All over Italy hundreds of feline-loving females take a few moments out of their daily routines to feed and care for their local strays.
But the undisputed leader of the nation's 'Gattare' (Cat Ladies), who are usually soft-hearted elderly women, is a Milanese pensioner who has taken cat love to a new level.
Albertina Di Mascio spends 1,500 euros a month - almost all of her and her husband's combined income - on feeding 120 strays in the north Milan quarters of Niguarda and Greco.
"I've used up all my savings," explained the 70-year-old.
"My husband and I live on bread, tomato, tuna and water melon. The rest of our money goes on cat food".
Every morning Di Mascio sets off from home at 6am in her Fiat Panda to visit her four-legged friends.
"I do it all on my own," she explained. "I take 60 tins of food, two litres of milk, 15 litres of water and three kilos of cat biscuits with me.
"A lorry from a cat-food company comes to my house twice a month. They know me now and give me a good price".
She said her extraordinary passion for the street tabbies started 15 years ago when her daughter asked her to take care of a stray near her home.
"Then I found others in a basement and in the area," she said.
"After that people started to tell me where there were more cats.
"At the time they were ugly and sick, but now they are all beautiful and healthy".
Di Mascio lives with her husband Giuseppe in a council apartment, which is also home to her 30 pets.
She said she no longer buys clothes or shoes for herself, but sometimes finds something to wear from a local deposit where people leave items they no longer want.
The frugal existence has not affected her sense of humour though.
CAT ADDICTION DOES WONDERS FOR HEALTH, SHE SAYS.
"I can't go wild and buy lots of things, but we are not dying of hunger and we no don't have the teeth to eat steak anyway," she joked.
She said Giuseppe raises no objections to her spending their cash on cats because "he's an animal-lover too".
Di Mascio also believe her selfless lifestyle keeps her in good physical and mental shape.
"I'm always walking, my cholesterol level is perfect, I'm not fat and I haven't had a nervous breakdown," she explained.
"If I didn't have the cats, I'd be at home all the time. Instead they keep me in good health".
Di Mascio admits, however, that her love of cats has become an addiction.
"Since I started I have not been able to stop," she concluded.
"If I had to give someone advice, I'd say don't begin in the first place".
