The Forum of the Cats

I've taken a short holiday in Italy and greatly enjoyed some wandering around Rome. One of the places of note is the Piazza di Pigna. This piazza is a street level piazza surrounding an excavation of some ancient ruins that include a few columns and numerous blocks of marble all numbered and ready to be reassembled if funds should ever be available. Sometime ago somebody decided this would be a good place to abandon some unwanted kittens. They were cute so people started to bring them food. Other strays came for dinner and the population started to grow. Tom cats decided it was a good place to meet available females. They fathered more kittens, those kittens grew up and had more offspring and people continued to abandon unwanted cats there. As the population increased more and more people brought food and soon it was estimated there were around 1000 cats there. The city decided something must be done before cats from the countryside started to move in too, so heavy fines were levied on anyone found abandoning cats there and a cat hotel was set up at one end of the piazza. Cats were caught, fed, given medical attention if necessary and altered. People were advised to contribute money rather than food. A cat adoption agency was set up and now the population is greatly diminished. Those remaining enjoy sun bathing and cat gymnastics on the marble blocks and there are definately no mice in Piazza di Pigna..