Well, I got back from the UK last week and the little cat we had been caring for – one of the feral brood, the mamma cat – hung on long enough for me to say goodbye. She had skin cancer which had really attacked her poor ears and face and she died in her sleep, poverina. So now she is in the garden with the others. We have lost so many cats here!
I did my stint at the canile Casentino kennels on Saturday and I am going again today as it is a holiday here. I was so sad that in the one month since I had last been there two lovely dogs had died, a very old and totally adorable German Shepherd called Lula and a funny looking little thing with golden eyes called Pluto. He was quite young and apart from a dramatic weight loss had seemed OK, so I was quite shocked.
However before it gets too gloomy, some great news too, that an extremely old and virtually toothless little soul called Ovidio has been adopted. It used to break my heart seeing him trot along in his stiff legged way, sometimes stumbling, and I dreaded the thought of him having another cold winter in there, so that is a tremendous relief.
And Ambra, a fantastic but average looking dog has also been adopted after THREE YEARS, which gives hope to all the others. There seem to have been more enquiries recently after a quiet summer so I hope lots more get adopted as it's so heartening for the volunteers.