Our brother, the cat

Let’s go Thumper,” she crooned as if speaking to a baby, “Come on and sleep with Mommy.” This was when we knew for sure that the orange, bob-tailed cat had our mother wrapped around his furry little paw. This was an unexpected development, especially since our parent wasn’t initially keen on keeping a pet indoors. “It’s going to be smelly, we’ll have fur all over everything and he’s going to knock things down,” we remember her protesting when the idea of keeping a house cat was first broached. But my other spoiled (human) brother who lives with her wanted a cat. So it was a done deal. The stray kitten we picked up from our village street was dewormed, given his initial vaccinations and bundled off to our Baguio home. This was where he learned that being Mom’s favorite came with many concessions.

“Get off the table, Thumper!” we scream during meals and my mother would be conspicuously quiet. “He’s hardheaded because Ma’am allows him up there,” snitches Laney, my mother’s trusted housekeeper. She tells us that when we aren’t around, a place mat is set on the dining table so that the feline can eat his meal on china. (Gasp! He uses our plates, too?!) My mother and brother Raul feed him choice morsels of meat, poultry and fish so that he now feels entitled to these. No wonder the cat sometimes has bad breath, and that he complains when only kibble is served. “But he is so clean, intelligent and almost human,” my mom tries to justify. But we are firm: No cats are allowed on the table.  Laney has been instructed to enforce the rule and Thumper’s designated dish is set on the floor. The cat seems to know that he has lost this particular battle. Still, he requires that people watch him while he eats or else the food set before him would be left untouched.

While various studies show that our newborns who are lovingly touched gain weight faster and tend to have better mental development, the proper amount of nurturing has beneficial effects on our pets, too. It certainly is not enough that we feed them. Like men, they do not live on bread alone, so to speak. Their fur thickens and develops a lustrous sheen when we pet them more often. We talk to them and their eyes brighten up and they comprehend. They develop their own personalities as they become recognized as part of the family.

But one does not need to raise an animal from its infancy for it to become attached to you, and vice versa. After my brother Enrico took in Flow, his mollycoddled marmalade cat, we also started feeding various strays. The regulars are Scarface, the fuzzy-faced and battle- scarred tomcat who is a veteran of street brawls, and Mr. Tuxedo, a dignified striped gray who quietly, patiently and politely sits while we pour kibble on his dish.

There is also a tortoiseshell that first came with a big, raw scald wound on her side, which we surmised, was purposely inflicted. With burn ointment that was applied conscientiously, she is now healed and her fur has grown back, albeit more sparsely on the side that was injured.  This cat rushes indoors at every opportunity and sits contentedly in the kitchen until we carry her outdoors.  She is also quite fertile so that each of the three times when we scheduled to have her spayed, she managed to get pregnant before the procedure. Thus, her name: Mamacat. This time, however, we are resolute about having her spayed before a pregnancy thwarts the operation again so that maybe, she can stay inside the house. Her latest set of kittens are now eating and need to find good homes.

This current litter of Mamacat consists of Persimmon, the blue-eyed orange and white alpha kitten who is the friendliest of the lot; Slinky, the quick black and white male who also slips between our feet and rushes into the kitchen every time the door is opened; and Salvador Dali a striped gray with black footpads and claws plus a mustache mark worthy of his human namesake. We’d like to keep them all but we already sent Mamacat’s previous litters to Baguio, where there are too many pampered cats driving our equally cosseted dogs insane with jealousy.

“They’re only strays and can take care of themselves,” said a visitor, to our disappointment, when she was asked to adopt a kitten. We’re sure they will somehow manage. But we want these kittens to find nurturing homes, while giving someone the priceless experience of having a pet. Because — without a doubt — caring for an animal teaches patience, responsibility and kindness. “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened,” said the French poet Anatole France.

Besides, keeping a cat is a good start before expanding one’s menagerie and caring for other creatures. For, as the American novelist William S. Burroughs once said, “Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.”

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Email jatsubido@gmail.com if Persimmon, Slinky or Salvador Dali can find a place in your home. Or visit the pet shelter nearest you for volunteer opportunities to help an animal, or to provide a loving home.