European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday september 12, 1990 the stars and stripes Over Here big bad Bob struts his stuff As top cat at Iraklion station by j. Kin Cruger Mediterranean Bureau Iraklion Crete a if you done to know Bob the cat you probably Haven to been to Iraklion air station Crete where everyone knows big Bob. Bob the cat is hard to miss. He a no svelte Slinky sucker. Bob is your archetypal unreconstructed Tom. One malevolent glance from big Bob would wipe that self satisfied Smirk off Garfield a chops. No one messes with big Bob. It May have something to do with his looks. Bob the cat is no pretty boy. Built Low to the ground he looks like a chopped and channelled dump truck. Bob is Gray. Maybe. Could be he a actually White and extremely dirty. Anyway he looks Gray. If they made fur Coats out of cats fur bobs Pelt  be Worth a Furnall. His Back is slashed with scars and his mangled left ear testifies to Many a Tough tooth and claw 10-Rounder. A we think its our base but its actually bobs a says air Force col. Richard t. Lee the base commander. A there Are hundreds of cats on this base and lots of them look like Bob. He was the chief stud of the base. We had him fixed about six months ago but he Hasni to realized it yet a Lee said. There is one thing that makes Bob stand out from All other cats on base and from All other cats on the Island of Crete. Possibly from All other cats anywhere. Bob has a Gold tooth. Not a Gold filling mind you but a Sharp Golden Fang that Dazzles in the Brilliant cretan Sun. Bob yawns More than other cats do. He yawns constantly As if to show off his Golden Fang and to say a if you thought i was a bad dude before Check this  big Bob used to weigh in at a Rock solid 26 pounds. Then he began to shed weight alarmingly. A a bobs a weight dropped to 15 pounds and he was really irritable. It turned out that he had an abscessed tooth a said Terry Lee Earle founding member of Iraklion a stray animal committee. A base dentist who has since left Iraklion donated his time and performed a Root canal on big Bob. His canine tooth was capped with donated Gold said Earle a 31-year-old native of Lakeland Fla. A a bobs a weight is up to 23 pounds a she said. The 17-Strong stray animal committee collects stray animals on base and brings them to the visiting vet. The strays nearly All cats Are neutered Given shots tattooed and tagged. The vet donates his time to the strays and the committee pays for All medicines. A the cat population was out of control before we started last october but we Are making Progress and now the base cat population is Down to 400 or 500,�?� a Arle she is married to tech. Sgt. Jerry w. Earle technical controller for the 2115th comm so and is employed by mar As clerk of the base vet clinic. To a amps Ken George big Bob yawns displaying his genuine Gold tooth. Raise operating funds the stray animal committee holds car washes runs bake sales and Sells to shirts graced with bobs photo and Paw print. One shirt says a i met big Bob at Iraklion ask while another proclaims a i fed big  big Bob is exceptionally Friendly with people but lets no cats trespass on his turf. If you want to meet and feed big Bob his turf is in front of the base Woodland. A can opener hangs on a string outside the stores door. The opener is there for people who buy food for big Bob. A people keep buying meals for Bob a Lee said. A the Hasni to turned one Down yet.descendants awed by Ellis Island museum new York apr a look at this think How frightened she must have been a Rita Lowe exclaimed trying to imagine the Awe her italian immigrant Mother Felt on entering the cavernous registry room on Ellis Island in 1907. A can you imagine coming from a Small Village a she said. Lowe 67, of Long Beach calif., was among the 371 people who took the first ferry from lower Manhattan a Battery Park across the Harbor monday when the a Portal to the new world reopened As a museum celebrating american immigrants. A we came to be sure we were Here this first Day a said Lowe who walked the Halls of the restored building with relatives remembering her mothers tales. She said her Mother was troubled by the physical examination she had to undergo on arrival. A coming from a Small town women were modest and the physical embarrassed her a Lowe said. A i can understand but she . She often spoke of those first Days Here and would say to me a i was healthy not sick. Why did they have to examine me that Way a a we have to keep this place alive. In memory of her and for All those reasons Why she came Here her and All the  Laima Silaikis Hood 50, of new York came to the United states from Lithuania in 1949. She did no to enter through Ellis Island but an Uncle of hers Didin 1910. A the significance for me being an immigrant a a refugee a is that i can identify with those who came before a she said standing before photo murals and a display of Century old trunks Valise and baskets in the baggage room a great Hall at the front Entrance of the museum. _ the building contains a variety of exhibits on three Levels Many depicting what the incoming millions and their adopted country were like when they arrived. Patricia Sandler was enthralled by the display of immigrant artefacts and said she wished she had thought to contribute an heirloom from her grandparents John a Theresa Rugolo holds a picture of her parents Francesca and Antonio Rugolo As she studies the Wall of Honor at Ellis Island. And Maria Desimone. They passed through Ellis Island from Naples Italy in 1907. A they had lived near mount Vesuvius and when it erupted they had Copper pots they put Over their Heads to protect them from falling stones. A a we be had those pots All these years things they kept in Steamer trunks As mementos a Sandler said. Theodore Heretakis 55, went straight from the ferry to the islands seawall to scan the Wall of Honor. Among the 200,000 names inscribed in Copper he found the names of his father Stavros and his father in Law Pantelis Gigourtakis who came from Crete in the 1920s. A i Marvel at the achievement of All the immigrants a said Heretakis an Engineer from Commack. A they All demonstrate what our parents had the hard work and  Jerry Chlumsky 48, of new York said his Grandfather Joseph settled in Chicago in the 1890s after arriving in new York from Prague Czechoslovakia. A i feel very close and yet there a a Gap a Chlumsky said. A i feel a kinship with Eastern Europe and this is sort of a meeting place Between Here and  a i can to believe people had the guts to leave and come where they had no idea what they were coming to a said Jennifer Wechsler 18, of los Angeles who visited the museum with her Mother Judy on the last Day of a trip to the City. Barbara Viborka 54, of new York reminiscing at the seawall said her parents came from Czechoslovakia arriving in separate ships. A growing up i heard about the trip All the time a she said. A they never told me about the bad. They made a joke of it. A Mother was just coming for a visit to see a Cousin and go Back Home. She was 16. But she was seasick 14 Days and she said she decided when she got Here that a god put me on land and that a where in a  a