THAT'S AMORE! - An Interview with Paola Raggi, Proud Gattara in Montopoli di Sabina

My humans, Richard and James with Paola and Stella in March of 2014

Smokey: Miao, Paola. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed today. I really appreciate your time. I had heard so much about you from my humans before I came here and it was such a pleasure to meet you in person here in Casperia. I have really been looking forward to this.

I understand from my humans that you live in Montopoli, a couple of towns south from where I live in Casperia, but that you once lived in Canada. Can you tell me this story? I understand that you were actually born here in Italy, moved to Canada, and came back…

Paula Raggi: You're very welcome Smokey... Mio piacere. It's such a long story. I will try not to bore you!

I was born in Sicily many moons ago. We only stayed in Sicily for four years and soon after we moved to Torino. 

Paola with her family in Italy

We lived in Torino—you may know it as Turin—for six years until one day Dad decided to move to Canada. Once I arrived in Canada I soon discovered that I really disliked it—especially the winters! I had no choice, caro Smokey, but I knew that someday, somehow, I would go back to Italy! 

Many years later, and after many not so pleasant events, I finally made it back to Italy! First for a few weeks, and slowly I found myself loving this area, the Sabina, so much that I made it my second home. 

The view of the centro storico of Montopoli above the olive groves near Paola's home

Here is where I met my partner Paolo. I was helping a friend run their agriturismo and Paolo was a client.. The rest is history!

Paola with Stellina on his shoulder

We lived in Fiano Romano at first, in a little apartment. Small but I liked it… It was home!

Count the number of my feral friends in this flower pot!

S: I understand that you and your partner Paolo care for a feral colony of cats on your farm. How many cats live on your farm and how did that come about?

My feral friends signalling to Paola and Paolo that it is meal time

PR: It all started there Smokey. We had a couple of strays come around for meals and shelter. In a short time I found myself with thirteen kittens—yes the three cats were all pregnant! It was crazy to say the least! I had kittens everywhere in my patio. Some were really sick. I had to call the vet for a house call as I could not take all thirteen kittens to him! It was very expensive but I could not do otherwise! Some I lost along the way—they were really sick—but a good number survived! I had to administer the meds twice to three times a day—not an easy job with kittens as you know! One of the mother cats would not nurse her kittens and one of the other mother cats took the kittens like her own and nursed them instead Amazing to say the least, caro Smokey!

Our dog Pia—we had rescued her in 2001 from a bad situation­­­­­­­—she was only a little white fur ball when we found her. Anyway, she got used to the kitten. She was actually licking them and gently playing with them—like a mom would! Pia has lots of love in her little heart!

When it was time to move I found a good home for some of the kittens and the rest we took to the Sabina to Montopoli in the country.

Kaki with her Mom, Kooki

S: Is there any support for people like you from the comune, or other local organizations?

PR: In Montopoli, we started with five cats and, little by little, we became seventeen. We finally were able to find some help with the ASL (health department) of Rieti. Through them we managed to get free sterilization for our feral colony. I had to register my feral colony first. I certainly don’t mind feeding them and taking care or other medical expenses but I could not afford to sterilize them all!

Meal time is sometimes a free for all on the front patio of Paola and Paolo's

S: Where do these cats come from? How to they come to arrive at your door?

PR: Many of my cats are strays. Some are from the same family, and some are left by some cruel human beings! I love each one of them… It takes a lot of patience and love to take care of them, but it all pays off at the end...They give me lots back too!! I think they know that here they will find a shelter, a place where there is lots of love for each one of them!

S: Have you always had cats in your life?

PR: I grew up with cats and dogs and every time I lost one I suffered, but it's worth the pain. Not to have them in my life it would be really a big loss!

S: My favourite word in Italian that I have learned so far is “gattara". How do you respond to that word? Do you consider yourself a gattara?

PR: I am a proud gattara. I don't mind it at all!

S: I can appreciate that looking after a colony of my feral friends is a huge responsibility and that it takes a lot of your energy and time, but what are the rewards… What does looking after my feral friends give you in return?

PR: When I take my walks around the property, I look behind and around me and I see all my little furry babies who follow my every step, side by side, that makes it all worthwhile!! I know that I am blessed!

S: And we are blessed by you Paola. Thank you, and thank Paolo for everything you do for my feral friends.

This post is dedicated to the memory of little Stellina

 

ONE PAW WASHES THE OTHER... AND TOGETHER THEY WASH THE FACE - An Interview with Maria Piazza

Giorgio washing his face...

Miao Maria. Thank you for allowing me to interview you today.

Smokey: You have six cats, or should I say six cats have you. What are their names and how did your feline family happen?

Maria Piazza: Giorgio is my eldest boy at almost 14.  Paolo found him next to a dustbin in Rome thinking he was a dead rat, but when he went to pick him up he saw this tiny paw open up, stretching out his little  fingers.  He was furless, with no ears and scrunched up eyes, still showing signs of his cord.  The vet said it would be very difficult for him to survive but he did "alla grande" and he is now here in all his adorableness to tell the tale!!

Giorgio in the arms of Richard, one of my humans... What patience. I jump after a few seconds. 

Lupa, 10 years old, decided she was going home with Stefano and the more he took her out of the car as he was chatting to his friends one evening in Rome, the more she would jump back in. It was obvious she was looking for a family so he took her home. She is named Lupa because of her three colours, black, white and orange - the colours of Paolo's contrada called Lupa in Siena …. unfortunately we found out yesterday that she is probably going blind as she has detached retinas …

Marzia just turned up one day in March a couple of years ago, full of facial nasties but absolutely lovable. We have no idea how old she is. She has had a couple of operations for benign tumours, but they keep growing back so we are going to leave her alone now and let her live her life in peace. 

Marzia

Sleepy, a kitten, too just turned up one Saturday morning in 2009 when I still used to come for my weekends to Casperia. I was told that she had been seen in the big car park down below, a couple of days before, so she had obviously been abandoned and followed someone up into the town. I was sitting on my bench doing my knitting in the sun and she jumped on my knee and fell asleep. And slept and slept the whole two days. I even made a kind of pouch for her to sleep in by rolling and pinning up my t-shirt so that I could walk about and do my chores… hence the name Sleepy! She must have been so relieved that she'd finally found a home that I simply didn't have the heart to leave her behind so I took her back to Rome that Sunday evening.

Sleepy keeping watch over Casperia's ramparts... That must be a lovely perch to get some sun in... 

Chicco, whose real name is Romeo is probably around eight years old and used to belong to a dear neighbour called Ottavia. Before she died a couple of years ago she made sure I would look after him and take him into my home. He is a sweetie and I still feel Ottavia's presence when I stroke him and brush his long sleeky ginger fur.

Chicco enjoying the warmth of the sun on Via Rivellini

Then we have a two year old ginger tinker called Romolo. Paolo's brother Francesco found this stray kitten in his garden and gave him to Paolo. He has a mind of his own and WILL NOT be bossed around by anyone. He comes and goes as he pleases and quite vociferously lets people know he's the boss!

Romolo

There have been others at home throughout my 40 years of married life with Paolo in Rome, many of whom are buried in the peaceful grounds of Montefiolo - along with many more who were strays at Paolo's art studio complex and on the streets below our appartamento in Rome…

S: Did you live with cats when you were small? Have you always like cats? 

MP: I have grown up with cats, my mother was another cat lover as is my sister Rita.

S: Casperia is known as a town of cats and cat lovers. Would you say this is a correct assessment?

MP: Casperia may be a town of cats (Catsperia!) but to say it is a town of cat lovers is not strictly true.  Many consider the cats to be a nuisance and in the past it has been known for poisoned polpette to be left around to keep the numbers down….  We instead considered it a better idea to try and and neuter as many as possible.  It seems to be working as there are no way near as many strays as there used to be …. and they seem to be so healthier. 

S: From what my humans tell me though, this reputation means that cats are sometimes abandoned here in the hoped that kind hearted people like you will adopt them? Who are these people and why do you think that they come to abandon their pets?

MP:  As for those inhumane humans who abandon their pets - well words fail me, I get so incensed and upset each time I go out of the door each holiday and find yet another crying creature hungry for a home. Unfortunately a lot of Italians consider cats and dogs to be just soul-less "animals" and jeer at us for keeping our pets in the house and allowing them to sleep on our beds and sit on our chairs..

S: From what I understand from my humans there are a lot of people here in Italy who choose not to spay or neuter their cats. Is this true, and if it is, why do you think this is so?

MP: Many think it is cruel to tamper with nature by spaying and neutering, yet consider it quite normal and common practice to kill newborn kittens and puppies …. it's also a LOT cheaper to keep numbers down their way … Grrrrrrr

S: Grrrrrrr indeed! I know from my humans and from my limited interaction with the cats I meet here in Casperia that there are a number of people who help feed the homeless cats here. It must cost a bit of money to do this… How do these people afford to do it? Is there support from the Comune or other sources?

MP: Thankfully there are quite a few humans who are not like this and are more than willing to feed the homeless cats.   There is NO help from the Comune or elsewhere for that matter. There are some kind veterinarians who charge less to spay or neuter a cat if it's feral. We are happy to feed them but would be even happier if we knew there would be no new arrivals to break our hearts.

S: It is getting cold and wet outside now that it is winter. I remember that there was even some snow last week. Where do the homeless cats go for shelter here in Casperia? Are there places for them to stay dry out of the nasty weather? 

MP: These strays, almost all of whom have names, are fondly cared for and sleep in the numerous cantinas dotted around the town.  Luckily a lot of them have rotten wooden doors with huge holes and they can come in and out and shelter in the dry when it rains.  Some of us have put igloos with comfy cushions for them to sleep on. 

S: With six furry friends in the house I can imagine that bedtime can be challenging… Do all of your cats get to sleep in bed with you? Do they take turns? Or do some of them have their own special places to sleep.

MP: Bedtime is extremely challenging with at least two, usually Sleepy and Giorgio at my feet.  Turning over with a two-ton-ted like Marzia next to my shoulder, who refuses to budge can be frustrating for her and impossible for me.  Chicco and Lupa tend to sleep downstairs on the armchair and divano.  Romolo sleeps anywhere!

S: What would your life be like without your cats?

MP: My life without cats? Mamma mia! No way!!  I simply cannot envisage it. xxxxx

S: Thank you Maria. Grazie di cuore. You are a wonderful human. I am proud to know you, and I am so happy you agreed to be interviewed.

❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎ 

I leave you, my readers, with this video that sums up my thoughts and emotions after this interview with Maria. Here are two links, one in Italian and one in English, for for heartwarming video: 

Credi nel Bene / Believe in Good 

Enjoy. Miao for now.

I Gatti Di Roma - The Cats of Rome

Cat at the Colosseo courtesy of romeguide.it

According to what my humans tell me, Rome is a city of cats... Cats have been an important part of the Eternal City's history since ancient times. It seems that the first cats came to Rome from Egypt where cats were considered sacred.

Wadjet-Bast courtesy of Wikipedia

Although the ancient Romans did not worship cats like the Egyptians, they held us in high esteem because of our ability to keep in check the mice and rats that threatened to consume Rome's grain. 

Cat mosaic from Pompeii courtesy of ancient.eu

Pompeii mosaic at the Museum of Naples courtesy thegreatcat.org

Somehow, after the fall of the Roman Empire, things got very bad for us cats in Europe. I don't understand why but cats, during the middle ages, became associated with evil and were killed in great numbers. Black cats especially were targeted for a cruel death.

Illustration of a man about to kill a cat Biblia Porta, 13th C France courtesy of Catster.com

The association between cats and the devil and witchcraft was so strong that people who were kind to cats or kept cats were also persecuted and killed as witches. Our angels were perceived as demons.

The Triumph of Death by Pieter Breugel the Elder

One would almost say a karmic consequence of all this cruelty and carnage was more death, this time for people, in the form of the Black Death, or Bubonic Plague in the 1300s. 

You see, this disease was spread by fleas from rats and mice. With so many cats being killed across Europe the rat population exploded. 

Courtesy Toronto Star

By this time Rome's population had already greatly diminished. Large swathes of the ancient city became uninhabitable due to lack of water. During the barbarian invasions of Rome the ancient aqueducts which brought water to the city were cut and never repaired. The capital of the ancient world fell into ruins. The human population abandoned the seven hills and moved to those parts of the city closest to the Tiber while we cats survived in the silent ruins.

Thankfully, over time, humans in Europe changed their perception of cats and once again we were allowed back into the house. Cat appreciation and how cats are treated seem to differ from country to country. Rome's cats in the ruins became a sort of tourist attraction. Everywhere you go in Rome you see cat calendars with pictures of us basking on a marble statue or posing beside the Colosseo. 

Roman calendar tabby courtesy of webecoist.com

Sadly, these calendar cats are largely without the comfort of a human home. They live in large colonies among Rome's ruins. People estimate that there are about 300,000 feral cats living in about 2,000 colonies in Rome. 

One of my feral buddies drinking in the ruins at Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary

Many of these colonies are looked after kindly people. Such a woman in Italian is known as a gattara, and a man is known as a gattaro.

There are even gattare here in Casperia. My humans say that every day they see a group of dedicated women and men feeding the local feral cats from their own resources. They also say that sometimes these kind people are taken advantage of because heartless, irresponsible people, who are tired of their pets, dump their unwanted cats here in Casperia. 

Sometimes these unhappy kitties get adopted into a home, but those who are not become the burden of the kindly gattare who not only feed these cats, but often look after their veterinarian bills and get these cats spayed and neutered. This can be a very expensive prospect and it is not fair.

My humans say that any person who takes a cat into their home should have their cat spayed or neutered to ensure that there are no more homeless hungry kitties. To me, this just makes sense.

The life of some of these kindly gattare, especially in Rome where there are so many abandoned cats, is hard. Many of them sell the things they have to make money to support the cats they are taking care of. These people are truly angels... and we reward them as we can.

There are also very kind doctors who volunteer their services or provide neutering and spaying for lower fees. My humans have helped me attach a video at the end of this post. It is in Italian... I only understand a little, but I am trying hard to learn. 

I would like to thank my friend Alessandra for this very useful book. Mi aiuta molto, Alessandra. Grazie di cuore!

  

Anyway, please take a look at this video called I Gatti Di Roma, which of course means The Cats of Rome... It is not only the story of the life of these cats, but it also gives you an insight into the lives of the gattare, our angels. Please click the Youtube link below.

 I GATTI DI ROMA - A VIDEO IN MEMORY OF LIA DEQUEL

Miao for now!

Mamma Mia! - 9,000 Kilometres from Home to Rome!

Homemade Stringozzi for dinner in Vancouver

I blame it on the stringozzi. I knew my humans were crazy about Italy... More often than not, when they cooked back in our house in East End Vancouver they would cook Italian. As they got ready, they would open a bottle of wine, light some candles, and put on Italian music... Depending on what they were cooking they would play Paolo Conte, Mina, Biaggio Antonacci, Mango, or Tiziano Ferro. I didn't really care what music they played... What I did like was when they cooked pork sausages and shared them with me at the table.

My humans have been travelling to Italy off and on since 1999, the year before I was born... I was nine years old when they left me in the care of a family member and went to Italy together for the second time. It was at this time that they discovered Casperia, the Lazio hill town where we now live, and stringozzi... the hand-made pasta typical of the region.

No sooner had my humans returned from this first trip to Casperia then they were planning their next visit. My humans seemed fixated on this place...   

By the way, that is my window just under the square 12 panelled window near the tree. From here I see much of the Sabina

Each time my humans' visits to Italy increased in length and in frequency. They would come home to Vancouver and tell me stories about the people they had met and the many cats that they had made friends with... 

I don't want to blame the cats along with the stringozzi, but perhaps they are another reason why my humans love this place... 

Cicciopalla... They say he is Casperia's Number 1 Cat!

The cats... and the amazing sunsets...

Whatever their reason or reasons, I am here now... Nine thousand kilometres away from home... here in Casperia, just an hour or so away from Rome, in the Province of Rieti.

I feel a little more settled here now... My humans have found a brand of wet cat food I like. One of their friends, Maria, has found them some dry food that I love... and I have new friends here. I am finally meeting the people my humans used to talk to me about... and they are lovely... They give me pats and chin scratches... they talk and play with me... and some bring me ham and other food and treats like catnip. I was surprised to find that most Italian cats have never experienced this wonder. I feel very lucky.  

Slowly, I am getting used to the stone and the terra cotta tiles, the roaring wind and thunderstorms... and the bells... Do you know that they ring church bells at seven in the morning, at noon and at six o'clock at night? At first I was startled... but now I find them a comfort. 

I have found a number of favourite places here in the apartment... the big chair by the larger fireplace downstairs...

...and the chair by the wall heater in the library... and I love getting up on the windowsill in the morning and watch the pigeons and other birds flutter outside on the terracotta tiles. 

When I chatter at the birds my humans give me a pat on the head and say "Good Smokey." The other time I like to sit in this window is in the afternoon when the sun warms my fur and the sky turns gold and red as it sets.

I think I will stop writing now... it is late and my humans are going to bed... I will write more in a while... In the meantime, if you see a cat, give it a pat... If you see a hungry cat... feed it... If you see a homeless cat... be as kind and as generous as you can... 

Dennis Dakin, a few days before finding his forever home

We cats remember... and we have our ways of passing on rewards... So until then... Miao for now.