M - O- U- S - E!!!!

 Scruffy.  He was the kitten I wanted first. I fixed his goopy eyes when he was just 3 months old.  He scrammed out the door but came back the next day....eyes wide open and schmoozed me for the first time.  He understood.

Scruff is 6 years old now.  No, he wasn't the first in the door.  Not my fault and not at all what I wanted.  Missy Tee marched in the door all by herself.  "Honey!  I'm home!"

Calzini succumbed to temptation...TUNA!!..and got trapped in the cage.  Imp was terribly sick and near death.  Finally...finally....Scruffy!!!

So, here we are a bit more than 5 years later.  And Scruff is (and probably was always meant to be) the quintessential housecat.  He hardly ever sits in windows....only sometimes.  He loves to snuggle,  He shows up for breakfast (which is critical because he has feline asthma and I put his medication in his food).  AND he loves to play with toys.  But not just any toy.  No.  It HAS to be "Mousie."

There have been various incarnations of Mousie along the way.  It was inevitable, after all.  One gets lost forever...who knows where?  One loses its eyes, ears, tail and most otf its covering....ugh.  So, it has been necessary to replace "Mousie" from time to time and hope he accepts the newcomer.  

I found "mousies" online..similar...and they were filled with catnip.  I tried it.  Well, yay, he was happy.....but only, as usual, with ONE.  What is the special magic, Scruff????

But what this boy does with THE ONE is incredible, especially considering he is 6 now!  These floors are shiny and slick, so when he bats it, Mousey goes FLYING....ZOOM!!!  But he also gets up on hind legs and slam dunks it or sends it across the room....I have found Mousie on the kitchen counter, under furniture (most common) inside shoes, on the bed, and, sadly, in their water bowl, requiring a 2 day dry out.  He's hilarious.  Bend it like Beckham, boy!!  

We have about twice the space here, so he is having a blast.  AND his asthma is better here.  He hasn't had any bad attacks.  I think because ...more space, the ceilings are higher, more windows and there is no one (teens who used to hang out under our balcony on the passaggiatta) smoking nearby.  Less car exhaust, too.  So, the air is cleaner and he is more comfortable.  So am I.  I am considering lowering his already low dose of medication even lower and skipping a day here and there.  I will see how it goes.

No one would ever guess this sweet baby had ever been a street cat.

And speaking of street cats!

The street cats still left at the former domicile are being cared for by our former neighbors.  We provide the food and they do the feeding.  It IS a protected colony.

BUT, there is someone back here....there is a house next door, with a garden...no one there because the place is being rehabbed periodically and sporadically (I don't understand how things work here, exactly) but there is no one there except when there are workmen.  There were guys doing stuff inside during the summer, now there is a big scaffolding up...3 stories...perhaps to work on the roof...I have no idea.  They put up the scaffolding and disappeared.

BUT there had been a cat out there since we moved in.  And when we moved in, I noticed a bowl on the ground....so, whoever did/does live there....they knew this boy came by.  He must be a boy...he is LARGE, like Percy....maybe 20 lbs or more...but he is white with patches of tortoise shell in black and gray.  He is a gorgeous cat.  

Since naming more than 20 cats over the last several years, this one just became, (I'm sorry to say) Fatso Catso.  Yep.  Fatso Catso.  He comes to nap.  Sometimes he plays with butterflies or just stands on the wall in the back and looks at the view.  Recently, I saw him lounging on the scaffolding, since the garden was in the shade and the scaffold still had sunshine, keeping him warm.

I'm certain he is another unneutered male...the macho in this country sometimes drives me nuts....but he seems, like Calzini's dad, a nice cat, nevertheless.  So, I look for him every day.  He doesn't always show up.  Clearly, he doesn't need feeding.  That's a relief.  

He has seen us.  He knows we are here.  I can't stand people who just let their cats roam and whatever.  They are DOMESTIC PETS.  TAKE CARE OF THEM!!!!

Splish splash, I was takin' a bath....

 Sooooo...we moved.  And, as far as we could tell, there was only one "working" bathroom.  We originally saw this place on a chilly, rainy day and since no one had lived here for about a year, there was no water, no electricity..nothing.  We were "shown" the bathroom, conveniently across from the bedroom...and it looked "normal" albeit with a bathtub that was somewhat small, but this is Europe.  These things happen.  And we didn't have a flashlight.

Sooooo, turns out, after we moved in, we discovered that said "bathtub" had TWO levels.  An upper level that would have been fine as a seat.....IF it had even been remotely possible to STAND in the lower level.  BUT the lower level is cupped, like a fucking tulip.  Seriously.  Who?  How?  What????

Sooooo, the era of sponge baths ensued.  

Finally, we were able to have a guy come over who owns a contracting company.  Young guy, very nice, personable.  And he speaks English as well as Italian.  Turns out he lived in the US for some years!! His father moved the family there from South America. 

After discussing, it was decided that the SECOND bathroom in the back would be better suited to an immediately working shower.  First a large and heavy (and ugly) dry sink had to be removed (and is still sitting in the back) but that provided the water source.  On the other side there is a toilet and bidet and the bidet could have been removed, but this is another room with a curved ceiling, so a shower would be impossible.  

They took out the sink, put in the shower, fixed up the wall and we also replaced the double door to a small balcony, so there are no drafts, leaks or bugs.  

The work has stopped next door, there is no one there.  I love taking a shower midday, when the sun is shining in.  It almost feels like a spa.  Those doors, even when shut, will tilt in on the right, just enough to get a breeze, some fresh air.  

Yes, we have a curtain, and when it starts getting dark, or if and when someone is ever next door, of course, it will be closed, for the most part.  But right now I am loving this feeling of being bathed in sunshine with all the greenery outside while showering.  It reminds me of the years that I would take my daughter to the water park in Michigan.  We could rent a tube for the day, there was an area to sit under umbrella and have lunch or a snack.  There was a wave pool and a water slide.  She loved it, I loved it.  

Eventually we will remove the bidet and put in a sink, hang a mirror and voila!  

Eventually we will rehab the stupid bilevel tub.  Eventually......  hopefully within a year.  Eventually every room, other than the bedroom which is done, needs to be painted.  But, hallelujah, I am clean.  Yippee!!

Tell someone to meet me, I'm coming home

The cats were freaked out by moving.  We had to bring them in shifts.  And none of us were familiar with the terrain, as it were.  

Scruffy was one of the most severely traumatized.  He disappeared for about a week, even though they were confined to one room, said room had once been a kitchen and he found a way to wiggle into the cabinet below the sink.  I was beside myself because if he wouldn't come out, clearly he wasn't eating or getting his asthma medication.  AGGHH!!

Notte wasn't too happy either.

The BIG surprise was Calzini.  Calzini, the one we weren't going to adopt, but he made himself so at home after he was neutered we decided he would stay.  Nevertheless, Zini was somewhat standoffish.  He never made a sound and you could not touch him. 

Gradually, over the course of some time, he allowed himself to be pet.  He snuggled with his buddies in their usual spots.  Eventually, he started asking for attention.  "Hey!  I'd like a scratch, please!!"  And after sweet, lopey Lupo came along, he really came out of his shell.  They were play buddies.  And Lupo is VERY affectionate and vocal.  Zini learned.

So, by the time we moved, Zini would sit on the arms of chairs or the sofa and allow himself the attention.  But what surprised me was, after the move, HE was the great explorer.  Once we were settled in and the cats were given the run of the place, it was Zini who looked in every room, every nook, every corner.  He jumped in the windows!  "Whats goin on out there?"  

Now he talks regularly, DEMANDS affection...by either shoving his face into yours or patting you with his paws.  He still hasn't ventured into a lap, but he comes close.  He might put one or both front paws down in your lap.

I don't know, but I think the light bulb went on in his little head....and he realized he was not going to be abandoned in the street again, that he was "home" and home was with us and his companions.  

The Light of the Silvery Moon

 It's been a long time.  Things have....happened.  

So, there was a small (about 50 cars worth) parking lot below us....down the hill.  We really couldn't see it in the summer, only after the leaves fell in Autumn.  The lot led to an elevator that rose about 8-10 stories to the main piazza here.

Well, said lot was expanded.  A lot.  I would say 3 times larger, although maybe a bit more.  Why?  I have no idea...no one was filling all that space.  During the construction, land, plants, trees were moved.  Lots of them. And for no apparent reason, all the vegetation next to our balcony, near the TOP of the hill, was also removed.  Trees, bushes, a magnificent elderberry.  

We lost the birds.  The only stragglers were some crows and an occasional sparrow.  What we did get was a whole lot of sun.  So much so that I had to buy a blackout curtain for the bedroom because it was getting ridiculously hot.  The other result?  I could no longer enjoy the balcony.  Too much sun, too much heat, too many bugs.

  But then...ah, then....the back wall of the entire apartment...which included the dining room and the kitchen, where the caldaia (water heater) was mounted on the wall, where we had the refrigerator, and of course, where the balcony was located outside, began to crack.  Seriously crack, as in it looked like it was falling down or off.  If it was windy, you could feel it.  Bricks were exposed.  Not only unsightly but potentially dangerous.  We had to move.

We had to move, and saddled with a place we could not sell. (We are hoping that the Comune or Italy or something, will decide to reimburse us something.  Maybe.) 

I'll make it short.  We found an affordable place on the other side of town, up a hill.  We moved at the end of March and I haven't even attempted to walk down the hill yet.  I'm beginning to feel isolated.  Also because my husband had a fall and hurt his hip and will need surgery to scrape arthritis from said hip in the very near future.  

On the bright side, the place doesn't have outdoor space, but it is considerably larger.  We have a large storage room (which is still a wreck) and two baths, sort of....agggh.  There were surprises in store after we moved.  What looked like a regular little bathtub is some weird thing with 2 levels and the bottom is curved like a tulip, so it is impossible to stand.  We had to have a shower installed in the OTHER bathroom.  

Also, the colors are...for me, anyway, mortifying.  Only the bedroom has been painted, a creamy off white.  (It was what I lovingly referred to as "hospital blue")  The rest of the place is YELLOW.  Like a freaking egg yolk.  

The oven wasn't "new"...it was filthy and didn't work.  The stove had a gas leak.  So, I got a new stove/oven.  The window in the bedroom had to be replaced, and the double door in the shower room.  The one in the laundry/cat room will need to be replaced before winter.

But, little by little, it is...improving.  Our upstairs neighbors are wonderful.  She is a nurse in Pescara and just so helpful its embarrassing.  She gives us peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers and EGGS,  fresh from her cousin's yard.  She has taken me, or my husband, to the supermarket, to the bank...I hate to impose, but she always asks.  

And one other nice thing.  Out the back windows the mountains are visible, and a small garden that belongs to the place next door, which is vacant, so the thing is getting unruly and overgrown.  But I can see THE MOON!!!  I haven't seen the moon in 6 years!  I was so excited the first time I woke in the night and saw the light shining in.  What is that?  And this month, the moon has been nothing short of spectacular.  Yippee, something that males me happy.  

We have to visit the Questura this year to renew our permits.  Needless to say, it is rather nerve wracking, considering what is going on across the pond.  Should all go well, we can then think about getting the rest of place painted in the Spring.  And also installing another shower in the bath with the strange little tub.  

The clowns (cats) have adjusted.  Moving was hard on them, except Calzini, who, after 5 years must have finally decided that we aren't getting rid of him.  He made himself right at home.  Scruffy took awhile.  Our former neighbor is taking care of feeding the "colony" now, while we supply the food.

Lastly, I am gradually feeling better with a new rheumatologist and new medicine regimen.  I hope to be able to walk down this hill at some point and join the living once again.  Fingers crossed.