Ciao & Meows from Italia!

Hello! Just wanted to introduce ourselves before checking out the other forums. 

These are my two boys, Hoodles and Erik:


Hoodles is the cutie with the nifty mismatched eyes (he's also a Manx) and Erik is my gorgeous blue tabby with green lasers for eyes.

Hoodles is a special needs cat, because he's actually missing vertebrae in his back -- sometimes this is called "Manx syndrome" -- which causes some nerve problems in his back end, in addition to having horrible allergies. Currently, with proper care, he is pain- and accident-free, and living life to the fullest with only an occasional sniffle.  Erik is less "high-maintenance" as far as his health, but he makes up for it by being a serious trouble maker! 

The two of them live with my husband and me near Venezia, Italy. They're hobbies include napping in the sun, annoying each other, eating anything they can get their paws on, and getting away with being bad by being too sweet and adorable to handle. 

My hobbies include crochet, taking way too many photos of my cats (I miss doing it semi-professionally), and cooking. 

 Ciao and welcome to TCS.  Hoodles and Erik are handsome guys and I am looking forward to seeing loads more photographs of them!

I hope you find TCS an interesting and fun place to be, and maybe ideas to share and gain from for Hoodles in particular.  Erik sounds like a fine blue tabby, with that apparently blue linked trouble maker gene.      Those laser eyes sound interesting, so hopefully you will tell us all how he uses them in his trouble making antics.  Feel free to post photos of Erik in the blue cat photo thread I have linked in my signature below - there's some great mischief making company for him there, my cat Mouse for one.

welcome! my grandfather was born in italy. i've heard italians love cats. i have to get there some day. 

Welcome to TCS!  It sounds like your kitties stay very busy with all of their hobbies.     They are beautiful boys.  

Welcome to TCS! 

I didn't know "ciao" also means hello, I always thought it was a "goodbye". Learn something new on TCS everyday . Your kitties are beautiful! How nice to have Venetian cats on the site with us 

Thank you, everyone! I may be biased, but I tend to agree that my boys are cuties. 

MServant - I will definitely check out the blue/grey kitty area. I love photographing my little one, and unlike his brother, he actually enjoys being in front on the lens. My husband laughs at me for having so many on my phone and camera, but I can't help it, haha. 

Detmut - They certainly love their kitties here. I wasn't used to outdoor cats being so common, but aside from that, Italians do love their felines. I find they are generally much nicer to strays. Our little "neighbourhood" has 5-6 apartment buildings, and there's a little feeding area that someone in all the buildings contributes too. Recently, someone even put out a little hut for them to sleep in. I'm sure with it being spring, we will soon have lots of kittens romping around the area ... Must resist adopting, haha. 

Betsygee - They do stay quite busy, but don't worry, they make sure they get in several naps throughout the day. 

Anne - I had always thought that, too, but it is somewhat like "aloha" in that it can be either a casual greeting or goodbye. I think most greetings can go either way, since people say "buongiorno" to mean "goodmorning" and "have a good day", as a a goodbye phrase as well (same with good evening, good afternoon, but I can't spell those. I can just say them, lol). 

Ha ha, perhaps we will be introduced to some of the local cats and kittens that are less fortunate in their home circumstances then, as you find out more about who cares for these street cats and provides them with little huts. I hope not too many kittens without homes to go to.   

How do you manage to keep up with your crochet hobby without Erik and Hoodles 'helping' you? 

Most definitely. It's been rainy, but I plan on taking my camera down to "feeding time" and getting some shots of the locals. Erik is from here. He got washed up in a friend's yard after a flood and we couldn't say no. I hate seeing so many babies without homes, but here, more people help feed them and sometimes catch them and get them fixed. 

As for crochet -- very carefully!! Haha, they love to "help", but I usually just wait until they get bored of it, and either move on or go to sleep.