Pets in Italy

Arezzo Cat Sanctuary

Thanks to Lucie for this report on a worthy cause - the Arezzo Cat Sanctuary in Tuscany.

Arezzo Cat Sanctuary Open Day (with tea and cakes) on Saturday 9th May went extremely well. It was a beautiful sunny day, the event was well attended, the food was absolutely delicious and the event raised over 700 euros - double the amount raised last year! All the money goes towards supporting the cats and kittens at the sanctuary. Many thanks to all involved.

Please don't forget that it's kitten season now, and that the sanctuary generally has plenty of kittens in need of loving homes. The website is www.rifugiogatticinni.org, and the sanctuary is located in Arezzo province just outside Arezzo off the new Olmo roundabout on the Strada Due Marie. Here is a map. Tel Bunny Holliday on 339 7004862 for directions and more information.or email info@rifugiogatticinni.org

Urgent - Can You Give a Home to This Cat?

I thought I would post this plea I've just been forwarded. The owners live in Umbria.

My family has to move and so I need a new home!

 I am a 4 year old cat, named Snowball. I am a female and am spayed. I have all my vaccinations up to date and I am house broken. I have been lucky to spend all of my life with a loving family with 3 children so I am a family friendly feline.

 I spend my time living inside and outside and am comfortable in both settings – and I am a great mouse catcher! I have a great bed that I would like to take with me – its one of my favorite places.

My family have to move on June 12 – such short notice!

If you think you are interested in adopting can you please call my family right away:

The Murphys      340 500 2509  (Ken, Danica, Sierra, Makayla & Tehya)

or email: danica.murphy@gmail.com

Every five thousandth helps!

In case you are filling in your 2008 tax returns (we did ours yesterday afternoon - sigh) then don't forget the 5 per 1000. This is a piece of legislation that came into effect in 2007 and allows people to allocate a small percentage (5/1000 if you can call that a percentage) of the tax they owe to go to a good cause. It doesn't cost you anything extra and can make a big difference to the charity concerned. Obviously I am going to make a plea that you choose an animal charity, this being a pets website.

All you need do is tell your commercialista (accountant) who you want the 5 per mille to go to, including the reference and partita iva. You'll find this on the charity's website usually with some kind of prominent 5/1000 heading. You may like to research your local canili or cat sanctuary or some other organisation.

We're giving ours to our local animal charity Lo Scudo di Pan.

Gelsomina finds a Home!

I got the great news this morning that Gelsomina, one of the dogs featured on the site, has found a home. Abandoned on the streets of Viterbo (chucked out of a car by her previous owners), she had been living temporarly with a lady who had nine dogs already and so it was touch and go what would happen to her next, but apparently she has just gone to live with a family in Brescia. How fantastic is that?

Volunteering at the Canile

Well, after my agonising over whether to get a rescue dog, which one to choose, how it will get on with my own menagerie and so on I decided I had to take action of some sort, so yesterday I went to sign up as a volunteer at our local canile (dog pound). It's the Casentino branch and is located up a long track with a lovely backdrop of woods, where the dogs are allowed to run around (supervised of course).

I met Domenico who told me the canile is staffed entirely by volunteers and 'isn't a normal dog shelter' in the sense that the dogs are treated extremely well, look healthy with shiny coats, get to run in aforementioned woods and all look quite happy, considering. There are 24 residents at the moment.

I wasn't quite sure what the procedure was, so first I had to fill in a form and pay a fee of Euro 25 to become a 'socio' of the canile. I was ready to get stuck in there and then, but Domenico explained that volunteers have to wait until the peperwork is cleared by the ENPA head office in Rome and then I would be added to the roster.

The hours aren't too onerous, three hours once a month on a Saturday or Sunday. The rest of the time the canile is run single-handed it seems by Domenico who also has a full time job but is on shift work and so comes the part of the day he is free. He clearly adores the dogs, picking them up and kissing some of them and exchanging in good hearted (one sided) banter with the others.

I'm really looking forward to getting started in a couple of weeks. Oh, and by the way, I did see this dog there...

Who Let the Dogs Out?

I've just heard that some idiots got into our local canile (public dog kennels) last Saturday and let out all the dogs. What complete and utter cretins there are in the world. Did they think they were helping? Or maybe they thought it was funny? Didn't they realise that some of the dogs are ill and under observation, that some of the dogs could have fought as they don't get on? That there could have been bitches on heat who are waiting to be spayed?

Luckily, the dogs were found and put back by the wonderful volunteers who run the kennel with no harm done, but they are now getting cctv installed to keep an eye on the place. A necessary expense, but a shame, as the money could have been spent on the dogs.

It is one of the better canili, it has woods for the dogs to run in and has been nicely designed. They are doing their best to make life easier for the poor animals who have already suffered at the hands of ignorant and unkind people. Let's hope they find the imbeciles who did this soon, although perhaps 'throwing them to the dogs' would be a step too far!

What's in a Name?

I realised yesterday that all our pets are now Italian! None of the originals we brought over from the UK are with us any more (as it was 15 years ago it would be a miracle if they still were, but saying that, the last "original" only died  last year.) It got me thinking about pet names and the kind of names that are common here in Italy.We have kind of a mix and match at the moment, some English, some Italian and some plain weird.

In the past some of our animals have had rather challenging names- from Birkana the half-Siamese named after a rune to Widget the cat named after a spare part. And I vividly remember our Iranian vet in England, when introduced to new kitten Chloe, saying: 'So this is Shluh.'

Some names have caused a bit of confusion here in Italy. I made the mistake of spelling labrador ZsaZsa's name as you see it, which means the vet pronounces it TsaTsa. I should have written ZaZa apparently. This also turns out to be a character in some southern Italian song, I think. We actually named her after Madame Kiki and Madame ZsaZsa in a popular tv advert about six years ago, although ZsaZsa Gabor may also have had a hand in things, so to speak. Mind you, you have never seen anything less like a svelte film star!

Young mongrel Maia already had her name when we got her. I cleverly spelled it with lots of vowels in true Italian fashion, only to discover a lot of Italians spell it Maya. Foiled again.

We needed to find a new name for the stray we had dubbed  'Mummy Cat'  - as she was always hugely pregnant - after we had her spayed. I thought it should be as close as possible to her old Mummy Cat name and so after walking around the house like a looney saying suitable sounding names out loud I came up with Monica. Meanwhile her daughter (or sister) is called a fairly banal Misha to mimic the micio (MEE-choh) call Italians use to entice cats. (Sort of equivalent to our 'puss puss'). Monica's sole surviving kitten is called Jimmy because he looked like a Jimmy! That should probably be spelled Jimi here though!

One of the interesting things I have discovered while looking through all the pet adoption sites I have been scouring since starting this site is the variety of fascinating Italian names for dogs and cats. I had been labouring under the misapprehension that there was relatively little variety in Italian pet names as I met my hundredth Lupo, Ringo, Whisky (spelled wisky and pronounced weeskee) or Lassie (pronounced Lessie). But I was wrong. All manner of names have emerged, from the beautiful Gaspare (on this site and one of the Three Kings) to the evocatively named Wind (I trust you are getting images of a breeze tousled beauty here and not its somewhat flatulent alternative!)

So if you are stuck for a name for your pet and want a lovely Italian one then have a look here. Oh, and could I just point out that Fiona was obviously a mistake in the list...

How Do You Choose?

So now, I have a dilemma. When I started this blog I had no idea I was going to get so many 'appelli' and get in touch with so many wonderful people who devote their time to helping some of Italy's abandoned animals. I'm glad it is working out like this though. I would be ecstatic if even one animal finds a new owner through these pages. I would write a million words to make that happen.

Every appeal I read makes me cry. I have always been touched by words more than pictures and so when you put a little background to the dog, when you know its name, even if it's just a name given to it by the volunteers because the dog has never had a name, well it really gets to me.

And so I had a chat with Alan. OK, we have six pets already but maybe we could take another one? Another dog? I expected a bit of an argument but to my amazement he agreed. We could manage one more, just one mind. But which one?

He doesn't want to choose. It's up to me. And since I had told him earlier in the week that I was having difficulty even thinning a row of carrots as I found it hard to 'play God,' you can imagine how I feel now!  Because saying yes to one dog means saying no to all the others. And if, as I did this afternoon, you do a search on the Internet and find out how many dogs in Italy (don't even get me started on the world) are in need and how many heartbreaking stories there are behind each photo it makes it even worse.

I've just sent an email to get information about a dog not even on these pages yet and am considering two that are on my dogs and puppies page.

But how do you choose?

Killing Me Softly

Living here in Italy has hardened me a bit. Once upon a time I would rescue anything my cats caught and use whatever means necessary to try and save its life, I now let them get on with it. I know that the poor creature is better swiftly despatched by feline means than to linger on mortally injured. But I still can’t kill.

I remember once finding a small wounded bird. I drip fed it Rescue Remedy but having done my best, it was still in a bad way. I knew in my heart of hearts that I should put it out of its misery and with a deep breath I took it into the garden. Like all the best executioners I covered its head with a tea towel then got hold of a huge hammer and lifted it above my head. But I couldn’t do it and stopped, mid swing, in tears. I began a fierce inner debate on whether distance made killing easier and decided that the further removed I was from the actual act, the more likely I was to go through with it.

So with the shrouded little creature on the car seat I drove to a lay-by. I got out and placed the poor wretch under the wheels of the car. But guess what? I couldn’t do that either. Then I had an idea. Surely my neighbour could despatch it? She had ably demonstrated her killing prowess on God knows how many rabbits, hens and turkeys surely a  small sparrow would prove no problem. So back went the little bird onto the seat of the car and I turned round and drove back to the house. You can imagine how I felt when, having finally made the brave decision to have someone else do it, I opened the car door, reached over to unwrap the sparrow and it flew out of the car and off to freedom. I was off the hook again.

One of my most insane animal rescues was when my neighbours, who had been fishing on Lake Trasimeno, brought three thrashing carp to our front door. Noting my expression a smiling Marco told me to put them in the freezer to expire on their own.  I nodded and took the three fish inside where I immediately ran a bath and put them in, where they effected a remarkable recovery. Of course, then there was the not inconsiderable problem of what to do next. As Alan pointed out, they couldn’t stay there indefinitely, as most people did not usually keep pet carp in the house.

I went and got a bucket and filled it with water then covered it with a black bin liner. After managing to make my escape by pretending to take out the rubbish I drove to Lake Chiusi where I waded through reeds and mud to return three extremely lucky fish to the wrong lake.

 

Link to Help Abruzzo Earthquake Animals via PayPal

I am now in contact with a wonderful lady called Francesca who works for the Lega Nazionale per la Difesa del Cane sezione di L'Aquila - basically the canine defence league in the Aquila region of Abruzzo, the place devastated by the earthquake recently. However the shelter she works for also helps cats, guinea pigs, horses and other animals, not just dogs. They had a lot of work before the earthquake. You can imagine what it is like now. She tells me it is hard to remember life before 6 April, the day everything changed.

I will be posting soon about the amazing work they are doing, but in the meantime if you would like to donate, including by PayPal then go to this donation page 

Help Find Cats and Kittens a New Home

 People say you are either a dog person or a cat person, but quite honestly I love both and would be hard pressed to choose. Although there are dogs that dislike cats and vice versa, they can get on well, so please don't let that put you off if you would like to offer a cat a new home.

As I thought would happen now I have started posting appeals for homes for abandoned dogs, I am getting information about abandoned cats too.

I have started a specific page for these here.

Old Dogs Need Homes Too

 I have posted more dogs looking for homes on the homing and rescue page of the site. As you will see there are three new ones, Gelsomina, Lana and Pasqualino, with a fourth to follow, Papera, whose picture is here. Let me quote from the email that was sent to me by Nemony who is helping to rehome the dogs. It breaks your heart.

"Gelsomina's story is the most common.  As the car drives away, dogs often sit for days and weeks in a desolate spot, hopelessly waiting for their owners to return.  Others are left on highways, so that death will come swiflty, with complete disregard not only for the animal who has loved them dearly, but also for the safety of passengers in oncoming cars.  This practice is illegal, and punishable by law with steep fines and reclusion, but unfortunately still rife. 
 
The dogs most ignored in Italy are the elderly, well, above 6 years of age really, and they often end their days in barren cages on the cold damp cement, despite the fact that they are sweet, quiet, already used to household noises and in most cases fit into any home like a glove. " 

Please help at least some of these poor dogs find a home. There is a good network of animal sanctuary workers who can help transport them anywhere in Italy. If you can't rehome them yourself please let as many people as you can know about this site. If we could save even one dog it would be wonderful.

Help These Two Old Friends Avoid the Dog Pound

Another day another appeal to find a home for some lovely dogs. These two live in Bologna and are old friends. The younger of the two is four-year-old Rocky, a German Shepherd and the other one is six-year-old springer spaniel Listo. They have been used to living outdoors in a sheltered spot in a country house with land and unfortunately a death in the family means the dogs will have to find a new home. They want to stay together and are very gentle and affectionate and love cuddles, fetching sticks and getting a lot of fuss. It might be a good idea (although not essential) if they went to a home with no other dogs or cats as they are not used to them, but that is only because they haven't had any experience of them. They may be fine. They are not castrated but this can be taken care of if the new owner wants. They are healthy, although could do with losing a little bit of weight. Rocky has a small white spot in one eye as he was operated on for cataracts when he was a puppy.

Jim, who is trying to rehome the dogs, is willing to drive them 'anywhere' if they can find a good home.

If you can help then email Jim on jim.wickens@eco-storm.com or phone +44 773 6070379

Can You Give Puppy in Umbria a Home?

I just wish I had a dog sanctuary! Maybe one day. In the meantime I am posting this appeal sent to me by Lucie from the Expats in Italy site. Thank you Lucie!

These two puppies are in the Citta di Castello/Umbertide area of Umbria. I clicked on their picture and went 'oh no!' They are just adorable.

 
This little darling is a female.

 
And this is her brother.

Please contact James Vernon on 346 366 9036

Have Some Tea and Help Some Cats

Thanks very much to Lucie for passing on this information about the Arezzo Cat Sanctuary. They are having tea and cakes to help raise funds for the sanctuary on Saturday 9th May from 1600 to 1900. Entry is €5 Euros and the address is Rifugio per Gatti/Cat Sanctuary Cinni, loc. Cicaleto Sargiano (AR) which is in Arezzo province just outside Arezzo off the new Olmo roundabout on the Strada Due Marie. Here is a map. Tel Bunny Holliday on 339 7004862 for directions and more information.or email info@rifugiogatticinni.org