Cats in the cradle of compassion

Bruce has been in Carolle Lucas’s life for 17 years. One day in 1992, she came home to her apartment in Paris and found a note left by the firemen, saying, “Be careful. It’s not a lion — but you have a cat in your car engine.”

True enough she heard whimpering inside her car. She opened the hood and found a tiny kitty cat, shaking in fright and trying to escape. She fell in love with the cat. There was one problem, though. Her boyfriend didn’t like cats.

She says jokingly, “The result is that the cat stayed, and the boyfriend is now gone.”

Last year, when Carolle was posted as press attaché at the French Embassy in Manila, she brought Bruce with her. The two French nationals — the lady and the cat — boarded a Thai Airways flight in Paris and Bruce behaved exceptionally well in his kitty bag placed beside Carolle’s seat. He peed only during the stopover in Bangkok.

Cats — as Carolle and other cat owners know — are easy to take care of, easier than dogs since you don’t need to walk them. It may require a little patience on your part to earn their affection, but once you do, you’ve got a best friend for life. And, yes, some of them do like being cuddled, too. 

“They don’t give their love immediately,” says Carolle. “But when they love you, they will love you forever. They are very loyal, very intelligent animals.”

Carolle has always had her heart on abandoned cats. As a young woman of 19 working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, she would find in the 19th arrondissement where she lived cats wandering around, hungry and thirsty. She would leave food and water for them, but in the winter months, the smaller ones would die in the bitter cold while others would be attacked by stray dogs.

In Manila, she is involved with the advocacy and animal rescue group Compassion and Responsibility for Animals (CARA Welfare Philippines), an organization founded in 2000 that advocates the neutering and spaying of cats and dogs, and educating people on the humane treatment of strays.

CARA maintains a clinic in Mandaluyong where some of the rescued cats are housed. Right now they have between 25 and 30 cats, all needing homes.

CARA members rescue stray animals — 90 percent under their care are cats, with the remaining 10 are dogs — have them spayed or neutered (paying for it themselves since the cats don’t have owners) and if there is no danger to the cats, they are returned to the community. Unfortunately, most of the time CARA has to find them new homes because the cats are either killed, abused or neglected by the community where they were found.

It is unbelievable what people do to these cats — not people in slums but rich, educated people in exclusive villages in Makati. There have been reports of residents (or their maids) pouring boiling oil or water on cats to get rid of them. Boiling oil! CARA has rescued cats whose skin has peeled off because of this and nursed them back to health. One cat in Carolle’s care has had boiling oil thrown on her and her fur hasn’t grown back since. One can only imagine the pain this inflicts on an animal.   

Sometimes the cats are poisoned. This is what happened to strays that CARA member Barbara Greenwood feeds in a particular area in Urdaneta Village — a gated community that occupies one of the most expensive chunks of real estate in the country. Insecticide was added to the water and food she provides them and the cats that survived the poisoning have developed what’s similar to distemper in dogs. Their nervous system is damaged, they shake, they become unbalanced with one head cocked to the side looking half crazed, and they twitch. It’s a slow, painful, disfiguring death. 

Needless to say, pouring boiling oil or water on cats, poisoning them, shooting them, kicking them or beating them with a stick, or letting them starve to death — are all cruel ways to thin the population of strays.

What’s the humane thing to do? CARA member Nancy Cu-Unjieng says it’s simple: have the cats neutered or spayed. It costs about P500 to neuter a male cat and P700 to spay a female (the female gets a hysterectomy). And anyway, what’s this amount to people who routinely plunk thousands of pesos on a single meal in a restaurant? Barbara has had about 70 cats neutered out of her own pocket at CARA’s clinic in Mandaluyong, which offers low-cost neutering. And because she feeds the strays in her neighborhood, she has been screamed at by homeowners who want the cats to go away. Barbara points out that the cats she feeds are healthy and neutered, and don’t cause any trouble. If anything, the cats are doing a service to the community by their mere presence because they keep rodents away.

CARA’s advocacy is to educate people on stray cats and perhaps change their opinions about these furry friends. Stray cats outnumber dogs in the Philippines because the former get pregnant more easily (two months after a mommy cat gives birth, she goes into heat again, and every litter produces between four and six kittens) — and they suffer a bad rep.

“People would rather take a puppy off the street than a cat,” says Nancy.

Tracy Tuason adds, “They associate cats with rodents, which is a pity because cats actually keep the rats and cockroaches away.”

“It’s a win-win solution if you adopt a cat,” says Carolle, who takes care of six other cats apart from Bruce. “If you take care of them, they will give back to you. If you respect them, they will respect you back.”

In this season of giving, CARA members hope that people’s compassion would also extend to animals. The organization doesn’t have a shelter — the rescued cats are taken in by members themselves but there are just too many cats that need homes. It takes P50,000 to run the clinic, which is staffed by vets and assistants. And the members are still dreaming of being able to build a proper shelter.  

 “If you see stray cats and can’t adopt them, what should you do? If you have leftover food, put it in one area and just give it to them and have them neutered,” says Nancy. “In return they will protect your home from rodents. It’s a symbiotic relationship.”

What’s the best thing about owning a cat?

Barbara says: “They give so much love.”

Nancy says: “They give me a health boost to carry me through the day.”

Tracy says: “I guess they’re like kids — when I see them I get energized.

Carole says: “They will love you forever.”

* * *

If you are interested in donating to CARA or adopting rescued animals, call their clinic at 882-5323, or call Nancy Cu-Unjieng at 810-1459. Log on to www.caraphil.org. CARA also accepts cat food donations for rescued cats. In its clinic now are 25 to 30 cats all needing a home.