With Travel, sometimes it’s the small things. . .

. . .that leave the longest memories.

And for the animal lovers we are, the small things are those little four-footed creatures who can capture our hearts or sadly sometimes break our hearts when we visit those places that have no compassion for their homeless dogs and cats.

I am happy to report to all our fellow animal lovers that this trip has been a good one – for us and the furry ones that we’ve encountered. Today, on TP Thursday, I want to share some of those encounters with you:

Let’s start in Catania, Sicily where this bride and groom were virtually ignored by us camera-toting tourists. . .


. . .because we were so taken with this charming little member of the wedding party (who WAS watching the bride and groom):



Then there was the stroll through Bari, Italy’s old town when we happened upon this fellow asleep outside one of the traditional bars (where you can have coffee, sweets, alcoholic drinks or just hang out with the locals). And he could have cared less about the number of tourists aiming camera’s at him:


Valletta, Malta wins hands down for the care given its ‘street cats’.  They have free rain-proofed and cushioned  public housing in the city park:



And signs in Arabic and English advise people to only feed them at the ‘feeding stations’ – these are two story structures that offer both food and drink. There was one well fed but camera-shy cat behind the structure just waiting to eat a bit more  as soon as I left:



This fellow was sunning himself against the exterior walls of Dubrovnik, Croatia’s Old City – totally oblivious to the attention being given him by those of those of us who felt the need to capture his bath on film:


Just down the road, we spotted a mom and her adolescent children – all were well cared for and despite her camera-shyness, I had to include her photo. (Those of you who remember our still-loved-and-missed “Thai Guy” will understand why she captured my heart):


This trip has given me hope that animal welfare has caught on world-wide.  If not, at least the efforts are expanding.

That’s it for this Travel Photo Thursday.  Head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox for more travel photos from around the world.