Three cats tales

I adore cats, we've always had at least one and sometimes three but after we lost Cleo a couple of years ago we decided that it wouldn't be fair to keep cats and spend long periods away from them in Italy, which was our plan for retirement. There are always feral cats round our house in Lazio and when we are there we are happy to feed them. This summer word must have got round, we started off feeding one and ended up at most having 7 cats come round for dinner. They were all in good condition and friendly, obviously doing the rounds, so I bought dried food regularly and sometimes cooked extra pasta which was always well received. Before we left most of the cats had moved on and we were only seeing two kittens and their mother, but it was heartbreaking to part after we'd spent so many weeks enjoying their company. The little ones sometimes slept on a folded up padded garden chair, a comfy and safe place, but we had to put that away for the winter. So My FF constructed a bed for them in the wood store beside our outdoor pizza oven using some of the old carpet from the bedroom. He introduced them to the new place by posting them into it and actually went out late at night with a torch to make sure they were tucked in, they were. We left food in the garage to that Mario could feed them when he called to check the house and have heard that they are still around and doing well, in fact our neighbours who feed them when they are at their holiday house sent us a photograph recently which made us both happy and sad. Part of me hopes they'll still be there next year when we go back, part of me wants them to find a better home.
Then while we were at my brother's on our way back from Italy, he told us that four cats had turned up at the farm, two Siamese and two black and whites, all healthy and obviously all recently neutered as their fur hadn't grown back on the operation site. I saw them about, beautiful healthy creatures but quite timid. I know that there are organisations that round up feral cats, have them doctored and release them again but I can't understand how expensive pedigree Siamese cats could become feral. So I was delighted to receive this belated birthday gift from Pam, a knit your own cat book. It made me smile, I'd love a window cill full of kitties, at least those I wouldn't have to worry about when I was away.