Tidliamo

by David
(Umbria, Italy)

Tidliamo at Halloween

We moved to Italy in August 2007 and while we were waiting for our house to be finished we had to stay in a tiny one room appartment. We thought this would be for a few weeks! The delays in the build got us down and the weeks turned into months and the one bright spot was this black cat that wondered onto our terrace in March 08. We used to feed her but thought she had a home! It turned out that she was abandoned and slept under a small bush at night. Over the coming weeks she fully adopted us so we named her Tidliamo. It comes from a slight merging of 'tiddles' which is almost a cliche name for an English cat and the amo is reference to the Italian we were trying to learn at the time which is linked to the verb 'to love' which seemed apt.

She happily came with us when we finally moved into our house here in Umbria, Italy in September 2008 and contents herself most days with catching lizards and sleeping.