My pets, my stress busters

MANILA, Philippines - Vodka, my Bichon Frise, started to own me the day I saw her. I could not leave the home where I found her until I had her with me.

Tomorrow, I turn 51 — and I am still so in love with Vodka. I guess it is because she is my baby. This is not to say that I don’t love all my pet companions. I live with five cats, which I have picked up on my regular runs in the village where I live. I also have four other doggie companions. Each of them I love in unique ways.

We will feast on cake, vanilla ice cream and loads of barks and lots of licks. You see, as far as I am concerned, living with pets is just like living with people — just more fun, love-filled and relaxing. Where in the world would I get to come home to five doggies who are so excited to see me enter the door?

But, Vodka, like any baby, always has a ready smile for me when I get home, and she loves to cuddle, just because. In truth, my doggy companions don’t know they are not human.

Aside from Vodka, my pet companions are named Tasha, Nik, Yuri, and Gorby.  My five cats are Pepsi, Spotty, Bunny, Garfield and Snowy. And I might add my newest addition Kuting, who I picked up off the streets a few weeks ago.

I have read often enough that pet companions make the life of humans better. This I have learned for real.  Why do humans with pets like me do the strangest things for our pet companions? Let me share with you a few reasons:

1. Pets reduce stress and depression. When you reach middle age and menopause starts to set in, there is nothing like owning a dog or dogs that are devoted to you. My dogs always make me laugh because they do the funniest things and that keeps stress and depression at bay.

2. I have read that pets are good for the elderly. No, I am not yet among the elderly, but in mid-life I truly welcome the undivided love and attention my doggies give me.

3.  Pets give us bigger hearts. Pets open our hearts to offering kindness to all we meet — after all, my pets are always kind to me. And I believe that if we are given kindness, we need to give kindness back.

4. Pets are the best company. If you are single, like I am, chances are you spend lots of time alone. Owning a pet keeps the loneliness at bay.

5. I have met so many people because of my pets. Whenever I take Vodka with me, I am sure to meet a few new people because they want to meet Vodka. In the neighborhood where I live, I get to meet lots of people too, more so if they are walking their dogs in the morning. I stop for people with dogs.

I’ve met a lot of people whom I may not have liked, but I have never met a dog that I did not like. I guess that’s because dogs put on no masks, no pretensions. They never try to impress me — they always just are and that makes them all the more lovable.

If only people. . .

* * *

I recently got an e-mail form The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) on how anti-pet councilor Judy Magtubo says, “There are more people who don’t like dogs in Marikina than dog lovers.”

PAWS says that what the councilor says is irrelevant to the fact that people from a certain segment of society cannot be disallowed from having dogs just because the city automatically assumes that they will be irresponsible pet owners. Poorer people can be responsible pet owners. 

PAWS has asked that responsible pet owners not allow themselves to be harassed into giving up their pets. The city plans to file criminal cases against those who are caught keeping dogs in their homes, regardless of whether they were responsible or not.

The APCO or Animal Protection and Control Officers in Marikina would even prioritize serving notices to those who keep dogs exclusively inside their homes rather than catch stray dogs outside.

Pet owners who have received citations complained that they were being harassed into voluntarily giving up their pets to the pound (where the dogs can never be claimed or adopted) or to give their pets away to relatives who live in non-resettlement areas. For many people, this is not an easy. They consider their pets family members and to be given a one-week deadline to “dispose” of their pets as if they were pieces of furniture that can easily be given away is grossly unfair to these people.

Also, out of fear of being prosecuted criminally, people who have dogs were not able to register and avail of low-cost rabies vaccinations. This resulted in households not being able to avail of subsidized government services. The ones who were able to avail of these were those who live in subdivisions and non-resettlement areas.

A sad, sad, day

PAWS has received so many complaints of people not being able to reclaim their pets and seeing these pets deteriorate as they languish in the “resettlement” segment of the Marikina Pound. These dogs, who were caught in resettlement areas, will never be adopted out.

PAWS was also able to talk to residents of Tumana and Fortune areas of Marikina, where horror stories abound about the cruel manner of catching dogs used by the APCO personnel. One person who tried to intervene as APCO personnel cruelly handled his dog got jailed, even if he was just trying to get the dog catchers to loosen their grip on the suffocating dog. The dog died of strangulation.

The UP Office of Legal Aid has written a follow-up to PAWS' request for dialogue/discussion to Marikina LGU, which has not really paid any attention the group.

There is a growing tendency for most City governments to just ban pets so that they don’t have to deal with impoundment issues. Unfortunately for Marikina, the responsible pet owners who keep pets within their homes are the ones being illegally pressured to give up their pets.