#chichina

Ok so to answer this question you have to remember that I used to live in Italy because that’s kinda important to the story of why I have like 4 cats.

When we first moved there I was my usual angsty self but probably a little worse than I am now because I was halfway through my 7th grade year and I felt like I was finally happy now that I started middle school and had a decent group of friends. Plus, when we moved we had to rehome my 2 cats. We took my dog Angel though. So once we moved out of the army housing place and finally found a home we liked I started guilt tripping my mom into letting me get a kitten. When you live overseas because of the Army then there’s this little website for all of the families who are moving or arriving to post what they have to give away or what they need. Kinda like craigslist. So we started browsing that and eventually found a couple who had an accidental litter.

(Been rocking the rectangle glasses since I was like 9, y’all)

That’s how we found ChiChina. She was the owner’s favorite and I was like 12 then so I wasn’t thinking very much when I was picking out a kitten. If I knew then what I knew now then I would probably have waited awhile longer before picking because even though the legal minimum is 6 weeks before they can be weaned I still think that 8-12 weeks is better for socialization.

ANYWAY I named her ChiChina because it was what one of my friends wanted me to name the previous cat we adopted when I was living in Virginia and I was angsty and homesick so I went with it now that I had another cat to name. Technically her “full” name is ChiChina Moo Aleice Luis Mary-Ann and each of those names have a special meaning from someone when I was homesick. The “moo” part is because she’s black and white and kinda reminds me of a cow.

Sorra! She’s technically my sister’s cat and she named her Sorra because it’s Japanese for strawberry or something. I don’t know.

Roman! We adopted him after I spent a summer helping out at the vet clinic. I got him because by then I had kinda realized that ChiChina was a grumpy old lady and no fun so I wanted to try again. He was named after the fun. song “Light a Roman Candle With Me”. He wasn’t named after the city of Rome.

Quinto! Quinto was an accident. I wasn’t there when my family decided to keep him. But apparently what happened was he just showed up around Thanksgiving after my parents had come back from a trip to Nice, France. By then we already had 4 animals (Angel, ChiChina, Sorra, Roman) and my parents were preparing to move back to the States so they already had a bunch of vet appointments for health checks and stuff so my dad was like “yeah fine let’s just keep him but five is ENOUGH” plus the little village place we lived in is called Quinto Vicentino. Quinto means “fifth” in Italian so yeah.