Meet Lily. A very friendly feline companion who dined with us most evenings while we were in Italy. Yes, she is missing a limb. And yes, it was very strange to see how she walked around, jumped onto things, cleaned herself. She lost her leg because of cancer and you can imagine just how guilty we all felt after you've read the rest of this blog post.

Obviously when Lily first introduced herself, we didn't even know what she was called never mind how she might have found herself with only 3 legs. So it became a little bit of a game, thinking up names and imagining scenario's where one cat might tragically lose a leg. For a few days we called it (gender was ambiguous at this point and nobody was rushing to make it any less so) Tripod, and we giggled in every fancy church we stopped at from then on in with a sign reading "No Tripods Allowed". Then it was Triceratops when we noticed how sometimes it's ears could be mistaken for horns. Then, and this is what Lily will always be remembered as, it was Trilopolus. It's not even a word, it's just my cousin mis pronouncing and mixing every other potential name together! To confirm our decision, we drew a very detailed stick picture of Trilopolus on a random chalkboard and set it outside our front door for all to see what the crazy Irish family are getting up to on holiday.

And as for how a cat might lose it's leg...there was the dog who may have fancied a little cat joint. There was near-death by dodgy Italian hairdryers. Near-death by dodgy asian tourists. There was the possibilty that Trilopolus betted a body part in a mean game of Contract Whist. There were many injury causing hammocks hanging all over the place. Crazy italian drivers speeding up the gravel hills....

But alas, we were wrong and felt very disappointed in ourselves when we learned the nature of Trilopolus's misfortune. I don't even know if you understand english Trilops, but may you live a long prosperous cat life my friend, with you're remaining limbs in tact. Ciao x.