Humans brave floods to save pets
For the past 48 hours, I have been wondering what to write about. Witnessing the country in the midst of a flooding disaster can make anyone lose the desire to write.
The good news that warms my heart are the many tweets on Twitter and uploads on Facebook that show how many good Pinoys there are out there who risk their lives to help fellow Pinoys in need.
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As a pet lover, my eyes strayed a little longer on a tweet that said, “If you can’t save your dogs during the flooding at least be sure that they are not tied so that they can move to higher ground.”
In a situation like we are in now, I guess the only really humane thing to do for your pets is to make sure that they can save themselves, if you can’t. Animals are resilient and they will find a way to get to safety. Or they will stay with their humans until both human and pet companion make it to safety. At least, most well-loved dogs will.
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I caught a photo of a dog as he insists on braving the flood despite owner’s insistence to use a boat. The photo was taken in the floodwaters at Bulacan. The photo was shot as 50 percent of Manila was submerged under water and around 250,000 people fled their homes last Tuesday as torrential rain paralyzed the city, sweeping away houses, stranding residents on rooftops and triggering a landslide. Nearby provinces suffered the most extensive floods since a typhoon Ondoy that killed hundreds three years ago.
As I write this on Thursday, Aug. 9, the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) informed me that it sent two teams to respond to calls for animal rescue in the Pasig, Marikina and Cainta areas.
As of this writing, Anna Cabrera, PAWS executive director, says that there are nine dogs and five cats that have been rescued. She adds that dozens more are expected to be rescued within the next few days.
The PAWS Shelter has been serving as an evacuation center for rescued and displaced dogs and cats since last Monday.
For those who want to help, please send relief donations such as dog food, cat food, cages, kennel cabs, old towels, pet bowls, newspapers, detergent, and palangganas to the PAWS Animal Shelter. There is a downloadable map at www.paws.org.ph.
PAWS is also appealing to owners of trucks and large vehicles to lend them to aid in the rescue operations. Contact, Li An at 719-3948 or Gelo at 0917-542-4356.
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On Twitter, there are quite a few famous champion athletes who have tweeted photos of themselves or their equally famous doggy companions.
For starters, there is this really cute picture of Andy Murray’s two Border Terriers named Maggie May and Rusty, who are minor celebrities thanks to their famous owner and their very own Twitter account, @maggiemay_hem. Maggie May has picture where she checks out Rusty with his silver Olympic medal that Murray won with Laura Robson for the mixed doubles in tennis. Of course, Maggie May keeps the gold for herself.
Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte has a very special relationship with his doggie Carter.
Gymnast Jordyn Wieber posted a photo of her dog tweeting, “Lucy is feeling the Olympic trials spirit back home :)”
“Happy to get some time with the pups today before I leave,” tweeted Michael Phelps.
Russia’s tennis star Maria Sharapova and her Pomeranian, Dolce, try on Cole Haan flats.
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A Mutts Treasury: Stop and Smell the Roses by Patrick McDonnell presents interesting snippets of the life of dog Earl and cat Mooch and how they handle everyday life with Ozzie, Earl’s guardian and Millie Mooch’s loving guardian.
The comic strips in the book don’t present any hard thought-provoking insights about how to save the world, but they did make me laugh and made me appreciate even more the value of pet companions.
I really enjoy this comic strip because it focuses on the friendship between Mooch and Earl as much as it deals with the differences between cats and dogs as pets and friends.
Any dog lover will easily identify and come to love Earl, who is friendly, loves the company of his human companion and likes to play outside; Mooch, like most cats I know, is often indifferent to his human companions, except when being fed, and prefers to stay inside and play by himself.
Earl is a Jack Russell who lives with his human companion Ozzie, a bachelor. They love spending time together and taking frequent walks. Earl often howls in loneliness when Ozzie is away from home. Earl spends much of his free time with Mooch, either inside or wandering around town visiting other domesticated and wild animals. He loves to eat both human food and his own dog food.
Mooch is a curious black-and-white housecat with a large nose who lives next door to Earl with his human companions Millie (who often calls him “Moochie”, “Moo Moo Cakes” or “Shmoochums”, and he calls her “Shmillie”) and Frank, and a fish named Sid. Mooch, like most cats, is a bit of a recluse reclusive who prefers to stay inside and nap when he can. If he is awake, he plays with his little pink sock. He has a lisp that causes him to insert an “h” into words, such as “yesh” (yes) and “shmilk” (milk). He frequently “shnubs” his cat food, much to Millie’s chagrin, dislikes car rides, and like Earl, he eats human food at every opportunity.
It is this friendship that makes the strip so amusing. Stop and Smell the Roses is an interesting compilation of various comic strips, which largely star the two friends.
But Earl and Mooch manage to make their lives interesting, often dishing out their own take on what a human’s life looks like to them.
Perhaps if I took one of my favorite strips in the book more to heart, I would begin to understand and start living a Zen life.
The strip shows Mooch sitting “Sitting quietly, doing nothing. In the next strip, “Spring comes.” And in the last strip, “And the grass grows by itself.”
How much more Zen and one with life can we ever be?
