When we first met Gigio, he was little more than a tiny black-and-white kitten: curious, incredibly affectionate with people and fascinated by everything around him 🐾
It was July 2024, and someone had decided to leave him in our clowder. We can only imagine the reasoning: “There are plenty of other cats here, so he’ll be fine.” It sounds intuitive. Unfortunately, it is also dangerously wrong.
A clowder is not a shelter. A feline colony is not a random collection of cats waiting to welcome every newcomer. Its members share established relationships, social dynamics and a territory they recognise as their own. A strange cat suddenly appearing in the middle of that territory can be perceived as a threat and aggressively driven away.
And that is exactly what was happening to Gigio. We arrived at the courtyard that day for one of our usual feeding rounds. It seemed like any other day, until we realised that something was very wrong. Gigio was completely surrounded.
Several members of the clowder were gathered around him, some already clearly preparing to attack. In the middle was this tiny black-and-white kitten, alone among cats much larger than him, in a place he did not know.
We intervened immediately, picked him up and brought him to safety. It didn’t take long to realise that this was very unlikely to be a kitten who had grown up on the streets. Gigio was well fed and clean and, above all, completely comfortable around humans. He sought people out, welcomed affection and trusted us in a way that strongly suggested he had previously lived in close contact with someone.
We couldn’t prove how he had ended up there. But everything about him told us that our clowder had never been his home. Once Gigio was in our care, we began the usual process for the little ones who come through our association. During his time in foster care, we carried out the necessary preliminary tests and treated him for worms, fleas and other parasites. And, meanwhile, we got to know him properly. Behind the frightened kitten we had rescued from such a dangerous situation was an extraordinarily curious and affectionate little cat, delighted to receive attention and even happier to return it.
He seemed like the kind of kitten who could win someone’s heart in five minutes. Yet the next part of his story reminded us of one of the less romantic realities of animal rescue: sometimes being wonderful simply isn’t enough to find a family straight away. We searched for a home for Gigio for months. There were appeals, conversations and possibilities that made us hope, each time, that perhaps this would finally be the right one.
But his family still didn’t come. We kept looking because we were convinced that somewhere out there, it existed. After months of searching, thanks to Arianna, the opportunity we had been waiting for finally arrived ❤️
That opportunity became a home. And that home became his family. The kitten who had been abandoned somewhere a person may have imagined other cats would simply accept him is now surrounded by something entirely different: people who chose him, care for him and love him.
He’s cuddled, cherished and spoiled just the right amount, although probably rather more than the right amount, and, most importantly, he’s safe. When we remember the frightened little kitten we found surrounded and in danger, the contrast with the life he has now couldn’t be greater. And that’s one of the reasons his story matters so much to us.
Gigio also left us with a lesson. Leaving a cat in a feline colony does not mean entrusting that cat to the others. It does not guarantee food, protection or companionship. It means placing an animal in unfamiliar territory, among cats whose social dynamics are already established, potentially exposing it to aggression, injuries, escape and other serious dangers.
Gigio was lucky that we arrived just as the situation was becoming critical. Then he was lucky enough to meet the right people along the way. We cannot know why someone chose to leave him in our courtyard. But we do know one thing with certainty: Gigio was not “going to be fine because there were other cats there.” He was in danger. His luck began to change when we carried him out of that courtyard.
And it became complete months later, when he finally reached the one place from which nobody was ever going to leave him behind again. Have a wonderful life, Gigio. This time, home really is home.❤️🐾