This one’s for all the cat lovers out there. Although, I am not a cat lover, I can, however, be called a cat friender. I found this place through happenstance walking through Rome.

This area of town, near the Coliseum, Mussolini’s Typewriter, and the Jewish quarter (town? area?) has a lot of Roman ruins cordoned off like you see in the pic.

As I was staring at it, trying to figure out what it used to be and why I should be interested, I noticed a cat, and then a second cat hanging out in the ruins. Then I noticed a third, then more. Eventually I counted ten. I saw a sign asking people not to feed the cats because they’re well fed and have all their shots.

I found this to be curious. At first I’d thought it was simply a place that stray cats chose to live, plenty of mice. But then I saw stairs down to some kind of area and a sign on the corner (pic above and title card pic). I went down to investigate.

A cat rescue sanctuary was burrowed underneath the road, cats roaming in and around, lounging about and what not.

The woman who worked/volunteered there began talking to me and led me into another room where there were more cats under a higher level of care.

They find the stray cats roaming around Rome, take them in, give them medical attention and shots, and eventually let them out of this closed room to wander as they please in the ruins (probably using it as a giant litter box).

The cat with the soccer ball in front of it is blind and deaf (I think it’s name is Hellen Keller). The woman told me that Eleven of the cats in the room were blind. I think she was tugging on my heart to shake out some money. Don’t know What will become of the cats, I assume they hope for adoption.

The new arrivals have to stay in a kind of quarantine in the cages.

Stumbling upon this place was unexpected and probably one of the highlights of Rome for me, it was different and quirky. I’m sure you could go to their website if you want to donate.

!steemitworldmap 41.8954 lat 12.4772 long Cat Sanctuary Among Roman Ruins d3scr