🐾 Gigia Requests Your Catventure Stories! 🐾
Welcome to the Wall of Paws
Share Your Cat’s Boldest Escapades
This corner of the website celebrates your cat’s most unforgettable adventures — the daring leaps, the unexpected discoveries, the moments that made you laugh, sigh, and fall in love all over again.
By submitting your story and images here or via email, you agree to let us share them on this website or other media platforms.
🐾 The Wall of Paws 🐾
Real adventures from real cats — submitted by their humans
IRIS THE TABBY GIRL OF VENICE MESTRE
Iris: The Tabby Girl of Venice Mestre
I am Francesco Vianello from Mestre and this is my Iris.
Since many of you have asked me for details on how to try to manage and lead a cat on a leash, I hope to do something you like with these short videos.
Iris is a female, apparently of a common European cat, also commonly called “tabby.” She has an extremely regular and homogeneous tabby coat that made many people think she belonged to some more particular breed, let’s say. Iris is a stray foundling, therefore it was not possible to establish the identity and breed of her parents.
🐾 A Humble Beginning
Iris was born in March 2023 and I regularly adopted her from the ENPA volunteers, filling out all the relevant adoption forms, in May of the same year, when she was about two months old and weighed about 200 grams. Subsequently, she had general medical check-ups, received all the vaccinations required by law, was sterilized at about 7-8 months of age, and also had a subcutaneous microchip installed, which is why she is registered in the national registry. Iris immediately got used to the litter box and immediately showed exuberant, extremely dynamic behavior at home, dotted with ambushes and bites towards my ankles and hands — a real Tasmanian devil.
🎒 Learning the Harness
After about 3 months, when she was therefore about 5-6 months old, and when her body size allowed it, I tried to make her wear the harness. I must say that Iris accepted it well from the start, without ever complaining and without changing her behavior — especially because she was already quite energetic on her own. I proceeded step by step, but I must say that everything was quite easy. Then we quickly moved on to the leash and to short walks outside, in the courtyard of our house. It should be noted that, right from the start, Iris had been accustomed to travelling by car in the rigid cage carrier for weekends out of town or to go to my parents’ house who live a stone’s throw from me.
🌳 Expanding Horizons
Then we expanded the range of our walks, so to speak, going to the public gardens of Via Einaudi in Mestre where we began to socialize with many people, with or without pets in tow. At the beginning, I always used the rigid cage which, however, was quite uncomfortable when transporting it fully loaded or by bicycle. Thanks to my friend Jasmine, I discovered the more comfortable backpack which, for short trips, is easier to use. By placing it on the chest rather than on the back, it allows the animal to have a better relationship with the world.
🐱 Planning a Venice visit with your cat?
Explore these Gigia-approved guides for the lagoon city:
PEPE THE RAGDOLL FROM TREVISO, ITALY
Pepe: The Ragdoll of Treviso, Italy
I’m lucky enough to share my life with two cats: Mia, a regal and incredibly intelligent Maine Coon, and Pepe, a 9 kg Ragdoll — sweet, goofy, and a bit less sharp. While Mia absolutely hates leaving the house, Pepe is more adventurous and has been used to a harness and leash since he was little. Because of his size, I had to buy a dog harness for him — camouflage, no less — which gives him a tough look… like a pit bull disguised as a fluffy cloud.
🐾 9 kg of pure Ragdoll fluff — a pit bull disguised as a fluffy cloud! 🤎
😴 The Laziest Fluff in Treviso
Another of Pepe’s defining traits is his innate laziness, which comes with dramatic huffs and sighs of annoyance no matter what he’s doing — from climbing onto the couch to walking over to check his food bowl (which he does several times a day). Naturally, he’s lazy outside the house too. After a short stroll, he’ll flop down on the ground, drawing the attention of passersby with his antics and meows. Since it’s not exactly practical to carry 9 kilos of limp cat in my arms, we went with the bicycle option — a nice wicker basket for long rides through the countryside.
🏖️ The Beach Incident
In the summer, the whole human & feline family moves to the seaside, where Pepe discovered the beach — or worse, sand — and it was hate at first sight. I think the feeling of grains between his ultra-furry paw pads is pure torture for him. Still, we made an attempt, and there’s photographic evidence: a couple of shots where his expression leaves no room for doubt. Let no one say animals can’t make themselves understood! Since then, no more beach outings — unless he’s under the umbrella, lying on a towel and sunbed like a true vacationer.