The Great Sicilian Cat Rescue - One Englishwoman's Mission to Save An Island's Cats

Jennifer Pulling

• Publisher: John Blake
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN:
  9781784186555
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Numerous visitors to Mediterranean countries have found their holiday punctuated by trips to feed hungry feral cats. Some try to save injured and sick felines. Not many have gone to the lengths of Jennifer Pulling with her one-woman campaign, Catsnip.Set against the beautiful and sinister backdrop of Sicily and its enigmatic people, the book charts Jennifer's journey as passionate defender of the island's often abused and ill-treated cats. With no previous experience, she raises funds and, organises teams of British, American and German vets to work in improvised and clandestine surgeries.On her voyage of discovery she encounters the gattare (cat ladies) who devote their time to saving colonies of feral cats; she challenges Sicilian bureaucracy and risks prosecution by the authorities; and she discovers an unknown Sicily, gaining an understanding of the island's history of domination by numerous cultures and the Mafia.Incredibly moving, while peppered with humour, this is the story of one woman's mission to rescue an animal she loves, as well as an insight into a unique culture and landscape.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Prologue
• One: A Cat Called Lizzie
• Two: A Romantic’s View of Italy
• Three: In the Shadow of Etna
• Four: Syracuse – A Sicilian Farewell
• Five: The Secret Lives of Feral Cats
• Six: The Cats of the Public Gardens
• Seven: Some Encounters with Cat Ladies
• Eight: An Appointment with Taormina
• Nine: Goodbye Lizzie
• Ten: We Love Them; But Do Cats Love Us?
• Eleven: I Glimpse the Dark Side of Sicily
• Twelve: Elke, Cat ‘Mother’ to a Myriad Felines
• Thirteen: I Learn the Sad Fate of Lizzie
• Fourteen: Giovanni, the Man Who Loves Flowers
• Fifteen: I Launch Catsnip
• Sixteen: Operation Catsnip
• Seventeen: Nino’s Cats – Laughter and Tears
• Eighteen: Genoveffa, the Little Cat Lady with a Big Heart
• Nineteen: The Tale of Ginger and Lucky Star
• Twenty: A Crash Course in the Sicilian Psyche
• Twenty-One: A Time in Rome
• Twenty-Two: I Have My Doubts
• Twenty-Three: How Elke Became a Cat Lady
• Twenty-Four: Dogs Need to Be Rescued Too
• Twenty-Five: A Yorkshireman and Marsala Wine
• Twenty-Six: The Englishwoman Who Won a Sicilian’s Heart
• Twenty-Seven: For the Love of Cats
• Twenty-Eight: Catsnip Arrives in the House of Commons
• Twenty-Nine: Life at Villa Pace
• Thirty: I Discover the ‘Real’ Sicily
• Thirty-One: Valeria, a Very Special Cat Lady
• Thirty-Two: Etna – A Brooding Presence
• Thirty-Three: A House in Sicily
• Thirty-Four: The Compassionate Tourist
• Thirty-Five: The Cat Sanctuaries of Trieste
• Thirty-Six: Sadie, Katarina and the Incredible Rescue of a Blind Kitten
• Thirty-Seven: I Come to Terms with Sicily
• Addendum: A Practical Chapter
• Useful Contacts
• Acknowledgements
• Glossary
• Plates
• Copyright