Trick or Treat

It’s five days before Halloween and my cats and I are getting ready to go trick or treating. Tigger can’t decide whether to go as Little Red Riding Cat or Mother Teresa. Clawed, has fallen asleep trying to figure out how to wear his mask. He wants to go as a human skeleton. But the mask he has chosen at the supermarket, where they were playing Christmas carols, is too big for him. I think it’s a wall décor, but hey, have you tried arguing with a cat?

What am I going as? Myself.

"You’re going as a witch?" Kathy asks.

Just what do you mean by that?

"Cats have long been associated with witches," Kathy says.

Really. And where did you say you live? Mandaluyong? Kathy, you’ll be our first trick or treat stop.

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Through the ages, the cat, especially the black ones, have gotten a lot of bad press. Major superstitions involve cats. For instance, if a black cat were to cross your path, expect bad luck. It was also believed that witches could change into cats. There are those who swear that cats are spirits of the dead.

In the Middle Ages, black cats were thought to be the devil. During Easter, black cats were routinely hunted down and burned. Cats accused of being witches’ familiars were also burned alive. It was also believed that if a cat were to jump over a dead body, the corpse would become a vampire. In order to reverse this process, the cat had to be killed.

Nowadays, you don’t require much provocation to kill a cat. All it has to do is cross a street, and drivers automatically step on the gas.

Shame on you, people!

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Do parents allow their kids to take pets along to go trick or treating? Yup, if the pet is a dog and they live in subdivisions, or if the kids are just going next door, usually to their lolo and lola. Otherwise, there is always the danger of kids and pets ending up as road kill.

So if you do plan on taking your pets when you go trick or treating, make sure they’re on a leash. This will prevent them from running off and getting hit by a car and will keep them from taking a bite of the homeowner who refuses to give treats.

This reminds me of my first time to go trick or treating, just uh, four years ago. It was my first Halloween at my sister’s, who lives in upstate New York (as opposed to New York City). I accompanied her kids, twin girls who chose to go as twin witches. I decided to go as – you guessed it – a witch.

I can’t remember now whose idea it was to bring along Foxy, the Rottweiler, and Sausage, the dachshund. It was either my sister, a psychiatrist who has helped a lot of patients recover from child abuse, or the twins, who at age 10 can come up with the silliest of ideas.

There we were, me, holding the two dogs on two leashes and the twins, holding two pillowcases heavy with loot.

After all, who could resist not giving three witches, a Dachshund and a Rottweiler with sharp teeth, all the candy and chocolate in their house?

We looked so cute.

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For comments and suggestions, e-mail starpetlife@hotmail.com