A bit late and a bit long but a big hello from us :)

guess i should just jump right into it eh? hope you don’t get bored with the commentary and make it to the end, i’ve tried my best to make it interesting.  I even put in a few pictures.

i moved to the philippines 3 years ago to pursue my education and left behind a sweet girl Gypsy in the care of my loving family, our adopted one eyed beauty that i only enjoyed knowing for a few months before leaving .. just seemed appropriate to introduce her, doesn't feel right leaving her out of the introductions even if i left her out of my username hehe..

here she is, kitty mascot for the Filipinos favorite beer brand... 


moving on... getting a cat was the last thing on my mind while here, most especially a kitten since throughout my life of caring for felines i’ve never had a cat younger than a year old.. however on an october day upon coming home from a night out, my boyfriend and i hear a nice long cry come from under the van in the garage while parking the bike. and we look and find a bold 2 month old kitten hungry and cold coming right out to us to check if we had any food.  we've loved our pretty boy Skyler AKA "Psycho Kitty" ever since...  

a then and now pic with my lovey and Skysky..


then of course we come to Storm.a few weeks ago a friend of ours discovers a large litter of kittens, about 4-6 weeks of age with no mommy around in his roof that up until then had had no contact with humans.. so they didn’t take kindly to him packing them up to find them new homes. he took a particular liking to Stormy since she had a full length tail while the others had stumps. he asked us to take care of her, i didn’t make any promises told him it would depend on whether she got along with Skyler.. it wasn’t love at first sight between them, and Storm took some convincing that we were trust worthy creatures… she used to hiss and growl at the very sound of my boyfriend’s voice…

this is them a few days ago…


and since Gypsy is in good hands and the family seems to have no problems or worries,  Skyler and Storm are the main reason I’m here.. for advice and information from people that have the experience and know what they’re talking about and just to get to know more cat lovers in general; me and the duo say hello and thanks for having us.  And we look forward to getting to know you all better and you us.

Plus the pictures are just to die for hehe.

StormySky

Welcome to the site!

Your babies are adorable!

Awww, cute babies.  Good of you to take in those little homeless strays.  

Welcome to TCS.  

Welcome to The Cat Site. I'm interested in learning about what kind of vet care and products are available in other countries, and the philosphy people have towards animals. (My travel to Greece was an eye opener.) In some countries, cats and dogs are abandoned if they no longer earn their keep as watch guards or rodent controllers. I know I'm spoiled being in the USA, where I can find high quality food and vet care, and people treat their pets as good as (or better!) than they treat themselves.
Your cats are adorable, but I'm sure you don't want to keep on feeding/finding kittens. What is the policy/availability of low-cost spay/neuter clinics where you live? How easy is it to adopt out adult cats?

Welcome to TCS.

What beautiful cats you have.

Bless you for giving a home to those babies, and welcome to the site! They are beautiful cats and I hope you have many happy years together!

thank you all so much for the welcome, its good to be here 

Ritz said:

Welcome to The Cat Site. I'm interested in learning about what kind of vet care and products are available in other countries, and the philosphy people have towards animals. (My travel to Greece was an eye opener.) In some countries, cats and dogs are abandoned if they no longer earn their keep as watch guards or rodent controllers. I know I'm spoiled being in the USA, where I can find high quality food and vet care, and people treat their pets as good as (or better!) than they treat themselves.
Your cats are adorable, but I'm sure you don't want to keep on feeding/finding kittens. What is the policy/availability of low-cost spay/neuter clinics where you live? How easy is it to adopt out adult cats?

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hello Ritz. 

the Philippines in general is more into the canine scene then the feline; dogs sell more if you're a breeder and serve an important role in the family household as guards since the Philippines has a bit of a steep crime rate. cats to most here are a type of rodent that are noisy when in heat, poop in your garden and raid your trash bins and are considered a rabies threat. People who come across a litter of kittens are more likely to dump them somewhere far off and secluded then try and find them homes because for one its hard to find people willing to take cats in and two education on the proper management and care of stray animals is very minimal here and even when it is available im sad to say most people are just to lazy to go through the effort of going to the locals shelters where more likely than not the kittens would be euthanized due to over population.  

one thing to remember about the Philippines is location location location, with a rather unbalanced system of city and provincial life. the type of medical care and supplies you can get for animals is largely dependent on where you live, which is why having pets is considered more of a higher class trend, so pets also play a role in the social status for people here.. if you have a cute little dog in your purse you're upper class another reason dogs are more popular; their easier to show off.    

 another thing to consider is the Filipinos deeply religious and business minded mentality, make as much money as you can in the most honest way possible. so neutering and spaying your animals is usually considered to be rather brutal and a waste of a good breeding animal whose offspring you might be able to sell. plus its not always readily available. my Skyler is already of age but i havent been able to have him fixed because i cant find a clinic close enough that provides the service, and i dont want to put Skyler through a 2-3 hour journey to deliver him to a vet i dont know.  

we do have organizations such as PAWS (where im just dying to volunteer but its a long process to get it; fingers crossed!) that are trying and working hard to get the message across and educate people but again because of the vast size of the Philippines and the general somewhat backward thinking of the population its a slow process getting people to understand how to put the needs of their animals before themselves. though its painful to watch because like you i also grew up in a country where your cats and dogs can always get the best treatment, i try and make my own little way here and educate as i go. have to start somewhere and hopefully over time the rest of the country will catch along as well. its just sad to think how much suffering our little friends have to go through before that actually happens. 

Ritz said:

How easy is it to adopt out adult cats?

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i forgot to address your question about adoption, its fairly straight forward process, you inquire and are interviewed and inspected, if you are pr oven qualified to adopt you are given a chance. 

however as i explained earlier people have a very brand conscious approach to everything so adopting an animal be it a a dog or a cat that came off the street or has no specific breed is not all that popular.. people here like to say "i bought him/ her for this much, her breed is so and so"  its not unlikely to see families that do take in strays treat them poorly compared to their more "ideal" counter parts. its a sad mentality and very unfair to so many adoptable cats and dogs in our shelters here.. its one of the main battles that animal friendly organizations here battle "pure bred doesn't mean better"  its hard to curb something that is so rooted in and taught from one generation to the next but then again people are trying and that's a start. 

perhaps some of you are thinking right about now "gosh what horrible small minded people" hehe., i dont blame you, which is why i tried to explain it from a cultural and over all dynamic of the country hoping that you see and understand that it has more to do with bad habits being passed on and little to no means of helping curb the habit rather than the people being neglectful and selfish.  they are a bit ignorant on these topics but there is hope yet so i hope no one will react too badly and also keep an open mind when considering all i have written and try seeing things from the other side as well.

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Thanks for the explanation. Some of what you find in Phillipines I also saw in Greece. SAWA (Santorini Animal Welfare Association) is now going into elementary schools to try to educate the young children about animal welfare; they didn't have much luck when they were going into high schools.
I wish you success in getting your cat spayed/neutered, and equal success in volunteering for PAWS. We have PAWS in the USA; I wonder if they are the same organization.

StormySky said:

 
perhaps some of you are thinking right about now "gosh what horrible small minded people" hehe., i dont blame you, which is why i tried to explain it from a cultural and over all dynamic of the country hoping that you see and understand that it has more to do with bad habits being passed on and little to no means of helping curb the habit rather than the people being neglectful and selfish.  they are a bit ignorant on these topics but there is hope yet so i hope no one will react too badly and also keep an open mind when considering all i have written and try seeing things from the other side as well.

 

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Thanks very much for the information, and for doing what you can.  I, too, hope you can find a way to get your kitties spayed and neutered--and again, welcome!

Hi, welcome to TCS.  I hope Gypsy is settled happily with your family, she looks very sweet in your picture. Your little kittens where you are now are very lucky to have found you by the sound of it; thank you for that information, it is really interesting to hear how different cultures experience animals and pets.  I hope you are able to find some way of getting Skyler and Storm neutered without too much distress and before there is any risk for Storm having kittens.   Skyler looks like he is a nice healthy young cat now, I think it might take a little while before Storm gets big though, what a tiny little angel she is to look at!    

sweet pics, welcome