Pinoy Pan de Sal

Ting-Ting
Originally uploaded by Litratista.

Cats

A few years ago, I found this dirty ugly kitten on the street who was meowing like crazy, probably hungry out of his wits. I adopted him and named him Mang-mang. He’s now a grown up cat who has a live-in partner (lives with us). I named her Keng-keng. Filipinos have a fondness for repeating syllables and turning them into names. Also, I admit I don’t have the talent when it comes to naming my pets hehe...

Mang-mang and Keng-keng just had a child who’s scrawny but looks cute nonetheless – I named him Ting-ting. She likes sleeping outdoors on top of anything she can reach. Silly cat!

I had a dog once but she was run over by a car when she suddenly ran outside our gate. I went home from school and she was lying dead on our doorstep. A neighbor found her on the street. I was seven years old then and it was such a sad traumatic experience. From then on I decided to have cats as pets instead.

Cats are more independent, more agile. My friend’s cat fell from the 8th floor of her condo and walked away without any broken bones. It takes less effort to take care of cats. We once went off to vacation for one week and forgot to leave food for our cats – well they were still alive when we returned. I wondered what they managed to eat. Then we heard complains from our neighbors that pieces of their fried fish vanished from their tables. Our cats stole them lol!