Fall Break - The Cat Sanctuary

Tuesday

Since we’d had such a busy Monday, we decided to take it easy on Tuesday. We all had a chance to sleep in, and I took advantage of having Mom as my fellow cat-lover to go back to Largo Argentina to see the cat sanctuary there. I pointed out the remains of the temples, and then started pointing out cats—there are hundreds of them!

They’re cats, so naturally they don’t stay inside the sanctuary—this one was sunning himself on the steps leading down.

I knew there was an office down in the sanctuary itself, and wanted to see it, but when we got down there we found out that they also have a gift shop, and that there are a lot of cats inside as well.

The kittens, and cats who are injured or need help have special rooms down here, and all of the other cats are free to wander in and out of the main room. A volunteer joined us and showed us around the place, telling us about the founding and the mission of the sanctuary. I had a field day running around petting all of the cats—I’d been having kitty withdrawals.

At one point, I saw this lovely black cat, and knelt down to pet him. He drew himself up on my knee, I kept petting him, and he went from my knee to my shoulder. I was still in kitty heaven, so I just kept petting him and cooing over how sweet and friendly he was....and then he started climbing from my shoulder to my back! He ended up on my back as I crouched there, and seemed to get comfortable—so of course my reaction was “Mom, get a picture!” Naturally, Dad had the camera and had stayed outside (he’s not a cat person), and my camera was in my pocket. Through a combination of careful balancing, interesting contortions, and a very laid back cat that didn’t seem to mind being jostled around, I managed to pull my camera out of my pocket, hand it to Mom, and she took this picture. As we were doing all of this, one of the volunteers came by and casually mentioned “Oh, that’s Sky—he won the marking championship.” Luckily, he didn’t decide to defend his title while on my back! (Incidentally, Mom and I went to their website later, and they apparently actually do keep track of the most prolific markers. I guess if you have hundreds of cats in a relatively small area, they’re going to want to mark their territory.)

Quite naturally, I have tons of pictures of various cats at the sanctuary—but since I wouldn't have anything to say about them other than "look at the pretty kitty!" I won't bore you with them. When we were done with the cats (and had each found something to buy—I now have an adorable “Cats of Rome” mug, which has become really handy at the Centro!), we wandered around the plaza for a bit, Mom browsed through a fabric store, and we all piled back on the tram to hang out at the Centro on the internet for the rest of the day. That evening, Mom and Dad were kind enough to find me something not Italian food, and so we headed off to a Chinese restaurant that Mom had found online. The Google directions took us through some interesting paths—we ended up going down a hill through a bunch of slightly sketchy stairs and paths, but we finally found the place and I joyfully scarfed down spring rolls, rice, and various other dishes. The food was good and amazingly cheap, and I made sure I knew where it was so I could go there again. It was a nice lazy day, and we got to see a little more of modern Rome.

And here's Mom again!

After having such a full Monday, we decided to start our Tuesday out slow. Late breakfast and taking our time to get out and about. Katie and I wanted to see Largo Argentina, which is a site of ancient temples, but specifically because there's a cat sanctuary on the premises with 200+ cats and a gift shop. I don't think Keith was very interested, but came along anyway. Even before you got there, you figured you were in the right place when you saw cats lounging in the sun on the sidewalk and along the fences. Wonderful! They have signs saying don't pet the cats because they tend to follow you and they've lost some of them in the busy streets surrounding the sanctuary. Keith decided to sit out going downstairs to the gift shop, so it was Katie and I that headed down. The closer we got to the shop, the more there were cats all over the place. Once you got inside....they were everywhere....chairs, shelves, corners, everywhere! One of the volunteers offered to show us around and tell the story of how the sanctuary got started. When Katie knelt down to pet a cat, another cat jumped on her back! Too funny....and made for a funny picture also. We couldn't leave without buying something to benefit such a worthwhile cause, so Katie got a coffee mug and I got a tote bag (like I need another one to add to the hundreds I have already....but it has CATS on it). We headed back to Katie's place to hang out and use her (free) internet until closer to dinnertime. We'd been craving something different for dinner other than Italian, so tried looking for a Chinese restaurant. I found one that seemed close to her place and wrote down the directions to walk there. It was interesting because after a while we ran out of road, but found stairs and pathways that eventually got us there (had a real reality check for Google routes). The restaurant was very nice and the prices were ridiculously cheap. Good food also. We (thankfully) decided to take public transportation back. Dropped Katie off at her place and headed back to the hotel for the night.