Throughout Italy, there are many stray cats, whereas the majority of dogs we meet are pets. On his first night in Pico, D jumped out of the car to make sure a kitten had properly moved away from our parking space so we wouldn’t run it over. We thought the cats were fast and adept at moving away from cars, but on our fourth day, we saw a cat smushed on the street. Paul did his best to dispose of the cat, and we gave some ripe banana to the baby kittens we saw nearby. 

By the 12th night in Pico, D told the darn cats to get out of the way of the car. His attitude has changed towards them!

There’s a kitten who spends a lot of time on our street. One night we put out a plate of wet cat food and within seconds, there were three cats and two kittens jockeying for space around the plate for nourishment. The second time the older cats let the kitten demolish the food. 

Across the street our neighbor has two dogs: a diaper-wearing chihuahua that she calls “la bestia/the beast” who likes to bark at us from their balcony and a German Shepherd mix.

India, another neighbor’s dog, is fed pasta by another neighbor. No collar. No leash. She spends all of her time outside roaming. We’ve seen dried up pieces of pasta on the street five steps from our front door, or freshly prepared pasta available on a paper towel, for India to enjoy.

We’ve also seen India an eighth of a mile away with her owners at a plot of land. We think that’s where the chickens and rooster are. 

While India is very cute, she is also a barker. The first few days India barked every time she saw us, then she started moving towards us with caution. Now she regularly wags her tail and approaches us when she sees us, and has accompanied Paul more than once while he worked in the garden.