Having mentioned the cats of Venice and the subject's many mysteries so often in my trip reports I thought that it would be good to bring these strands together in one place.

Having not been to Venice since 1992 I was surprised on my 2002 visit to find that the large number of friendly strays living in many campi (sometimes in little makeshift wooden huts) and being fed foil dishes of pasta by old ladies had all disappeared, completely.  The small garden in front of San Zaccaria, the Garibaldi Gardens, the wide canal-side area behind the Scuola Grande di San Rocco - are all areas that seemed very empty without their resident tabbies. This seemed to me to be a somewhat tragic loss, as Venice was justly famous for it's cat population. And where had they gone?

This top part of this page features photos I took in the early 90s, when the cats we many. Further down you'll find some more recent bulletins on the cats in Venice.

 

2005
A solution to the above mystery was supplied by site-friend, author and Venetian resident Michelle Lovric who wrote to me in 2005 saying "There is an association called Dingo which has over the last ten years collected up most of the street cats and taken them away for sterilization and rehousing. For some time they were housed on the island of San Clemente, the old female lunatic asylum. I went to visit them there - it was amazingly well organised, with huge cages and an operating theatre for the cats. But then the island was sold (it is now a five star hotel) and the cats were deported to the Lido, where they now have a sanctuary. Some Venetian friends have told me that the cats were accused of causing diseases to Venice's few precious babies and small children."
Here is a contemporary New York Times article about the ruckus at the time of the move from San Clemente to the Lido.

2006
This situation was confirmed and bemoaned by a multiple-cat-owning bookshop owner I got talking to on my 2006 visit who thought that the ecologists were misguided in this move, not the least in thereby leaving Venetian rats with no predators, this being the purpose for which the cats had first been introduced to Venice more than a thousand years ago.

The bookshop - Libreria "Acqua Alta" di Frizzo Luigi (a.k.a. the Most Beautiful Bookshop in the World) in Calle Longa S. M. Formosa - is becoming something of common denominator amongst cat-obsessed Venice fans and bloggers.

Then in December 2006 came reports of new sanctuaries. Anne Atwell wrote to me of a discovery by the church of San Lorenzo in Castello on a winter trip. "I walked up to the front of the church and saw all of these little houses......it was a cat sanctuary! It was a cold morning, and I could see all these little faces inside staring at me. A couple of them came out to check me out, but most stayed in. The houses are nice and have pillows inside......there was a bowl of water and bunch of empty paper plates all over the steps of the church." She went back later with a box of cat biscuits and made 11 new friends. Yonnie, a non-furry friend of hers, took some photos (right). She also passes on reports of two more sanctuaries, one in the gardens close to Piazzale Roma as well as one in Cannaregio, reputedly somewhere between the Ospedale and Bacini vaporetto stops. There are also rumours of another one near the Greek church, on the way to the Schiavoni chapel. It seems that these new homes are being provided by Dingo, but as they don't seem to have a web site it's hard to check. Any further info would be appreciated, but I'll surely be having a scout round on my next visit, in March 2007.

Two winter trippers provided reports and photos in December 2007. Annie Atwell, who wrote last in December 2006, says that she...

Found another small Dingo house (right) in the public gardens close to Piazzale Roma with one beautiful grey cat. Bought a Dingo 2008 Calendar at the pet store in Campo Santi Apostoli; it has a website address on it (dingovenezia.org) that doesn't seem to go anywhere (but see March 2008 below). Fed the San Lorenzo cats a couple of times...there were nine the first time and ten the second, and there was a little dog hanging out with them chasing pigeons. Looked for the rumoured house close to Celestia and saw cats but could not find the house!


 

And Gail Woodcock writes too:
An update for you on the cats at San Lorenzo in Venice which I fortuitously came across when I was there last week and took the attached photo
collage (right). The cats looked quite fat and healthy and did not mind me taking their pictures, especially the white one with black spots - he first peered
at me from the comfort of his wooden hatch in his comfortable bed, then came out and went over to the cardboard box homes where he posed there for me
beside and on top of one. It was about 10.30am, no sign of food but there was a big bowl of water beside the hatches.

The gist of this all being that the San Lorenzo cats remain numerous and plump, although they'd probably say that the latter is just their winter fluffing-up.