This has to be both themost interesting as well
as oldest cat shelter in
the world! Years ago
you saw hundreds of
feral cats roaming the
Roman Forum; today,
not a one. Why? Because a saint of a woman decided to gather them all up and move them to a far safer and better location, where they can be treated, fixed, fed, whatever. Their new home is remarkable: a 2000 year-0ld set of Roman ruins, in the middle of the city, only a mile from the old place at the Forum. The cats have free run of the entire ruins (about half a city block) with plenty of shelter to get out of the rain, avoid winos, etc. For those cats with disabilities (and there are many), the woman has an indoor shelter, actually underneath the ruins! Here she treats dozens of blind, crippled, and deformed cats, most of which have been abandoned by "owners." The one you see here has 3 legs, and it barely slows him down at all.
Imagine my reaction to this unanticipated discovery. Here I am, the catwoman of Waterloo, volunteering every Saturday at a wonderful shelter here in Belgium. Not a Saturday passes by that I don't spend the entire afternoon telling Rick all my cat stories. He is always patient, altho I can tell he'd rather be discussing the latest great book he's reading, and he never tells me to "cease and desist" from all these tales of utter joy or woe. You'd think 4 days in Rome on a getaway with me that the last thing he'd want to do is visit a shelter, but that's exactly what he did, all the while keeping it a surprise from me. That's my husband...what can I say?
To learn more or see for yourself what this shelter is all about, visit these websites:
www.catsofrome.it or www.romancats.com.
Ciao!
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