We are what we wear

We say that we are what we eat. I realize we are also what we wear. Our choice of clothes reveals so much about our personalities.

This afternoon I noticed three of my freshly laundered shirts hanging in the clothes line. I realized how the prints and embroideries on the shirts expose my basic yet strong interests: cats, dogs and plants.

The cat shirt is an embroidery of a cat's head and its tail. It used to be a long night shirt, but I "cut it to tee".

The shirt with dog prints has one chihuahua shaped from silver studs and four black chihuahua that only appear as ghost images. They only appeared that black because the shirt is on the wrong side.

The pink shirt has a patch the shape of a palm tree.

Not all my clothes exhibit my interests though, but I do have a fair amount of shirts with cats or dogs designs. This makes me wonder if the people who wear real fur actually love animals that they love to wear them -- dead -- on their shoulders and around their necks. Hmmm....

What I learned about life, I learned from my cats

We go through life learning from mentors and experiences. Mentors are varied but generally they are either male or female and usually older than us. But they don't strictly come from the human specie, at least in my case.

Years of close contacts with my pets have taught me certain things. The biggest one being patience. Here are at least 13 things my cats and dogs made me realize to be universally true whether you walk with just two or four feet.

* Two meals a day is okay, but three meals are preferred.
* House guests disturb peace and order.
* Even your own siblings can be bitches.
* The only good tunes are your tunes.
* It's best to sleep after you have washed yourself.
* Chocolates can be bad for you.
* Frogs are nasty, avoid at all cost.
* Diving in a swimming pool doesn't build one's character.
* Sharing is conditional.
* Firecrackers are for fools.
* You get good results when you are sweet and nice.
* A nice garden soothes the soul.
* Something is usually good when there's a "string attached".

These snippets of "education" I got from my pets don't end here as they still continue to show me how life could be best live, their way. Till the next class...

Colo the ginormous

Meet Colo, a three-year old female Calico with a bob tail. She is also a heavyweight. I was busy typing out a story one afternoon when I glanced to my right to find her sleeping on the chair next to me. She looks so much at peace, which is a rare moment for her because she doesn't get along well with any of my cats, her siblings included. Wherever she is, a kerfuffle with other cats is very likely to ensue.

As a result of this I become her only friend. She adores me, really. She's usually not content to just have me around, she has to be facing me. She would often jump in bed and flop herself wherever I am facing. If I turn away from her she will quickly move in my new direction. She often stares at me. I think the only time she stops staring is when she finally sees me sleeping or when she finds me too absorbed with a book or a computer like I was this afternoon.

Her complete name is Baby Colorrific because, except for her unique tail, she looks exactly like her father Colorrific, who sadly died over a year ago. She's really fat now and it makes her hard to carry. She's very stubborn and could be mean. But I KNOW that buried in those layers of fat is a sweet cat. :)

10+10+10=1 Mochi Ball

In the evening of October 10, 2010 my queen cat delivered yet another batch of litter, which really surprised me because she just birthed three others four months and five days ago. It was a record for me as far as my experience with mommy cats.

At 11:30 p.m, I saw there were two new babies, but one was crying more than it should, I thought. I left the crib to give the mother some space and because I thought she wasn't done emptying her womb. At 12 midnight, I checked on them again to sadly find the crying kitten dead. I inspected it and found what looked like tiny intestines hanging out from where the umbilical cord was torn off by the mother. She must have pulled harder than necessary and, in the process, tugged the intestines out. I would have had a baker's dozen now had that kitten survived.

I thought a nursing cat wouldn't be on heat for awhile and be pregnant. My mistake. Now, I'll be more vigilant. I still have one male cat unneutered because he is just four months old, but in two months he would visit the vet for the procedure. 

As for the lone surviving kitten, I named it Mochi (Ball) for being born in the roundest date (10-10-10). I hope he brings me luck!!!

Balinese my cat!

Of all the unique cat breeds in the world, I find the Siamese the handsomest. Brown being my favorite color may have something to do with my top cat pick, but it also helps that Siamese have these tantalizing blue eyes that speak to you. Those eyes are also naturally cross-eyed and that makes the Siamese extra adorable.

I had my first Siamese years ago. His name was Kiko and I love him bar none. After Kiko passed away five years ago, I refused to take a Siamese replacement. But that changed when I had to adopt a Siamese pair who also have deep blue eyes but with bushier tails and longer fur.

(Left photo shows my Balinese, right photo shows my Siamese)

The difference prompted a Wikipedia search where I happily discovered that what I have adopted are probably Balinese cats, cousins of Siamese.

According to the Wikipedia entry, the traditional Balinese cat combines the unique personality and intelligence, robust body type, pointed coloring and the minimal shedding of the traditional Siamese. They are also referred to as "Applehead" Balinese because of their round heads.

I also read somewhere that Siamese cats are the Einstein among small cats so I was not surprised that the Balinese are also considered to be extremely intelligent as well as curious and loving. The Balinese are also noted for being fiercely loyal by always keeping tab of their master's whereabouts and sleeping outside their bedroom doors like a guard dog would. Like the Siamese, they too meow-talk. It takes a sensitive master to interpret those cat-words though.

This pure breed was not from Bali as many of us would think, but also from Siam. They were just named Balinese because their grace equal that of Balinese dancers, Wikipedia said. But if you ask Chong, he thinks he came from Garfield :)

Meanwhile, breeders later disturbed the natural order of things that resulted in the modern version of Balinese with a shorter coat on its body but longer hair on its tail. The traditional Balinese still exists, but "the pointed cat you find in a shelter, though it may look Balinese, is probably not a traditional Balinese", the Wikipedia entry warned. The interbreeding with Siamese and the really long-hair Himalayan breed, confused the gene pool, so to speak.

So do I really have a Balinese? Let's see..

Round head, check!
Smarts, check!
Curious, check!
Loving, check!
Meow-talks, check!
Graceful, check!
Plumy tail, check!
Sleeps and waits outside my door, major check!

Also, my cats love to play footsies and that, I think, give them more than enough "brownie points" to be confirmed as Balinese.

The two that changed my life

People and events can change one's life which applies to me, with the addition of a third factor: cats. Specifically, these two cats in the photo. The calico one at the forefront answers to a curious name: Colorrific. Next to him is his pretty and sassy sister Stella.

These two would knock on my bedroom door every morning as if to wake me and get me ready for the day. I stood up for these two and their kittens against people who saw them as garbage. It led to a chain of events that made me a stronger person although it was not easy. But who best to know how karma works than the creature said to have nine lives? Taking their furry side I never regretted because I really feel they gifted me with good karma.

Sushi my odd-eye cat

This is Sushi. An odd-eye all-white kitten I rescued from the Marikina city pound the day I was claiming my dog. I found her just outside the cage of a big boa constrictor that the pound people retrieved from a grassy area in my village.

I hate the pound people. But why I hate them I'll reserve for another post/s. Needless to say, their carelessness to leave a small kitten near the big boa constrictor just made me despise them even more.

I think the word aghast was written all over my face that the pound people suggested that I keep the kitten if I could. I love white kittens, and this one had one green eye and the other blue. What a shame if it becomes a snack of the boa constrictor.

Although I know my mother would protest, I took the kitten home. Luckily, mother didn't seem to mind. She must have pitied the kitten, too, because of the boa story I told her.

I named her Sushi which, I think, sounded sassy for this kitty with beautiful eyes. And cats generally love fish, so the name sushi was a shoo-in. Sushi got along really well with my two existing cats -- Angel, a big muscular all-white male cat with the disposition of an angel (hence the name), and Kiko, my deep-blue eyed male Siamese cat with a quiet demeanor and who I love to bits.

As far as I could remember, Sushi gave birth to several kittens before she disappeared one day...never to return. If it's any consolation, I still have some of her pictures like this one that reminds me how fantastic she looked. Sushi's my only cat with such unique eyes, which I later learned is a kind of condition that affects all-white cats. The odd-eyed coloring happens when melanin fails to reach the other eye during development because the cat's dominant white gene is, well, very dominant.


I don't think it's ugly at all. The Turks think so, too. According to Wikipedia, Turkey considers Turkish Angora cats with blue and amber eyes as national treasure. This information makes me happy for these cats. I wonder if it's a crime in Turkey to dump, hurt or run over these cats. They are just pretty just like my dear Sushi who I treasured, too.