Over the last month or so On The Spit has been tracking what has been going down in Greece and it would be fair to say that it has been an emotional rollercoaster ride.

The EU meetings, the parlimanetary debates, the protests, the killings, the stock market reports, the financial and politicial analyses, the threatened collapse of the euro and the wooing of Angela Merkel by Yiorgaki has left us exhausted.

Exhausted to the point where we have been ready to go ftou. Exhausted to the point where we have contemplated going back to the future and imagining it is

March 2009, that Costas Karamanlis is still Prime Minister and, as long as we have our paidakia and Playstation, all is good with the world.

However reality bites and we return back to a situation of uncertainty.

In amongst all of the dire and depressing news about Greece has come a story which has warmed the heart of On The Spit and given us hope.

We all know that Athens has a problems with stray animals, particularly dogs. They are a common sight on the streets of the Greek national capital.

Those with an astute eye would have seen the photos of the stray dogs in around the protests.

Well, one of them has now become a star.

It is the story of Kanellos aka the Riot Dog.

According to a number of reports in the UK press and on the web Kanellos has become famous as a result of his on-going presence in the protests and demonstrations on the streets of Athens over the last couple of years.

According to a report in the UK paper The Daily Telegraph Kanellos has been ‘turning up to at least 10 riots in Greece since 2008’ and but that ‘some have dared to suggest it may not be the same dog in all the shots, that Kanellos died two years and has been replaced with a similar golden mutt named “Loukanis”.”

A Greek blog Comrade Kanelos claims that Kanelos died a couple of years ago and was part of a gang of stray dogs which lived in and around the Athens Polytechnic in the suburb of Exarcheia.

Don’t you love a good conspiracy theory? It’s so Greek. All that On The Spit can do is say is – Trust no one, The truth is out there.

The irony is the raging digital celebrityhood of Kanellos aka the Riot Dog.

A Facebook page dedicated to Kanellos has also been set up which tracks our revolutionary pooch. A facebook page which has over 28 000 members. A facebook page which has made Kanellos a internet celebrity.

Video homages has also appeared on youtube to our Grecian riot dog which had over 60 000 people view them in the last week.

Hundreds of websites abd blogs have written about Kanellos aka the Riot Dog.

However lets not mess about here this is a pooch with attitude. He is the Che Guevara of Athens.

Wherever there is a riot or a protest Kanellos is there; amongst the tear gas, the bullets and the charging of the demonstrators by the riot police.

Man’s best friend has become the koukouloforous best friend as he adds his bark to the protests against state oppression and state violence.

On The Spit salutes you Kanellos aka Riot Dog in the best way that we know – Gav, gav, gav.

We look forward to seeing you on the frontline and on a t-shirt real soon.