Sunday, October 05, 2008 Sun.Star Essay: Of cats, dogs, etc. By Erma M. Cuizon
RECENTLY, a newspaper or two carried a story about homeless animals, man’s love for them or lack of it. But the August write-ups sounded more like coverage stories by busy reporters who had to run and write quick pieces. Or they were like PR notes calling for the help of kind hearts for homeless animals. And they were part of the quiet celebration of World Homeless Animals Day.
Among the groups that are trying to work to develop animal believers among us are Compassion and Responsibility for Animals (Cara), the Animal Kingdom Foundation Inc., Animal Welfare Coalition, Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare---all inspired by international movements.
But the impression is that Filipinos don’t love dogs and their kindred.
According to the Cara group, “cruelty and abuse to animals is an everyday occurrence in the Philippines.” If dogs are not killed for food, they’re thrown out to the streets, unfed, unvaccinated.
I remember the kitten that we kept in the house. It was a kitten that its mother left behind on top of the neighbor’s roof, we heard it crying in the early morning. A houseguest, actress pet lover Tita Muñoz, had asked our houseboy to climb the roof and get it from where it kept crying for its mother. She used a table napkin from the breakfast table to wrap and keep it warm until it stopped crying.
It became our pet kitten, it grew up with us. But one day, it got lost.
A week after it disappeared, we heard the familiar meowing from the edge of the roof in the kitchen. There it was, looking down at me! From that distance, it was trying to tell me something. It looked terrible, like a cat who had just scampered from a violent scramble in the streets, like it had a wound. Its hair was standing on ends, it was dirty. How could it survive fighting another street cat in order to live? I kept calling it, urging it to come down. But while still looking down, it started to move away until I couldn’t see it anymore. It was already a cat of the streets, it would have to fight out there in order to last.
How about the cat’s best enemy, the dog?
In the English language, and even in Cebuano, there’s no such dog-use referring to happiness---there’s no such expression like “as happy as a dog,” for one. None like “a dog laughing.” Instead, the dog idioms are all about being “sick as a dog” in a “dog eat dog” existence where anyone has more than “a dog’s chance” to live “a dog’s life.” And living is “raining cats and dogs” in an unforgivable heavy downpour in human lives.
Is it true that only few Filipinos love dogs or other animals, according to animal welfare rights activist?
And what’s loving animals?
I saw a New York dog “dressed” in a tuxedo top strolling down East 29th Street with a woman holding the rope that kept the animal in tow. Does the getup speak of compassion?
Still in New York, there’s a dog daycare center, one day or overnight, called Dog Day Afternoon. The name used for the services would show the owners’ love for man’s best friend, not the way most animal idioms go. But the meaning of the idiom used in an Al Pacino robbery movie called “Dog Day Afternoon” refers to “a very hot summer.”
At the Dog Day Afternoon center, there’s the preliminary visit of the dog and its master in orientation. The advertising copy goes, “If your dog is scared during a storm or misses you at night, our staff is there to comfort him. You can call to check on your pet any time.”
The overnight care is for $33.
But it could be simpler to love cats and dogs.
Do not begrudge stranger cats and dogs some food you can spare.
There are three cats in the yard just outside my window. They stand in line not far from the front door during cooking time. They don’t need a spa, nor a private room, nor any of the Dog Day Afternoon special (and expensive) services. For a month now, they’ve stayed here, they’ve stopped to be stray cats, they now have a home.
