Sanctuary in the South the Cats of Mas Des Chats (Sanctuary for Strays)

When Margaret Reinhold left Hampshire for a beautiful old stone farmhouse surrounded by fields, vineyards and olive groves in sunny Provence she felt that she and her two English cats were living in a paradise on Earth. But soon she began to discover a more tragic side to her idyllic new life. The local peasant farmers, struggling against the hostile climate to make a hard-won livelihood, had little time for sentiment where their animals were concerned. Day after day, Mas des Chats was besieged by starving cats and even dogs, lost abandoned and often ill, all hoping desperately for food. Nervous and half-wild, a courageous few came into the house and gradually made themselves part of the family. The community of two cats became ten, plus Caramel, the dog. This book tells the story of these ten, highly individual cats. Together they brought a new intensity to the Mas des Chats as they shared the author's life and crept their way irrevocably into her heart.