What will you do to celebrate this Memorial Day?

Good Day, Readers, tomorrow is a federal holiday in the United States, one where we honor and mourn the military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May.

Here are some ideas to help you celebrate this year: 

5 Kid Friendly Ways to Celebrate Memorial Day

Virtual Celebrations for 2020

Memorial Day Recipes

And for those wanting to learn more about the history of Memorial Day, check out this article: History of Memorial Day 

Whatever you do tomorrow, we hope it is a day filled with gratitude, reflection, and love.

Update on Grigio: We have decided to set up have-a-heart traps since we were unsuccessful in securing a rescue group and our local animal control will not assist with a feral, unless rabid. ☹ As you can see from the photos below, the last time he visited us, his eye did not appear to be getting worse, but it is still not good.

Sadly, he has not visited us yet this weekend. We pray he is okay. 

We anxiously await his return. 

Stay safe, Everyone, and enjoy your week ahead.

Purr & Paw, 
-Stivali. 🐾

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter the words, but to live by them. – John F. Kennedy.

Thoughts on taking a feral to a vet

We hope you all enjoyed your week, Readers.

We have been happily greeted by the little grey stray cat we call Grigio twice daily consistently for a while now. We want desperately to get him to a vet to have him checked out but no matter how much food we have given him, he does not yet trust us enough to come inside or let us touch him. He is a huge fan of hissing at us.

Now, he arrived with what appears to be a scratch on his cheek, which is swollen and most likely infected. More than ever, we want to try to trap him and get him to a doctor to be taken care of. 

What do you think?

We have left a message with our Doctor in hopes to getting some advice. Pray for Grigio and us so that we can get him the help he needs.

Thank you.

Purr & Paw,
-Stivali. 🐾

Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties. - Walter Lionel George.

Simple solutions to stay healthy and optimistic during this challenging time.

It is a very strange time. Ma doesn't go anywhere and stays home with us all of the time.

It was nice at first, but now we are wondering, "What exactly is going on?".

She told us that initially it was a two week shelter-in-place government request to remove the burden from the hospitals, so that they don't get overwhelmed with virus patients. After two weeks, the advice changed, and the government ordered a longer time to stay in.

Since this is a federal guideline, we are aware that there are a lot of people out there struggling with this. Perhaps, these guidelines have forced you to lose your job, and have put your bank account at risk. We cannot even begin to understand how scary that must feel, our prayers and thoughts are with all of you.

Our ma recently read this article, 5 Tips, that we share with you in hopes that it brings some solace to you during these challenging times. The tips are:


1. Stay in the present

2. Allow for emotional expression

3. Remain connected

4. Get creative and have fun

5. Serve others

Widian Nicola, D.S.W., LCSW, the assistant professor at Seton Hall University ends her article, with this great advice, "Whatever you do, do your best. That is all anyone can expect at a time like this."

Stay Well, Readers, 

-Stivali & Pasqua. 🐾

Pay it forward...

Happy Sunday, Readers,

The United Kingdom celebrates May as the National Smile Month. We hope this post finds you in good spirits and having a relaxing weekend filled with plenty of smiles.

We received a special video message from Jonathan Rosenberg, the Founder and Executive Director of the cat sanctuary which Pasqua Scheggiare came from, Tabby’s Place. We want to share it with you, and if you were looking for a place to pay forward any of your blessings, we kindly ask you to consider this public charity (501c3 non-profit corporation).

Their success, as with any charity, is dependent on the generous donations of people just like you. We believe what they are doing is extraordinary and valuable.

Tabby's Place Video Update

Thank you. We hope you enjoy your week.

Purr & Paw,
-Stivali. 🐾

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. - Albert Einstein

Cats and Coronavirus

I am sure you all have read by now that two house cats in New York tested positive for Coronavirus. If you are familiar with FIP in house cats, then you know how scary this is for us beloved animals.

CDC recommends to treat pets as you would any other human family members – do not let us interact with people or other animals outside of our household. If a person inside your household becomes sick, isolate them from everyone else, including pets. Read more here:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/animals.html 

It is vital at this time to not succumb to fear. Please don't drop your beloved pet off at a shelter or abandon them in a park somewhere. Please keep loving us. We need it just as you do during this challenging time.

Don't be discouraged, don't fall apart, keep moving forward and thanking God that He is fighting our battles.

If you are interested in learning more about FIP - here is information from WebMD:
https://pets.webmd.com/cats/cat-fip-feline-infectious-peritonitis#1

Pasqua says "Hang in there!"

Healing is coming, trust that. Choose faith over fear. Stay strong and safe.

We are thinking of all of you, and praying for your health.

Purr & Paw,
-Stivali. 🐾

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. - Eleanor Roosevelt.

Two Words

Hello Readers,

This week, my ma's boss opened up a team meeting by asking the following questions:

• What one word would you use to describe how you are feeling today?
• What's one word to describe what you are grateful for today? 

We would like to do this exercise with all of you. If you feel shy and don't want to add it to the comments, just marinade on it, and think about it for your self. 

• How are you feeling today?
• What is one thing you are grateful for today?

We three will go first:

• Today we feel optimistic.
• We are grateful our health.

With the chaos of today's uncertain world, reflecting and sharing our feelings is more important than ever. Connecting with one another will help us stay mentally strong as we adjust to new realities and grieve the loss of our old realities.

Most of us are simply trying to manage our daily lives taking care of our children, parents, work, finances, and learning a new way to live. All the stress we feel related to COVID-19 can transcend to negative feelings like depression and anxiety. This collective trauma that we are all experiencing may feel bleak, but we must stay mentally strong during it. 

We've all read the basics on how to do this - create daily habits, exercise, eat healthy, and connect with our social support system using video calls and social media.

Researches pose the following to stay mentally strong:

• limit news, media exposure, and toxic people
• accept your feelings
• focus on facts
• focus on self-compassion, self-care, and identify your needs

What would you add to the list? How are you staying mentally strong during this? 

Please take good care, and we hope all is well with you and your loved ones. 

Purrs & Paws.

-Stivali & Pasqua. 🐾🐾

The strength of your mind determines the quality of your life. - Edmond Mbiaka.

We help each other through...

Good Day, Readers,

During this challenging time, we send blessings of hope, encouragement, and good health.

Pasqua and I are well aware of the benefits we have for health and happiness to our humans.  It is well-documented that having a pet reduces loneliness and anxiety, provides daily structure, and gives a purpose - a happy one.

If you don't have a pet, we provide photos of us and our outdoor friends to cheer you:

What is really cool, is  that one day we had someone other than Grigio come to visit us.

Grigio:

Random doe eyed kitten:

What a beaut, right?

ASPCA offers the following to help us protect our pets: aspca.org/coronavirus-keeping-your-pets-safe-during-covid-19-crisis 

We wish you peace, health, and safety this holy week - regardless if you celebrate - we wish you, still, a celebration of rebirth and renewal. In our Christian faith, Jesus celebrated a Passover meal with his disciples the day before his crucifixion, what we call Holy Thursday. Passover commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt.

Peace be with you and with those you love.

Purr & Paw,
-Stivali. 🐾

(Pasqua, named after Easter, really wanted to write this blog post. I feel he is getting too much attention as it is - maybe next time, Little Brother!)