In the chill of the morning air, you can hear the animals awaken. As the fog breaks the crisp air comes alive. Set admidst a surrounding neighborhood in lies Catty Shack Ranch. Catty Shack has been the creation and ongoing management of Curt LoGiudice who began his journey with the big cats over 30 years ago. Curt was the first person I met that morning surrounded by chickens, horses and volunteers that were arriving. Catty Shack is run 100% by volunteers, people who have genuine passion for helping big cats have a forever home. I met with Catty Shack’s volunteer coordinator Jordan Joseph, on this crisp morning. Jordan took us on a behind the scenes tour of the Catty Shack Ranch. She spent time introducing me to each of the many big cats and providing their story and history as to how they came to the ranch. You see Catty Shack does not buy or sell any of their big cats. Whenever they acquire one, usually from people that should never have had a big cat in the first place. Catty Shack takes them in and provides them a forever home and habitat. The first to greet us as Jordan opened the gates was one of their many resident roosters T.R., this one is more like a puppy than a chicken. First of the cats we met was Sarah who greeted us with the spray like cats will do. Next was Czarina who had a large Boomer Ball to play with, which is a ball […]

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We all have the ability to make a difference we just need to choose to move. No matter what your career or job may be that should not limit us from finding our passion.  Some people are lucky enough to love the job that they do, the rest of us have to search elsewhere. Whatever your walk of life, whether you work in an office, a school, construction it does not matter.  We all have skills, better yet gifts that we can use in our life to make our world a little bit better.  Whether you mentor a child, feed the homeless or spend time with the elderly there are many ways that we can give ourselves to better another’s day. A good example is the way I and many other volunteers spent this past weekend.  We came from all walks of life, all ages and skill-sets; all for one cause.  It did not matter if they worked at an IT company, a bank, the mortgage industry and many more.  Some were students earning credit, while others took a day off to help others were retirees wanting to give a helping hand.  We all joined forces and chose to move and  change the landscape of our city. Many people wonder why we do what we do, some may say what difference does it make.  I can personally say that yes there are some sore muscles and still a bit sleep deprivation but all worth the cost of saving lives one by one.  To see the […]

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Your kids tug at your sleeve and beg you ‘please, please’.  You take me home and give me my own bed to sleep in oh boy!  We play chase around the house and a game of fetch out in the front yard.  You pet me and rub my belly and tell me how much you love me. As the days go by the games grow shorter that we play, you tell me you are tired and ‘won’t I just go away!’