Raining Cats and Dogs!

Italy, like much of Europe, is very pet friendly. The pet of choice seems to be the dog. The majority of the dogs we have encountered have been small to medium sized dogs ranging up to around 20 pounds. Diesel would fit right in if it were not for his tendency to be aggressive towards unfamiliar dogs. The standard seems to be a mixed-breed of around 12 pounds although, as noted in an earlier post, we have met a gorgeous, pure-bred Siberian husky and other larger dogs. An unofficial survey, conducted by Amy, suggests that most are unaltered males. Personally, I refuse to go around looking for a dangler on every dog we meet in the street. Regular dogs, not just service dogs, go pretty much everywhere that their owners go. You see them in the supermarket, getting gelato and eating in restaurants. Diesel would have trouble with this since, even though dogs are allowed to be there, they are expected to be on the floor and not in the lap as he would insist on.

Cats are a different matter. We don’t know anybody who has cats here. The ones we see seem to be outdoor cats such as Jet’s cousin we met in Orvieto. There is one in our neighborhood who visited us several times when we first moved in. He would sit on the wall opposite our bedroom window and call out to us. It turns out that the open area across the street from us is also the grounds for the dining hall where we eat our lunch. Several days ago the same white cat was seen being carried by one of the cooks through the dining hall and out into the courtyard where the door was closed so that he couldn’t return. The cook walked past muttering something about the oven which my Italian wasn’t good enough to catch. He just wandered into the mensa without anyone noticing or even really caring. Pretty cool!