{"id":2620,"date":"2014-07-14T02:02:06","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T02:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=2620"},"modified":"2017-10-28T03:38:37","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T03:38:37","slug":"cats-roma-r-bremner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/cats-roma-r-bremner\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cats of Roma by R. Bremner"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2621\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2621\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/the-offering-sky-black.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2621 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/the-offering-sky-black.jpg?resize=640%2C307\" alt=\"the-offering-sky black\" width=\"640\" height=\"307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/the-offering-sky-black.jpg?w=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/the-offering-sky-black.jpg?resize=300%2C143&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/the-offering-sky-black.jpg?resize=624%2C299&amp;ssl=1 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2621\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Offering by Sky Black<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Cats of Roma<\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">by R. Bremner<\/p>\n<p>My most enduring memory of Roma is of an occurrence on a cold November afternoon in the little green park which sits just above and overlooks the Coliseum. A lone woman, looking ninety or more years of age, carried two large shopping bags to a bench. After sitting down, she began to call out something in Italian, which I didn\u2019t understand. The most amazing thing then happened: within seconds, all manner of cats began to appear from all directions. Some come singly, some in groups of two, three, or more. The old woman reached into a bag, and removed five large bowls. These she placed in a row on the ground, and filled them with food. Then she sat down to watch.<\/p>\n<p>By now there were at least twenty cats, and more coming. Some crawled through space below a nearby wall, some pranced across the park lawn, and some, I swear, even seemed to climb down from trees. And there they were, this multitude of cats, purring and meowing, and eating their fill. They made quite a lot of noise, as you might expect. It was not a sight I\u2019d expect to see in the middle of one of the world\u2019s great cities, to be sure.<\/p>\n<p>After a while, the woman packed up her things, and went on her way, bidding her charges a fond farewell. The cats gradually dispersed, taking their own good time, as cats do. And before long, it was just another chilly day in another park in Roma.<\/p>\n<p>###<br \/>\nR. Bremner has worked as a cab driver, a truck unloader, a computer programmer, and a vice-president at Citibank. He is widely published, including International Poetry Review, ten ebooks, two print books, and many magazines. You can read his complete bio and bibliography at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.writers.net\/writers\/110743\">http:\/\/www.writers.net\/writers\/110743<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My most enduring memory of Roma is of an occurrence on a cold November afternoon in the little green park which sits just above and overlooks the Coliseum. A lone woman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2620"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3602,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions\/3602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}