NAPLES, Italy — The Old Man of the Sea has been with Chief Petty Officer Christine Smock since her first tour of duty in Europe over a decade ago.

The Sicilian cat — who has only two lower teeth and suffers from arthritis and an eternally feisty attitude — has kept a close eye on Smock’s heavy volunteer schedule, which started as a vet assistant in Rota, Spain, and has continued to founder of the new Naples Friends of Animals.

“I wasn’t the best pet owner in Sicily and I’ve been making up for that for 12 years,” said Smock, chuckling as one of her Bahraini cats gnaws on a briefcase strap.

For the 43-year-old electronics technician, making up has meant devoting up to 20 hours a week to stray, abused and abandoned animals.

In Naples, it means taking volunteer experience spanning three continents and creating a program that will survive despite the transient military population.

“My goal is to get this set up and running so anyone can walk in and [the program] is already there. They just have to keep it running,” Smock said.

For people with — and without — pets, Smock is hoping Friends of Animals can help prevent military members from ditching dogs and cats prior to a move, find veterinarian care for the animals and connect them with someone looking for a pet.

“We don’t want people having to sit in front of the Navy Exchange [to give away] their dog,” she said.

While the organization can’t guarantee homes for animals, it can recommend people to local organizations that take pets in and discourage people from picking up an animal on a whim.

Because military families are on the move every few years, the population is often likely to dump animals rather than deal with moving them.

“It isn’t the majority, but it is the same people over and over again,” Smock said. “They look at pets as conveniences, and that is just irresponsible.”

The organization also places a heavy emphasis on spaying and neutering, both for health reasons and to keep wild cat and dog populations in check.

Naples once had a military-based volunteer organization for animals, but it collapsed some years ago and nothing had filled the void until Smock and her cats — now 18 in number — arrived from Bahrain early last year.

“She brought so many skills. She organized the whole chapter and the whole legal process,” said Cheryl Olsen, foster dog coordinator for Naples Friends of Animals.

“She is vary caring about animals, but very no nonsense.”

The know-how Smock needed to develop Friends of Animals, including animal care, first aid and fundraising, has been years and lots of duty stations in the making.

After leaving Sicily, Smock transferred to Rota and discovered the Rota Animal Welfare League in 1990. She soon was volunteering to assist the vet.

“It is a lot like doing electronics — you are troubleshooting, but it is with something living,” she said.

Smock’s next set of orders took her to Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica, but while she was in California training for the assignment she managed to squeeze in some time helping out at the National Cat Protection Society in San Diego.

Her next stop was on a tender based out of La Maddelena, Sardinia, in 1996, where her little free time was spent fund-raising for the base’s Friends of Animals. She then moved back to Rota and RAWL in 1998, where she spent a summer finding homes for 23 of 24 abandoned kittens.

Smock’s most challenging volunteer work, however, came during her two-year stay in Bahrain, where she swept floors, shoveled waste and assisted in animal surgeries.

Working with the Bahrain Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Smock saw everything from donkeys and goats to hamsters come through the doors.

“Whatever people brought, we took it,” she said. “But there were no small children, thank God, and no camels.”

— Leah Bower is a news correspondent working out of the Naples, Italy, bureau.