A big hairy family

Oh well, the "blank sheet panic" is gone. I'm starting to find it funny to have a blog. :o)

I always had animals. They are part of my life and I could hardly live without them, if you want to live with me you have to like animals, no choice.

When wePenny and Minou moved here we had only two cats, two sweet sisters to be more precise, Minou and Messner, Christmas gift and bequeath of a two-months cohabitation with my bf's uncle. In spite of her name, Messner is a "girl", my bf's uncle stated he would have named a cat "Messner" whatever sex it would have been, and so he did.

About six months after we moved, we found a litter of four little kittens about one month old. A car ran down their mother, an alley cat, so the kittens remained alone. We gave two of them for adoption and kept with us the other two. We named them Penelope and Beo(wulf). The little Penny was "adopted" by Minou, and Beo teamed with Messner.
We think Penny is a sort of "autistic" cat: she spent all the first month hidden under the heater and it took us almost three years to be able to pet her, and only in sites she believes are "safe". Beo is the classic fatty, stupid male cat, sticky like glue...and I love it! :o)

The first of the two bunnies came a couple of years later. We bought her for a few euros only a week before she was going to be returned to the breeder: after three months spent in the shop window she was grown too much to be sold at a normal market price. She' s a lionhead rabbit, and she's the most diabolic creature living in our house. ;o) We named her Niglietta. Her partner is a little, stressed and restless white rabbit, adopted three years later, named Bianconiglio. Do you remember the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland? "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" ...that is, Bianconiglio is the White Rabbit. And that's not all. It is a super-jumping rabbit! When we rescued it, the old (bad...) owners told us that it was a very shy and depressed rabbit. It was having a bad sore hocks on its back feet, so it was jumping and walking with some problem. Due to its poor conditions we arranged a sit in our bedroom, the most quiet place available in our house...two hours later, the very depressed rabbit was lying down and peaceful sleeping on my bf's pillow, reached by a glorious two feet jump! Can you believe it? It's not a normal rabbit, it doesn't sleep at the ground level, it has his personal dwelling on a bookcase shelf!

The guinea pigs are the icing on the cake.
I haven't said yet that we think animals should not be caged at all. It is obvious when talking about cats, but it seems less obvious when you see a little squeaking guinea pigs herd walking on the living room floor.
Guinea pigs are funny creatures, a little bit annoying when they are hungry..but they are so sweet and comic you could fall in love with them. We have 6 guinea pig: Buffy, Berta, Pig Pen, Sally, Violet and Topona. All of them are adopted, some from a local charity. Buffy and Berta are the older ones, they are two 7 years old sisters. Pig Pen was rescued from a lab and Sally, Violet and Topona were rescued from a public park where people are used to abandon their unwanted pets...really sad.
Guinea pigs and rabbits are quite expensive animals, as they have to eat a lot of fresh veggies, but I like thinking they can live happy, healthy and safe here. I love watching them sleeping on a bunch of fresh hay!

So, this is our family, you can now understand why I'm constantly fighting with hair!

So, here I am.
I finally set up my own blog, after having found some good advice on Etsy forums, and now I have to fill it with something interesting. Hard work.
I have a sort of "blank sheet panic" and I always find it difficult to start a post, especially when I have nothing to answer to.
After having joined the Etsy European Street Team I started reading the EST threads on Etsy forums. I have known many lovely girls and I learned to love their works as well as their lives, so I started reading their blogs and making connections between what I was seeing and reading on Esty and what these people really look like in their lives.
I think the first blog I saw was Karlita's one. And I fell in love with her cats!
Then I checked Pamela, Artmind, Kreativlink, Morrgan, Ingermaaike, Gilbea, Arctida and finally Staroftheeast ones and... I fell in love with their dogs!!
It's true, I am an animal addicted, my house is full of little hair balls, but I'll show you all in the next post. :o)
Now, I think it's time for me to tell you a little more about myself.
I live in northern Italy, in a small apartment in a small town near Milan. I work full time for a services company and I spend my spare free time grooming my hairy friends, cooking, making soaps, painting, creating things for Etsy, and last but not least teaching myself to be a good aunt for my little "niece" Giulia. :o) My best friend Silvia gave birth to Giulia three months ago, and she's the cutest little baby girl I have ever seen!

What do I love?
I love nature and all simple things
I love my boyfriend (strange, isn't it? ;o))
I love animals (obvious...)
I love my friends
I love colors at such a point that I can flip out for a color pencil box
I love Austria
I love to cook
I love my bycicle :o)

I think it's enough for now. See you later, nighty night!