Long since I checked in huh… write a nonsense blog, I might say. But surely, this ones not. I’ll show you my other side… other softer side hehe…
I grew up loving different animals (yeah, I have a friend to proove that). I have a list of long lined of pets since I was a little girl. So much of it, I owned sixteen cats when I was six or seven. Although I suffered asthma attacks, this doesn’t stop me from loving them. I had yellow, stripes or the one they called tabby, pure white, pure black, tigered, multi-colored, and gray. But my first cat was Audobon, he has a black with gold spots, much common at urban areas. I took his name from John James Audobon, who painted, catalogued, and described the birds of North America–or maybe a bird lover as well (Layu noh?). Audobon and I always together, after school and all. He’s sweet and playful though matakaw at the same time. My mother used to punished me when Audobon took our ulam on the table (remind you of someone?) or sleep at the clean sheets. He’s a keen hunter, yun nga lang butiki trip n’ya, but surely make us laugh at the end of the day besides his so-called weird behavior (weird ba yun?). Then as months gone by, Audobon took so many friends with him (a dozen cats) to stay with us. But he made sure dun lang sila sa bakuran kasi teritoryo n’ya na ang loob ng house–smart little fella, wasn’t he?. My heart broke when we moved out, they said that Audobon could no longer be with us. My mom said that I have to choose between the three little kittens or Audobon. I choose the kittens because they were helpless at that time. In Audobon’s eyes, though I’m not Dr. Doolittle’s daughter, I know what’s on his mind, “Why leave me?” I cried and cried because of that. I path his head and bade him goodbye. Now I have these three kittens on my hands–which happens to be Audobon’s offsprings–promised to take good care and never to leave them. I nurtured and literally feed them because they’re too small on their own. They grew up healthy and I might say that Audobon was so proud having his offspring’s well taken care off. The pure, yellow-striped like her mama was Mimi; yellow with white was Gigi–because he loves fish; and the same pattern like his brother was Meow–cause he cries a lot. Sadly, they never took any resemblance from their father that sometimes pisses me off when they told me “Hindi naman ata anak ni Audobon yan e.” Gigi was huge, while his brother was a little whiner. Mimi was dominant, suplada as some say. But all in all they were cute and malambing towards me.
Few months have passed Gigi dissapeared, maybe looking for a mate because I didn’t neutered him (abay malay ko ba d’yan non). Meow, a fine male as well–with whining on the side–followed his brother. Mimi left behind, and yikes! she’s pregnant! Gave birth to another three kittens. To my surprise, she has a little kitty same color as Audobon. Yehey! I say, but this little creature was a female! waaaaahhhh!! As my mother will get mad having another female cat, this feline stand out the rest. Though she’s a girl but her hunting made us awed. She attacked a huge rat at the backyard, which much more size of her. Not only that, she hunts and kills snakes as well. Audobon has a grandaughter that finally resembles everything of him, she attacks reptiles, his grandpapa attacks reptiles-alike HAHAHA.
Years past, this cat died of poisoning. Her mother died as well of old age. Sad right? I stopped taking care of cats since then. Yes, we have cats lingered around but I’m not that totally attached to it. They come and go. Then came Cookie, a mix terrier dog and lived with us for more than ten years. I also have a two dagang costa’s (a white rat), a really huge one and breed them till they peaked at eleven, lumaki ang dami nila. I tempt to sale them, but I’m not a good breeder because I cried everytime they bought one of them. Until I bought them back (abay gago). All of them died because our kapitbahay sprayed an insecticide, harmed them, until the two adult parents remain. The male died after a while because of illness and his partner was bitten by a stray cat. Another one of those failure, huh?
I was in college when I took another two male cats from our school. One has gray and white, the other was yellow-striped. The gray-white’s name was Cody and the other was Silly (because I think he’s crazy haha). These two were the most malambing of all my cats, for they even salubong me inside the tricycle. Because I’ve been busy with my studies, I lost the yellow one. Maybe kinuha s’ya ng iba coz humahabol nga sa tricycle. Cody, I thought of him was gay–haha meron baklang pusa–he’s a huge, densed fur, with sharp eyes, but despite of his masculinity, he’s like a female kung umasta. He whines like one of those naglalanding pusa. He’s so malambing and smart. He reached the age of two when he passed away because of infection on his genitals (eh bakla nga e). I didn’t reached in time when he died, that I promised him to be back as early as possible at dalhin s’ya sa vet. I promised myself after that that I will never sympathized any cat. But even I forced myself to do that, still my weakness empowered me; I save lots of feline from the streets, nakikipag away ako sa mga nananakit ng any pets, and burried them myself if I can kapag namatay sila. I said to myself, “Kung may pera lang ako, papagawa ako ng malaking bakuran at aampunin ko yung mga ligaw na pusa at aso.” But it’s just a dream and I know that few (like myself) sympathized weak and helpless animals.
I adopt a two-year old dog and named her Cha-Cha na nuknukan ng taba ngayon from the two elder couple’s from Tondo who can’t feed him no more, she got two offprings; Dagul and Negra, I had also a Labrador named Ginger, who acted like a puppy despite from her big body, a cat named Sassy and her two sons Sunget and Topak, two Abyssinian and two local guinea pigs; Pepper, Sugar, Salty, and Spice, we have two flower horns and a red salamander (Hindi mahilig sa hayop enoh). I don’t have Jye2x yet (my daughter), and because of that parang ginawa ko silang anak. When my daughter was born, I already had Ginger, Cha-Cha, Sassy and her sons. The four guinea pigs died, which I cried, again (lagi naman e), Topak was given away, gave him to my kumpare, Topak and Sassy dissapeared after we move to another house (guess they don’t like it there). Sassy was dear to me, malambing din s’ya’t smart. She likes spicy food and corn, and watched TV with us (hanef enoh). She’s the best friend of Ginger. Ginger by the way died after six years being with us. I was so sad and cried almost a week, that even my husband cheered me up bade to bought another dog like her. Surely I was flattered, but Ginger is Ginger and nothing can replace her that easily. I said no, begging to let me subside for a while to have another dog. Cha-Cha was the only one I have left, but sadly, she was taken away too by my in-laws to be the guard of their house.
I was back to zero, no pets again. But last year, after so months of mourning, the lost of my pets and long to have one again, some stray kitten was left behind to our doorstep. He’s so small, frightened and hungry. My husband took him in for awhile, planning only to stay with us in just one night. He’s a yellow cat with white fur and loves to play with us around, till I decide to adopt him again and call him Sally (yep, Monster’s Inc). After few months, I was walking by the road, I heard a kitten cry. I look for it and found a yellow kitten. I took him home for Sally to have a playmate. I named him Luthor because of his aggressiveness and cunning. Now my family is complete once more, we include them to our vacation trips and other stuff, sometimes they called us silly having them for a special treatment. So what, I said. “Bakit, pusa n’yo ba ganyan katalino? They po-pooh on bathrooms noh!” They are potty trained, not unlike the other stray cats na saan-saan lang magbawas.
Sally is timid, lame, in short masungit. But his weakness is the yarn or any kind of thread; moving or not, he will go gaga on that. Or anything new to him, like styro’s, plastics, carton boxes and the likes, BASTA BAGO SA PANINGIN N’YA GAME S’YA. Unlike Luthor, Sally is a camera shy, always on the hide if there’s a camera around. All of his pictures were stolen shots. He’s scared of firecrackers too, and indistinct noise that one time I almost drop laughing when my husband got drunk and puke at the toilet, he was so scared made a run-around the house because of that puke sound. He loves to istambay above the TV, his basket, or my pillow. Always at the door, looking outside or waiting for whose not around the house. He’s a meat lover, no fish for him (well maybe sometimes if he wants to taste it), lover of soups or better yet noodles, he’s not a sweet tooth because both him and Luthor likes a little kick of spices. He doesn’t like the idea of having a colar around his neck, he’s irritated. He doesn’t talk much but he’s a whiner when it comes to eating time (yeah like any cats does not). But one thing that made me quiver sometimes, his stare. Like he wants to say something outloud but because of that little tone of his, my attention was focused on his eyes. He like to look at you way down like “Ano ka ba, engot? Hindi nga ako kumakain n’yan.”
The little, energetic, always-the-go feline, the what-the-hell-is-that kinda attitude was my kitty Luthor; Kabaligtaran s’ya ni Sally. He’s vocal, papansin, loves to sleep beside me or anyone sleeping at the bed, sofa and so fort. You will always see him at the door watching every movement outside. Unlike Sally, Luthor likes children kahit gulpihin mo pa yan hindi ka aawayin n’yan, no prob when it comes sa karagahan. He too loves to sit on my lap and watched TV with me, eating what’s on my hand. He’s a pakialamero when it comes to toys of his big so-called brother, or terrorizing S
ally as much as he can. Kung baga sa bunso, pang asar talaga. Dahil hindi ka tatantanan n’yan hangat hindi mo s’ya pinapansin. And where can you see a cat who loves camera, posing like a model? Yup, Luthor! He like to pose, alam n’ya na sy’a ang kinukunahan ng pic. One time I had this product shoot to finish, it was dawn already and I think that was 3:00am. Luthor sat beside the camera while Sally played with the packaging. I took a quick turn after arranging the products that I’ll shoot, when I turn back I saw Luthor kick them all and sat in front of the camera. “ANAK NG!!” I want to get mad but how can I, ang cute n’ya! hahaha (sample pics below). Then after that he always makes sure he has this share of pics everytime I’m in the middle of my work.
I love both of them so much, they made me ease my day kapag bad trip ako. My husband sometimes complaining that I treated or always favored the two cats rather than him. My daughter love them both and always brought them food after school; fishballs! My husband bought them both of their colars, yun nga lang baliw itong si Sally ayaw suotin at yung kay Luthor naman akala n’ya toy kaya he chewed on it. My husband doesn’t show how much he loves the two, but when I’m not around, he’s talking to them like “mamya aalis ako, ano gusto n’yo pasalubong?” or playing hide and sick with them along with my daughter.
