New members from Italy

Sinophilia,
I have 4 kittens, 6 weeks old today, 2 are female, 2 male.
The black and white female I nicknamed LunchBox...she never stops eating :laughing2:
The grey and white Female is called Poppy...she is very agressive and makes a "popping" sound when agitated (which is often)
The Siamese lilac point male is called Louie...for Lewis of Lewis and Clark, 2 pioneers on the west coast of the USA, because he is the most advanced and explorative of the litter.

The one I'm struggling with is the smallest of the litter, he is a male Siamese, very dark points (seal?), very affectionate, but small and slow to progress.

I'm trying to name him something that suits him now, but that will not sound silly when he is grown, as I will more than likely be keeping him...he's just too precious to give away!
I feel that although he is homely now, he will be a beautiful cat when he matures.

We have been calling him U.D....for Ugly Duckling...but it just sounds too mean
He is such a lover, but has just yesterday started to eat kitten food and show an interest in the litter box...he is a "runt" in all respects...but so sweet and loving! He has HUGE sky blue eyes, but his face is kind of lumpy, his eyes kind of bug out.
He is white/cream and is almost fluffy...with almost black ears, feet and tail


nay ideas are greatly welcomed!

You're all soo nice! I wish I was really a good photographer. But yes, I must admit that my cats are gorgeous well, there are no ugly cats on earth!

Caterina, if you wish to practice some written Italian, just start writing to me! I think Italian is one of the most difficult languages, even most Italians can't speak or write it properly!
But learning a language is such an interesting challenge, especially when learning opens the door of a whole different culture.
I've been studying Chinese for years, I haven't finished yet (I think one is never done with this terrible language!!) but it's something I would recommend to everybody!!

Nice week to everybody
Diana

inky:

Dear Diana :angel2:

Thank you so much and I will take you up on that, first I'll get a book and cd-rom...then at your most gracious request, I'd love to begin some communication. It is so difficult to learn without speaking to someone else. When my Grandmother was alive, she would help me. To listen to her speak was like listening to the most beautiful nightingale. Not to mention, she would sing Italian songs all the time. She passed away last year, she was 94 years old!! She is terribly missed, but I know I will see her again

I hope to begin soon

Have a wonderful day and rest of the week if I don't see you on here first

Love & Peace,
Catarina

Caterina, feel free to write and pm me anytime.
My hometown Verona is very close to the Garda lake, so your Grandmother's accent was probably very close to my own.
In what years did your grandparents go to America?
So sad you never came to Italy. Well now it's not the right time to travel anywhere, I guess, but when you come you'll have a guide. I've also lived in Venice for a few years. Venice and Verona are the world's most beautiful cities, to me... but I'm not nationalist, on the contrary! I don't have a great opinion of us Italians in general. But there are some places here where you can breathe history, and if you can look with eyes different from those of a tourist it can be an unique experience.

Gotta go now...
Diana

Welcome, Diana, from Louisiana, USA. It will be interesting to hear about cat-ventures from Italy. Do your cats eat pasta? Mine eat good old Cajun food. I have two, right now, but would love to have a Bengal like Tiki (look at posts of pictures of her on this board, she is spectacular!) My cats are a Lynx point Siamese- he came to our house 14 years ago, and a yellow tabby from the shelter. We have had many furbabies over the years, most rescued from shelters. We also have 3 dogs, but the cats rule

the roost and keep my big dogs in line. One dog is in training to be a cat, I call him a "dat".


Pam

Hey, does anyone know how to cook a good spagetti meal? I remember my stepfather would cook up a tomato sauce in a big pot and put meatballs and either polish or italian sausage(it is spicy). He would cook the spagetti in a different pot. Or it can be done with shells too. The only way I know how to cook it is just boil the pasta, put some olive oil and salt in the boiling water. I drain the pasta, then open a bottle of the spagetti sauce, and pour some of the sauce into the spagetti with a bit of oregano. Then put some cheese on it. But even though is time conusming, I'd really like to learn how to make real spagetti.

Thanks

The way you cook the pasta is okay, provided that you don't wait to drain it when it's too soft and gets sticky (to avoid this, use a lot of water - 1 liter for every 100 g of pasta, so you don't even have to add oil in the water). There are thousands of different sauces you can add to spaghetti. This is the way I cook the classic tomato sauce:
Cut a small onion very thin and brown it into hot olive oil, then add whole or diced peeled tomatoes together with their water (they're sold in cans here, don't know about other countries), add salt, cover the pot leaving a little space so the steam goes out and cook for a long time (from 30 min. to 1 hour, I would say, on very small fire). At the end you can add pepper, paprika and/or parsley, as you like.
A kind of pasta I like is very simple: instead of onion you fry leeks cut in round slices and then add diced bacon. Cover and cook adding a little water until the leeks are soft, it takes only 10-15 minutes.

I'm sorry I don't know the right English verbs to talk about cooking!

Diana

Hi Diana, benvenuto al luogo del gatto! I am half Italian, most of my family comes from Mondello, Sicily, but we have family also in Salerno and Lucca. I went there a couple of years ago, Verona is splendid! I saw your kitties and they are gorgeous. We have 3 also, 2 boys and a girl. We'll have to share pictures of our kitties!
Catty

Thanks Diana. By the way, what are leeks? You don't use any garlic? I love garlic. They say that garlic is a fat burner.

Gosh, such sweet and pretty cats. At least, they pose very sweetly, I know they can be terrors when they are kittens.

So now for all the questions:

I'm curious about your name. I'm thinking it means, "someone who love Chinese things", but perhaps it is an Italian name so I haven't heard it before.

Violetta has the most loving expression in that picture with the keyboard. Does it really take her so long to eat? Why does the flatness of her face affect that?

Lucia really does have a sort of "don't mess with me" look, doesn't she? How interesting that you chose her for looking angry and being wild! Most people would stay away from that kind of cat. Are the black marks under her eyes on her fur, or from her eyes running a little? My husband had some pet-quality that I used to clean their eyes every day, so I know that happens sometimes. Her uncle Omero looks like our Blackie, except ours is just a regular domestic cat with long hair.

Francis looks very loveable too with her owlish little face and big eyes. I didn't know Scottish folds could raise their ears like that! I didn't know there were muscles in cats' ears to do that, I thought they were all near the head.

What lovely pets you have. Thanks for posting them.

To nena: Leeks should be the translation for "porri". Let me see what the dictionary says... "leek" or "spring onion" or "scallion". But scallion is something different, it is halfway between onion and garlic. Leeks are long and have green leaves, the taste is similar to onion.
I adore garlic and I use it anywhere I can. There are many nice sauces you can do with garlic, to put on roasted bread. And there's hummus (is it Arabian?), which is a cream of chickpeas with the juice of a lemon and a lot of crushed garlic.
Garlic seems to be a natural disinfectant for intestine, especially if you eat it raw..

To sunlion:
sinophilia means exactly what you say, it's the love for China and it's the name of my website (http://www.sinophilia.org) on Chinese culture.
Flat-faced persians really take a lot to eat, they cannot grab food easily. But it seems to me that all cats take a lot to put something in their mouths, they drop food a thousand times! Violetta seems sweet... but she's a real pest! We adore her.
Yes, Lucia eyes are always running. I clean her every time I can, sometimes it's better, sometimes worse. She's not flat-faced actually, but she wasn't bred by an expert breeder - it seems like Violetta's eyes run much less even if she's extreme. I love Lucia's look! Anyway she's very nice and always meowing and raising her tail to be picked up. We had to take her very young so she's always looking for a mummy.
I didn't know folds can move their ears either! When Francis did that I was shocked. That's why judges in expositions should know the breed to understand whether the cat is raising its ears of the ears are not expo quality.

I'd like to write more but am in a hurry now.
Thank you all,
Diana

Welcome Diana
And your babies are beautiful. yet another cat lover Wahoo..
And Hugs from down under.
Tish, Mishka, Roxy-babe- and Monty
Ooooops almost forgot from the human side of the family.