“Searching for Italy” is a 6-part television series that follows Stanley Tucci, an Italian-American actor, as he travels across Italy to discover the secrets and delights of the country’s regional cuisine. In the Naples episode, Tucci describes a custom dating back more than 100 years with roots in the working-class cafés of Naples. A caffé sospeso, a suspended or pending coffee, is a cup paid for in advance as an anonymous act of charity. It started when someone who was having a lucky day ordered a sospeso, paying the cost of two coffees and drinking only one. Either the next client would receive the free cup, or, more likely, it would be reserved for someone a little down on his luck who inquired if a sospeso were available.
It is a small, but benevolent, gesture that can have great power. There is a story in Naples that a woman about to embark on a job interview was standing on line for her coffee when another woman cut in line ahead of her. She was annoyed but when she got up to the counter she was told that the other woman had paid for her coffee. It took the sting out of her annoyance and buoyed her spirits. She had been out of work for 10 months and faced the interview with a renewed sense of hope.
The custom seems to be spreading. In Spain it is known as Café Pendientes and in France it is called Café en Attente. In the United States it goes by the less enchanting expression, “paying it forward.” In a town in Massachusetts, a woman named Eileen went to settle her coffee bill at a local donut shop. She was told that her coffee had been paid for by the previous customer. Eileen was so amazed that she returned to the shop the next morning and paid for two coffees, drinking only one. Her action prompted quite a chain reaction: The next 55 customers decided to do the same thing. The store owner said, “It was infectious, the generosity was unbelievable and it put everyone in such a good mood.”
Even small acts of kindness can have a massive impact on those who receive them. Everyone has had hard times or lonely times and a caffé sospeso honors the solidarity and humanity in all of us. It also demonstrates that people take pleasure knowing that they have helped someone, even when they do it anonymously. Kindness can create a chain of goodwill…one caffé sospeso at a time.
Ho scritto diversi post sulle incredibili storie di gatti smarriti che, contro ogni previsione, hanno poi ritrovato i loro proprietari. Il primo post (“Una storia commovente grazie a Facebook”, 9 ottobre 2014) racconta la storia di Ciro, un gattino bianco e nero che abitava a Monza, una cittadina a 15 chilometri a nord di Milano. Intorno al 2010, Ciro è saltato o è caduto dal balcone di casa sua. Chiara, la padrona, lo ha cercato a lungo, tappezzando il proprio quartiere con la sua foto. Un anno dopo, una gattara ha salvato un gatto che viveva in una colonia felina. Il gatto era visibilmente sofferente e malandato. Il gatto non sarebbe sopravvissuto da solo, quindi lo portò al rifugio dove lo chiamarono Connor. Undici mesi dopo, Connor non era ancora stato adottato. Così i volontari del rifugio pubblicarono le foto di Connor su Facebook e Chiara le vide. Quando arrivò al rifugio, gridò “Ciro!” Il gatto “drizzò le orecchie” e corse subito da lei. Fu un momento incredibile ed emozionante … per tutti i presenti.
Poi ho scritto di Ogghy (“Un gatto eccezionale”, 9 febbraio 2017), un gatto tigrato che viveva a Scandicci, un comune a sud-est di Firenze. Quando la padrona Bella è andata a trovare sua cugina in Maremma, vicino al mare in Toscana, ha portato Ogghy con sé. Ma ad Ogghy non piaceva stare lontano da casa, così scappò, riuscendo ad aprire la zanzariera della finestra. Bella ha cercato ovunque, ha affisso poster, pubblicato post sui social media e ha chiamato i gattili di tutta la zona. Un anno e cinque mesi dopo, Bella ha aperto la porta di casa sua a Scandicci e non poteva credere ai suoi occhi. Proprio lì, davanti a lei c’era Ogghy. Era quasi irriconoscibile; era pelle e ossa. Nessuno saprà mai come Ogghy aveva percorso 140 chilometri nell’arco di un anno e cinque mesi. Ha viaggiato tutta la Toscana, da sud a nord, attraverso campi, città e strade trafficate. Ma quando è tornato a casa, è andato alla sua ciotola di cibo e poi si è sdraiato sul suo pouf preferito.
Ora sono venute alla luce due nuove incredibili storie. La prima da Faenza, una città a sud-est di Bologna: Monica possedeva Mandarino, un tabby arancione, dal 2000, lo aveva preso da cucciolo. Era un esuberante esploratore e un giorno nel 2012 è fuggito dal giardino di Monica e non è stato più trovato, nonostante tutte le ricerche e i messaggi. Otto anni e due mesi dopo, un gatto anziano è stato trovato in una strada dall’altra parte della città rispetto alla casa di Monica ed è stato portato alla protezione animali locale. Era disidratato, magro e cieco. Attraverso le foto su Facebook, Monica sapeva che il gatto era il suo mandarino. Il momento del riconoscimento al rifugio è stato molto emozionante: “Non appena ha sentito la mia voce, è impazzito e ha iniziato a cercarmi”, dice Monica. Ma c’erano altre prove: Mandarino aveva avuto un incidente prima della sua scomparsa, aveva perso un occhio e aveva riportato fratture al naso e al palato, molto evidenti per i veterinari. Ma era di più, Mandarino aveva da sempre un’abitudine particolare, cioè quando in braccio gli piaceva mettere le zampe intorno al collo e picchiettare la testa sul mento. Ormai a 21 anni, Mandarino è a casa, viziato e coccolato.
Patches apparteneva a Josie, una donna morta nella tragica alluvione del gennaio 2018, a seguito dell’incendio che aveva distrutto la vegetazione sulle colline sopra Montecito, in California. La casa di Josie è stata distrutta e tutti credevano che Patches fosse morta insieme alla sua “mamma”. Ma dopo tre anni è tornata vicino a dove si trovava la sua casa. È stata portata in un rifugio per animali e i volontari hanno visto che aveva un microchip. Quando hanno scoperto che Josie era la padrona deceduta, hanno contattato la famiglia, in particolare il compagno di Josie, Norm. È stato travolgente per lui quando è venuto a reclamare Patches al rifugio. Patches era in ottime condizioni, ma resta il mistero su dove sia stato Patches negli ultimi tre anni.
Questi ricongiungimenti sono rari, soprattutto dopo il passare di così tanto tempo, ma sono dovuti al lavoro delle agenzie, ai servizi della protezione animali, ai social, ai microchip e all’incredibile senso di casa e di fiducia che hanno i gatti. In un post intitolato “I Pet Detective” (17 dicembre 2017), ho scritto di un’azienda negli Stati Uniti e in Italia che lavora per trovare animali domestici scomparsi. Le squadre di Pet Detective utilizzano le stesse tecniche che la polizia usa per risolvere i casi sulle persone scomparse. Tra le più sofisticate tecniche ci sono l’uso di ragionamenti deduttivi, il profilo comportamentale, teoria della probabilità di ricerca, raccolta di prove forensi, trappole umane e l’uso di attrezzature high-tech. Prima di tutto, tuttavia, il team crea un profilo dell’animale scomparso … in linea con la convinzione che ogni proprietario ha, vale a dire: “il mio bambino ha caratteristiche uniche”.
I have written several posts on the incredible stories of lost cats who, against all odds, have been reunited with their owners. The first post (“A Heartwarming Story thanks to Facebook,” October 9, 2014) tells the story of Ciro, a black and white kitty who lived in Monza, a city 15 kilometers north of Milan. Around 2010, Ciro jumped off or fell from the balcony of his house. Chiara, the owner, searched and searched for him, papering the neighborhood with his photo. A year later, a cat lady rescued a feline that was on the edge of a wild cat colony. The cat was visibly in pain and in bad shape. The cat would not have survived on its own, so she took him to the shelter where they named him Connor. Eleven months later, Connor still had not been adopted. So the shelter volunteers posted Connor’s pictures on Facebook and Chiara saw them. When she arrived at the shelter, she called out “Ciro!” The cat “lit up” and went to her immediately. It was an incredible and emotional moment … for everyone there.
Then I wrote about Ogghy (“An Exceptional Cat,” February 9, 2017), a tiger-striped cat who lived in Scandicci southeast of Florence. When owner Bella went to visit her cousin in Maremma, which is near the sea in Tuscany, she took Ogghy with her. But Ogghy didn’t like being away from home and managed to remove the screen from a window and escape. Bella searched everywhere, put up posters, published posts on social media, and called the area shelters. One year and five months later, Bella opened the door of her house in Scandicci and couldn’t believe her eyes. There sat Ogghy. He was almost unrecognizable; he was all skin and bones. No one will ever know how Ogghy had traversed 140 kilometers in that time period. He traveled throughout Tuscany, from south to north, through fields, cites, and congested streets. But when he got home, he went to his bowl of food and then to lie down on his favorite ottoman.
Now two new incredible stories have come to light—the first from Faenza, a city southeast of Bologna. Monica owned Mandarino, an orange tabby, since he was a kitten in 2000. He was a feisty explorer and one day in 2012 he escaped Monica’s garden and couldn’t be found despite all the usual inquiries and postings. Eight years and two months later, an elderly cat was found on a street across town from Monica’s home and taken to the local animal protection agency. He was dehydrated, thin and blind. Through photos on Facebook, Monica knew the cat was her Mandarino. The moment of recognition at the shelter was very emotional: “As soon as he heard my voice, he went crazy and started looking for me,” says Monica. But there was other evidence: Mandarino had been in an accident before his disappearance and had lost an eye and suffered fractures in his nose and palate, which were evident to the veterinarians. But it was also a particular behavior of Mandarino’s that Monica noted: When you pick up Mandarino he likes to put his paws around your neck and tap your chin with his head. Now at 21 years, Mandarino is home, spoiled and pampered.
Patches belonged to Josie, a woman who died in the tragic debris flow of January 2018 following the fire that destroyed the vegetation in the hills above Montecito, California. Josie’s house was destroyed and everyone believed that Patches had perished along with her “Mom.” But after three years she returned near to where her home used to stand. She was taken to an animal shelter and the volunteers saw that she had been microchipped. When they discovered that Josie was the deceased owner, they had a connection with the family and contacted Josie’s partner, Norm. It was overwhelming for him when he came to claim Patches at the shelter. Patches was in great condition and the mystery remains about where Patches has been during the last three years.
These reunions are rare, particularly after the passage of so much time, but they are aided by the great work of animal protection agencies and services, by social media, by microchipping, and by the incredible sense of home and trust that cats have. In a post entitled “The Pet Detectives” (December 17, 2017), I wrote about a company in the United States and Italy developed to find missing pets. The teams at Pet Detectives use the same techniques that the police use to solve missing-person investigations. On the sophisticated end, they include deductive reasoning, behavioral profiling, search probability theory, gathering of forensic evidence, humane traps, and use of high-tech equipment. First and foremost, however, the team makes a profile of the missing animal…in keeping with every animal owner’s conviction that “my baby has unique characteristics.”
L'Olivo Santa Barbara 