A cat does not want all the world to love her. Only those she has chosen to love.

— Helen Thomson.

I found Sole by some miraculous stroke of luck on 25th May 2019 while I was round at my sister’s house in Sulmona and took my dog out for a bathroom break. It was absolutely pouring down – the weather that entire week (month, even!) had been uncharacteristically bad. While the dog was taking care of business I could hear a very loud, but young, kitten crying, almost screaming in the typical way that they do. I followed the sound and found this little lady hiding in an unused doorway behind a piece of MDF. She was terrified and as soon as she saw me, she leapt from behind the wood and went straight up inside a car engine. We tried, patiently, for two hours to convince her to come out but she was having none of it, so we left her food and crossed our fingers.

The next morning we headed back, restocked with cat food and tuna, ready to get her. It was still raining on-and-off and after about an hour, the owner of the car she was hiding in turned up. We opened the bonnet to try to get her but she sprinted out of the car and up inside another one. At lunch time we had to give up and let her rest as she was clearly very stressed out.

After lunch, I received one of the best phone calls I have ever had in my life – my sister and her partner had managed to catch the kitten! It was a real light bulb moment – they went to the area where the kitten was hiding and played a video of a mum cat calling her kittens, coaxing Sole into their house, where she nearly ripped my sister’s hand off when Trina caught her to put her in the cat box! Sole was terrified and soaking wet but at least she was safe. We took her into the bathroom, wrapped her up in a towel and she instantly started purring. She just needed a little love.

Sole was VERY lucky – after just a few days in a foster (which are incredibly hard to come by here) a family fell in love with her pictures and adopted her.

Buona fortuna piccola =^_^=