He heard about PAWS Animal Rehabilitation Center (PARC), run by the Philippine Animal Welfare Society, from his girlfriend and was convinced that this is where he was going to get his cat.
Phillip grew up with pets in the house. He loves both cats and dogs and says he can’t imagine a home that does not have pet companions. But he likes cats a little more than he likes dogs and this is why he was looking for a black cat.
"I used to have a black cat named Pussywillow when I was a kid. I wanted to have another one just like him," shares Phillip. "I have had several other cats since Pussywillow but they were tabbies. Black cat is what I wanted. "
Off Phillip went to PARC. And there he found a female cat and a good thing she was black. "Black cats are hard to come by these days," adds Phillip of his rare find. "When I saw the black cat which was up for adoption at PARC I knew she was the one. We just sorta clicked," says Phillip.
Cinder, as Phillip fondly calls her, has found her home with Phillip’s family.
Roughhousing is what Phillip and Cinders do a lot together. Although Cinders can be gentle too. "She has become the family’s most loved pet," shares Phillip. "You could say that she is the life of our party."
Cinders enjoys a good meal. She loves cat food or when she is bored with that, Phillip makes sure that she gets some sardines and rice.
Although Phillip says that there isn’t really much difference between adopting a pet or buying one from a pet shop (except for the amount of money one has to shell out for a bought pet), he believes that getting one from a shelter helps alleviate the problem of over population of stray cats in the streets. "Besides, when getting a pet from a place like PARC rather than a pet store, there’s more than eye candy involved," opines Phillip. "There’s instant love, perhaps."
But the good thing is that my other four canine companions have the run of the house again. And they seem so much happier about it. (I’m sure though that they can still smell the puppies around).
But talk about coincidences.
Tanya, my fellow pet lover here at the Life section (of course, by now you readers of the Lifestyle section know that all of us, Millet, Ching, Joseph, Igan, Bem, Mang Epoy, Rey and Jojo are pet lovers) adopted one of the pups and named her Alley as a fitting companion to Freeway, her Labrador Retreiver. By the way, Freeway’s mom is also named Greta, just like Alley’s.
Erika, my niece, adopted the other female pup. "Tita Kathy, guess what? We already have a name for our dog. We’re going to call her Allie."
Alley and Allie.
So, there, two female pups in the same litter with different moms, but the same names.
Add one more coincidence.
Erika left Allie with us when she and her family left for a trip just before the New Year. I opted to get Allie groomed last Monday morning. Then, in a conversation over the phone: "Kathy, guess what? Alley looks like a Schnauzer now, I just had her groomed," barked Tanya to me that same afternoon.
Hmmmmmm. Perhaps it’s because Tanya and I are seatmates at the office.
By the way, the other two male pups went to Igan (who has named his pup Lenin, which fits, because Schnauzers Yuri and Boris are named after Soviet leaders) and Jojo.
Let’s do our share in helping feed the dogs at the PARC shelter. Hey, it’s the next best thing to adopting a dog, right?
Donations of dog food (any brand is welcome) will be greatly appreciated by Oscar and the dogs and cats at the shelter.
Bring some old newspapers with you when you take the dog food to PARC. They are used to line the litter boxes.
You can send your donations to PARC at Aurora Boulevard, Katipunan Valley, Loyola Heights, Quezon City or call Oscar at 475-1688. The dogs and cats at PARC will love you for all your help.