Digging Holes

Life went on in Casa Della Gatti without much drama. All three cats seemed to get along just fine. We did our best to keep Alex, Coco and Tari inside but we still want them to be allowed to be cats so on occasion we would let them out in the garden (scary music please).

Now the garden was dominated by a gang of cats that Mike and I referred to as "the Gatti della Mafioso" (cat mafia) it was an appropriate title since we were living in Bella Napoli!

The "cat mafia" consisted of 9 bad ass Neapolitan cats, Augusta, Butters, Julia, The Gay Duo (Hadrian and Antonius) Cassandra, Mischa, Angus and Helmut. These were wild cats that lived exclusively in our garden so we did not want our cats to mix with the mafia because we were afraid of disease! And besides these cats were tough as nails!

One day Tari was determined to get outside, she broke through the screen we had in the kitchen and out she went! I thought for sure she was dead meat, but much to my surprise the mafia was terrified of her!!! It must have been her royal Egyptian blood or something, because they gave her plenty of room and pretty much vacated the garden when she was around! Alex loved it, he could finally go outside without fear of a mafia hit! Coco just preferred to watch all the action from the balcony. Pretty soon Tari was outside every day, usually while we ate dinner in the garden, that way we could keep an eye on her. One beautiful summer evening Mike and I were enjoying a perfect Italian meal of insalata caprese and penne pasta when suddenly Tari went charging across the lawn. She stopped and listened and then started to dig frantically! A HUGE beetle flew out from the hole and she leaped up in the air and caught it! Yum Yum! Then she ran across the lawn again started to dig another hole and, poof, out came another beetle she ate that one too, she ate about 5 or 6. This routine continued every night at 8pm...forget gourmet fancy feast, she wanted beetles alla giardino (garden beetles) It was most entertaining to see her digging the hole and then flying across the yard as the beetle attempted to fly away. They must have tasted like french fries or something because she completely stopped eating cat food and only ate delicious crunchy beetles! GROSS!