINNINGS

Carla Gimbl was born in Germany, one year before the end of World War Two. She adored her Hungarian father who was seventeen years older than her German mother. Also in the home was an attentive but strong-willed grandmother who taught her the art and joy of cooking. Carla takes after her grandmother’s dominating spirit and cooking expertise.

Until she was eight-years-old, Carla lived across the street from where the Nuremburg war trials were held. There were no other children nearby to play with. But, always, there were dogs—a beloved Airedale Terrier, or German Shepherds. They became her playmates and friends. She dreamed of owning a large property one day where she could live with dogs.

Tragedy struck on a foggy morning when her parents’ car collided head-on with a truck. Father was killed instantly and mother, although injured, survived. Carla wasn’t told of her father’s death until months later. It was her first experience with abandonment and loss.

Then her mother married a wealthy European businessman. While their life style improved, Carla’s stepfather was indifferent and abusive. At fourteen, she ran away from home and lived on the streets until authorities sent her to juvenile reform school for two years. When her parents were finally contacted to take her home, Carla’s mother arrived in a fur coat, fully embracing a life of luxury, looked at the girl and said, “That is not my daughter. I have no daughter.” More loss and abandonment. Carla never forgave her mother, and she never looked back. She was on her own.

In the early 1960s, still in Germany and working in a bar, Carla met 22-year-old Charles Walker, a U.S. Air Force policeman. She married him at nineteen. When they returned to the United States, the couple stayed with the extended Walker family in southern Georgia. Later, Carla lived in Las Vegas while Charles was stationed in Vietnam. Those were the wild partying years.

Then more tragedy.

Charles, a serial womanizer throughout the marriage, pushed Carla down a flight of stairs in her sixth month of pregnancy. She gave birth to a daughter, prematurely, who did not survive. This loss was a turning point for Carla. She was finished with people. She had experienced only disappointment and hurt from those closest to her. 

By her own admission, Carla feels a strong bond with dogs, particularly stray dogs, as she sees the parallel between homeless animals and her own life. Living on the streets, abandoned, and surviving by resilience and grit. After her infant daughter died, she buckled down in fierce independence to live without asking for help or depending on anyone. 

Carla filed for divorce after moving to Greece with Charles when he was stationed at the Air Force base in Athens. She left with only the clothes on her back, but supported herself with various jobs over the next decades. It wasn’t easy, but she worked as a bar maid paid on commission for drinks sold, cleaned houses for foreigners, babysat children. Her best paying job was with a large pharmaceutical company where she planned, shopped, cooked, and served food for all of their events and parties. The company eventually moved its base to Dubai. Carla was paid a large separation package, and then spent it all.

When the American military base closed in Athens in 1988, the stray dog problem in Greece began. As families left the country, dogs were abandoned on the airport tarmac. Carla found them wandering around loose and starving. She started bringing them home. The first rescued dogs were adopted by families in Europe.

In the early 2000s, Carla began her business of boarding dogs. She moved to the rural outskirts of Athens where she rented a property with land and outbuildings. She had kennels built to her specifications in a former horse stable. She took in dogs while their owners travelled, and they went home happy. Her reputation spread. People brought her strays or dogs whose owners had died. She was alone, without people in her life, but happily living with her four-legged friends.

CARLA AND CABBY BEGINNINGS

I have known Cabby Tennis and his wife Maddy Hewitt for more than 30 years. We first became friends in Taipei, Taiwan with overseas school jobs and young families at Taipei American School. Cabby and Maddy are dog people. Now they live in Athens, Greece, travel often, but cannot always take their pet. 

In 2019, after some unfortunate boarding experiences with their German short-haired pointer, Chop, a colleague of Maddy’s mentioned that a woman named Carla Walker operated a dog kennel outside the village of Markopoulo. Cabby took Chop out to the countryside to meet Carla. As they talked, Chop sat at Cabby’s feet in front of Carla. She stroked his ears. He closed his eyes and leaned into her. The connection was made. Chop’s first boarding at the dog kingdom equaled happy dog and happy owner. 

Soon after, Carla told Cabby she had to close her business as the owner was selling the property with all the kennel infrastructure she had built into it. Luckily, she found an abandoned house for rent nearby. It had a large yard, wide-open views, and an orchard of olive trees. The grove was overgrown, the house vacant and stripped of everything by squatters and gypsies. It was literally four walls and a leaky roof. 

Cabby, not about to walk away from the best boarding experience for Chop, insisted that together he and Carla could refurbish the house and property for her menagerie, which then numbered over twenty dogs. And so, a working partnership between two dog lovers began.

With Cabby’s intrepid can-do spirit, he and Carla [and Chop] worked for months installing plumbing, appliances and fixtures, doors, windows, and repairing the roof. They built fences and gates for the dog yard and orchard and established a garden area.

In 2020, Carla moved her furnishings and the dogs to “The View House” as she aptly named it. The collaboration between Cabby and Carla continued. They worked side by side with her tools [she taught him how to weld] and his heavy lifting to continue making improvements on the house and land. Of course, the work is ongoing and there is more to be done.*

CARLA’S ABSOLUTES

Every animal whisperer is made of something the rest of us don’t really understand. Carla’s complete focus is on the dogs rather than herself. She is alert, attentive, and vigilant to their individual needs. The love between animal and human goes both ways.

There is knowledge behind her diligence and devotion. While living in the U.S., Carla studied Dog Psychology and Canine Nutrition for three years. Each animal receives one-on-one time. They seek her out for attention, taking turns, and reflecting adoration back on their caregiver.

All of this comes from a well-honed formula Carla calls her Absolutes with Dogs. They must unfold in a precise order: 1. Rules established. 2. Discipline. 3. Respect for her and each other. After this, love comes automatically. 

CARLA AND CABBY COLLABORATION

These two remarkable people are as different as they are alike. Carla is tiny and petite. She is playful and feisty and readily shares strong opinions. Cabby is a very tall athletic-framed man with a calm, reassuring demeanor. Seeing them stand next to each other is a contrast of proportions.

Carla has smoked since childhood and has the husky voice of a long ingrained habit. Her laugh is deep, resonant, and engaging. Cabby has continued to work out and row competitively since his university crewing years. His wide smile surfaces easily, especially when telling a story, which he does often and well. The circumstances under which Carla and Cabby grew up could not be more different­–an abandoned street urchin in Germany versus a loving two parent, four child household in America. 

Their similarities are notable, too. Carla and Cabby each possess a steely strength of character and self-assurance that runs to their core. They share a strong work ethic that brings joy and a keen sense of accomplishment with every task undertaken. They are head-over-heels for anything “dog oriented”. When Chop died of old age, Cabby commissioned a commemorative headstone and installed it in the orchard among the olive trees and poppies.

Relationships between people are not as easily defined as those between Carla and her dogs. By the time she turned 80 in February of this year, Carla lived many decades making independent decisions, getting things done on her own and in her own way without consulting anyone. Cabby, whom I have written about in other stories, is a Renaissance man with a multitude of gifts and talents. He can, and does, accomplish anything he undertakes as a project worth doing. He has a bottomless reservoir for giving time to others. People are drawn to his honest, ready assistance and hands-on approach. 

Jumping in to help Carla set up and move into the View House is completely within Cabby’s character. But he was caught off guard by how this affected Carla’s independence and wariness in engaging with, or trusting, another person. He simply acts on what he thinks…let’s fix this. Then pitches right in.

Thankfully, for Carla, this was a karmic blessing of the right timing with the right person in the right place.

Four years later, Carla and Cabby continue to work toward the goal of creating the very best dog kingdom in Greece. They have overcome challenges and resolved friction about how to accomplish things. Two individuals with their own opinions have learned to listen with patience and compassion. 

I asked Carla and Cabby, separately, what has changed during their working friendship. Carla said that Cabby has become like a soul mate. He opened her to the realization that not all people with whom you grow close are going to hurt you or let you down. “Cabby has very good energy. He told me when he wakes up in the morning, he says to himself, ‘I’m going to be happy today.’” When he goes home at the end of a “Carla work day”, she often feels the positive energy leaving with him. She is not wired to wake up with optimism but she responds to it through Cabby.

Cabby, a man motivated by his “can-do” ethic, admits to developing humility from working with Carla. He takes time to listen and learn the back story behind Carla’s decisions. He respects her skill sets and holds back until there is agreement on what project to tackle next.

All of this has led to the best outcome for Carla and the dogs. She feels validated and loved in her relationship with both Cabby and Maddy. There is mutual respect. And there is true, deep, loving friendship. As Carla told me, “Cabby has made me softer. He was God’s gift when I was in a difficult situation.”

Dogs are Carla’s mission in life, her reason for being, and her touchstone to her own humanity. She has created a place of reciprocal need and love while living the life she envisioned as a child with a house and land for her animals. 

From their first encounter, as Chop leaned into Carla’s soothing touch, it was clear to Cabby that this is a woman who lives life in joyful, meaningful work, founded on ability, confidence, and complete devotion to nurturing animals. Adding his labor and caretaking into the mix, Cabby mirrors back the importance, value, and beauty Carla brings, what they both bring…all for the love of dogs.

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*ADDENDUM: Work Still To Be Accomplished

Carla is ready to take on next steps. She is not actively acquiring new strays or young dogs to raise, but currently has 19 animals depending on her care. She is eager to reopen another dog pension for financial reasons. The installation of sturdy, protected, outdoor kennels is a large project requiring funding for materials and labor. 

If you love dogs, or other people who love dogs, or a good human interest story, there is a way to help with restarting Carla’s Happy Dog Pension. Consider the gift of a donation in the form of a one time sum or ongoing annual sponsorship for a few years. All funds are designated for kennel construction and maintenance, supporting dogs with food, flea/tick collars for the tribe, spaying, neutering, and other veterinary care health needs.

In the U.S., a Venmo account entitled Cabby Tennis @Dog-Kingdom has been set up for Carla and the dogs. If you contribute this way, please include your name and email address in the notes. Information will be kept confidential, but we would like to be able to thank you personally.

It is also possible to contribute directly to the Dog Kingdom bank account in Athens, Greece. For transfer information into the Euro account, contact Cabby cmdkwalker46@gmail.com or Wendy windowtoalifeoverseas@gmail.com.

If writing a check is your preferred method, contact Wendy and the Venmo deposit will be made for you.

No donation is too small. Any and all financial gifts will help Carla’s Dog Kingdom grow into the future…

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FUN PHOTO GALLERY

Click the link for the projects accomplished (with donations) in Carla’s Dog Kingdom over the past year.

Update On Carla’s Dogs, One Year Later