For the locals, Roman ruins are known for its cats, and Largo Argentina is the biggest stray cat center in Roma. It takes care (ie. sprayed and neutered) over 300 cats, and housed a number of disabled cats. It hasn't crossed my head before, but cats do get mental illnesses too!
The ladies manning the cat center were friendly and they let me in the separated cat room. It's a room that housed the disabled, mentally disabled and other cats that need to be caged. There's a blind cat, a deaf cat, three legged cat and the deranged cats (they walk disorientingly...). Unlike in the US, these cats cannot be killed just because they're sick. In Italy it is illegal to euthanize cats.... probably this is one of their Roman Catholic streak.
This fluffy white cat has had it's ears amputated because of skin cancer.
This is Vivian, an American student studying in Rome. She's one of the volunteers at the place. The cat on her lap is an antisocial one and swats at any other cat that comes near her lap. The personal care at this cat institution is on par with the human's mental institutions counterparts.
This is not the best panoramic picture of Largo Argentina, but it gives you a good idea of what the place looks like. This sunken ruin is located right across our apartment and school. It consists of four temples that dates back to 600-200BC, and it is considered to be a rare example of Republican Architecture (architecture before the Imperial Rome period), "little else is known" so says my guidebook... but it's sunken because of the dirt and soil that accumulated over the years (at the speed of a meter per 500 years).
Must say, Rome takes care of its stray cats better than its guest workers.
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