After having to move from Verona in 1992, where I was living in a place with about 20 wild cats which I helped to feed and care for together with my neighbors, I was now staying in Milano, in an apartment without any cats :(, I was not living alone, so it needed some time and diplomacy before the decision was taken to adopt a little kitty. After some searching, this little European tiger came into my life more for chance than for choice.. I had come to see a black kitten because one of those I had left behind and had loved most was black, but the little one didn't want to come with me.. as soon as I took him into my hands, he gave me a deep bite into my thumb and scratched and hissed furiously. In the meantime, his litter sister, small, nearly invisible in a corner, looked at me with big, sad eyes. She was very shy, and didn't want to be taken at first.. but I had fallen in love with her eyes and so it was her who went home with me. 
Her name, Ketchup, originated from a reddish tone the fur around her mouth has.. it seems she had just dipped it in tomato sauce :)

Even if very shy and afraid of loud noises, visitors, sudden movements and lots of other things, slowly Ketchy started to get used to me and become more affectionate. After a few weeks she started to sleep in my bed.

Kechup is and will always be a "real" cat.. who keeps her own life in her own places. She does like to be caressed..but only when she decides so. She often disappears for hours in some dark place and doesn't want to be disturbed. 

She also has a very keen sensibility to physical pain and suffering. When I am sick, she soon will come to me and often lie with her warm, furry body exactly on the spot which is hurting me. 

In 1994, I asked my vet if there was any non-neutered male cat I could "borrow" for Ketchup, since I was living on the 6th floor of a building.. not a place for a cat who wants to go mating. I did find a wonderful black cat and brought it home with me, and Ketchup, after a day or so of hiding,  had a lot of fun with him :)
Two months later our little family was enriched by two kittens, one of whom, black as his father, was adopted by the family of that same father, and the other one, a beautiful gray cat with long hair and eyes as big as those of mother Ketchup, was named Cios and stayed with us. 
Cios has had 4 little ones on her own, who in the meantime have become parents too.. and live all over Europe! And as of December 9th 2002 one of her 4th generation offspring, Rossini,  has come to live with us, after beloved Cios crossed over to the Rainbow Bridge.
The years after the death of her daughter have not been easy for Ketchup, as she doesn't get along with Blanche and generally has become more and more of a loner. She generally spends her life in my little garden, interacting with others only the unavoidable necessary. The winter of 2005/2006 my mother has offered to let her stay over with her, in Germany, where there is more space, and she also gets along better with their cats. This has been a sage decision, because as it has turned out, poor Ketchup has cancer, and will not have to live much more. I know that with my parents her last months will be comfortable and easy, and that she feels good there, as I have been able to ascertain over the xmas holidays. My heart is with her, and I am thankful to my parents for offering her so much love in this difficult moment. 

I don't have many pictures of her.. she escapes as soon as she sees a camera pointed towards her! The only way to catch her is when she is busy with some other cat or distracted otherwise, so that is what will to be seen on this page.