Bound to happen

Giovanni our lovely neighbour returned to Rome about the same time we arrived here.  He’s away for almost 2 weeks.  He messaged us to say he’s been feeding a cat and 2 kittens, he’d left them 3 dishes of biscuits and hoped they’d come down to our house and we would feed them. I think it was around midday on Thursday that the kittens pitched up and by early evening the mother, still a kitten herself, arrived.

Luckily we had a few tins of cat food in the cupboard so we were able to feed them.

All 3 cats are in good condition, clean, friendly and very sweet.  They soon discovered the delights of the hotel Splendido on the terrace, the comfy pizza oven and the cat apartment, not to mention the sofas and dining chairs.  The little ones are playful and the mother almost brave enough to climb onto my knee.  There has been a lot of purring.

But what’s going to happen in November when we leave.  Mario was enraged when he saw the cats here and told us not to feed them.  He’s giving me the message he doesn’t want to feed them while we were away, as he did when we had Vincenzo.  When I tackled him last year about this he said of course he’d feed the cat and not for the money we pay him, he does it from his heart.  A week after we left he took the cat, the food we’d provided, dishes and our cat carrier to his house, we got none of them back.  

It’s a dilemma.  Even if the cats go back to Giovanni next week we know he won’t make any provision for them over the winter.  I hate this cruel Italian attitude towards animals. I have mentioned before that our Comune sent out a directive banning the feeding of stray animals. Fortunately an animal welfare organisation stepped in and put a stop to it. The Comune should educate people how to care for pets and promote a sterilisation programme that would reduce numbers but almost all the Italian men I know think this is wrong, that’s a surprise not.

We love having cat company again but we are setting ourselves up for more stress and heartbreak.  

Cat concerns

I was very appreciative of your comments when I posted that we’d had to have Grigio out to sleep before we left Italy.  Some kind words from Chris in particular inspired me to have this made for Grigio. We will fix it to the wall near the quiet spot where she is buried in the orchard when we return next year.  We don’t need anything tangible to remind us what a wonderful cat she was but her life deserves recognition and celebration.

Meantime on Sunday, against my wishes and without consultation, Mario took Vincenzo by car to his house, about 10 minutes walk away.  The day after Mario was back at our house calling him so we assumed the poor cat had run away and I was upset. Yesterday the man who looks after the house next door was looking into our garden from the road, possibly also looking for Vincenzo.  

So we got in touch with Mario who says Vincenzo is at his house and very happy. He attached a photograph of a cat sitting on a plastic sheet on what looks like an old exercise machine presumably in a store room.  We are not 100% sure it is Vincenzo. 

What a situation, we won’t be back in Italy for 4 months. We know Mario is not reliable, he dismisses all the concerns we have about our house and our animals and just tells us not to worry.  Giovanni was hoping to return to his house this week but had to cancel his trip when his hospital appointments were changed.  Now he plans to spend new year at his house with family, who all love cats. Vincenzo willingly goes to Giovanni when we are away, our only hope is that Giovanni can tell us what is happening.

Grigio

We had our beautiful little cat put to sleep today, she was born in our garden and until she went missing for 8 months earlier this year was always around even when we weren’t.  

The vets did offer further treatment but their suggestion of removing all her teeth followed by monthly injections was impossible.  We leave for our drive back to Yorkshire tomorrow.  We have no one to care for her, to give her daily medication, tempt her to eat, take her to the vets, even from a really good friend that’s just too much to ask. Besides they said there was no guarantee this treatment would work and so far after 6 weeks on medication she hadn’t improved.

At the weekend she wasn’t so good but she picked up from Monday and was eating well again.  Despite all her problems she never stopped purring and she was out in the garden most days enjoying the sun.  But I knew we had to let her go and I thought it might be something of a relief that her suffering was over, sadly it doesn’t feel that way now it just feels incredibly sad.

She was the worst of patients, fought with us when we tried to get her to the vets, twice making us late for appointments, then she fought with the vets refusing to cooperate in any way.  She could tell every time I intended to apply her mouth gel, even when I approached her with it in my pocket she’d immediately run for cover. She was stubborn and stoic and absolutely wonderful, we loved her very much.  Our time together was short and leaving her for months to the automatic feeder and outside shelter was horrible but I know she had a better and longer life than the majority of cats round here.

She is buried in the orchard beside her favourite olive tree, the one that she could climb the highest, bless her heart.  We miss you our darling Grigio.

Grigio update

It’s been a roller coaster caring for Grigio and giving her medication.  Some days she seems to be recovering, other days she seems almost as ill as ever.  We finished the anti biotic and cortisone treatment at the end of last week and I expected she’d be much happier.  Friday she ate most of the day so I was happy, Saturday she ate nothing at all and while she wasn’t as miserable as she had been she wasn’t interested in going out and slept in her basket most of the time.  

This morning I tempted her to eat a little wet food after which she climbed onto my knee purring.  Over the day she’s eaten more and slept outside in the sunshine. Tonight I tried her again with fresh liver which had been recommended for her anaemia.  Friday she wouldn’t touch it, Sunday she had two helpings, it could go either way tomorrow.

We are back at the vets with both cats on Friday.  Meantime we are about start the olive harvest, the forecast for this week was good, now it’s not so good.  Italian cats and Italian meteorologists they are both fickle.  Maybe they think it makes for an interesting life, I could do without it especially as we shall be leaving sometime next month and we need both to be on top form.

Vet visits 3 and 4

We had a stressful return to the vet on Thursday.  Things didn’t start well when Grigio refused to come out of our carrier, despite it being it tipped on end she clung to the inside like a rock climber and eventually had to be shaken out.  We were invited to watch the ultra sound. Neither of us recognised anything on the screen and assumed all the little blobs we saw and the bleeps we heard were bad news.  Eventually they told us she had a lot of worms and parasites, particularly in her lungs.  This was a shock as I do monitor them both for worms and had seen no evidence.  Presumably this infestation is a result of Grigio fending for herself for 8 months and eating what she could find.  The lung parasites are particularly worrying as they are causing inflammation and damage hence her high white cell count as she fights the infection. 

They then showed us her xrays which confirmed her lungs were not at all healthy but even worse that she has 3 pellets inside her and had at some stage been shot. We were furious about this although the vet said she is not in any pain or at any risk so they won’t do anything.    She had worm treatment and is continuing the anti biotics but also now has cortisone for a week plus a one off large tablet that must be taken whole. So far we have failed to administer it as I worry about chocking her, she has refused it several times in food.

We also asked if they would give Vincenzo a health check and if possible sterilise him which they offered to do next day.  Vincenzo is a different cat altogether. He  happily went in and out of the carrier and let the vet handle him without fuss.  He was given the same worm treatment and the large tablet, which he gulped down with some tuna this morning. Yesterday he slept all afternoon and evening, asked to be let out around 1 am and was waiting at the door for breakfast when I got up.  What an obliging boy he is.

Both cats go back in two weeks for another worm treatment and a check. If we can just get this tablet down Grigio’s throat the worst should be over.  We did ask if the vets had one if those devices for firing tablets into the cats mouth, they’d never heard of that and agreed it was almost impossible to get a cat to take such a large tablet while again stressing that we must not crush or break it.  Thanks a lot.