Madeline Nineham

Always in our hearts, our dearest founder and friend.

It is with the deepest sadness we’re announcing the passing of our dear founder, Madeline Nineham. She was one of a kind, a most amazing and dedicated woman.
 
She passed away during her sleep last night in the hospital. For a while now, she was unwell but kept that very private.  She will be reunited with her dear husband John and will be caring for the dogs in heaven.
 
 
Since she first started Stepping Stones, she has done so much for the animals on the island of Kefalonia.   Mainly puppies, but she also rescued a pregnant horse (that makes 2 horses)
 
One of her last rescue actions, which not many people knew, the action was buying a bunch of chickens that were sold out of a truck!  She hated to see those poor chickens in the heat and in too tiny crates, so one day she decided to make some space for a few, just to make a small simple difference for a few extra souls.  She is one special lady.
 
She managed to create an amazing network of people around her to make her dreams happen. She was a fighter, until the very end. We love you, Madeline.
 
Although we are no longer taking in any new animals, we will be continuing Madeline’s mission at Stepping Stones, to find new loving, forever homes for our existing dogs, as soon as possible.
Read more about Madeline

Our simple mission, to find forever homes!

Watch our story

Finding forever homes.

Stepping Stones is a non-profit animal foster home, for mums and their pups on the island of Kefalonia in Greece.  It is our aim to find forever, loving homes as soon as possible locally, Holland, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Following the sad passing of our dear founder and owner, Madeline Nineham, we have now changed our mission to finding forever homes for dogs we already have in our care.  We no longer take any new animals into Stepping Stones, but will simply be working to find new loving homes for our existing animals, as soon as possible.  As soon as we have found homes for all our existing dogs, our mission is complete.

I'd like to adopt a dog

Detail to be placed and edited in this space here around adopting our dogs, and connect to the relevant page.

I'd like to foster a dog

For information on fostering a dog from us, please click below to get in touch with us.

Our family, looking for forever homes.

You can read about our family of dogs, looking for forever homes here.  On their profile, you will find general details about age, health, and behavior, along with some history and facts about them.

A few of our family

Pauline's day!

Pauline Foster

Joined Stepping Stones in
February, 2020

I feel privileged that the dogs at Stepping stones have accepted me and make me feel welcome whenever I go to spend time with them, their little tails wag with joy and that’s a pleasure to see. They have become my friends, and nothing makes me happier than caring for them and helping them get one step closer to their forever homes.
Read more

We still need your help?

Whilst our mission is to re-home all of our dogs, we need volunteers, to help us care for the dogs in our care and finding them new homes.  People that are a little experienced with dogs and love to spend some time with them.

Stepping Stones team is a crew of hard working local volunteers. Every day a volunteer starts to feed all the animals (dogs and horses) and then continue to let some pups free in the garden, to clean all the pens and fill up the water buckets. A volunteer has an important role in observing our dogs behaviours and care for them to make sure they’re healthy and happy. All work can be done in about 4 to 6 hours, depending what extra’s we deal with.

Who are we looking for?

We are still looking for people who are able to support our residents here at Stepping Stones.  As well as looking for people to adopt all our dogs into new, forever homes, we are also always looking for people to foster or sponsor our dogs, to enable us to achieve our mission.

There are several ways you can support, and the information below will help give you a better insight into how it works, and which best suits you and your lifestyle.

Again, if there is any area of adopting, fostering and sponsoring that you would like more information around, please do not hessitate to get in touch with us, and we will do our very best to help.

News on our mission.

Our new mission
We are on full capacity
Our 2023 calendar is still on sale
Don't forget to order your 2023 calendar now, while stocks last.
Repairs at Stepping Stones
We'd like to share with you the recent repairs we did at Stepping Stones Thanks to a generous donation from Stichting AAI we could finally do some well needed repairs around the property.