When A Feline Champ Adopts a Human

Taken August 25, 2010

  I recently joined the Spay Day Photo Contest of The Humane Society of the United States with Champ, my adopted cat from PAWS. I have two cats and have asked my friends’ opinion on whose photo I should submit. Champ won by one vote. The result amazed me not because I like one over the other but because I appreciated the fact that my friends look at Maxee (the Siamese) and Champ (the Puspin – native Filipino cat) the same way. What can I say? I got great friends!

  Maxee usually gets the attention first because ‘she’ is undoubtedly beautiful. She is picky with whom she interacts with. A friend calls her a ‘diva!’ Champ does not get everyone’s love at first sight but ‘he’ charms anyone who gets a chance to hug or touch him.  He is just as capable of giving as much love as Maxee does.

Champ wasn’t really part of my plans that day I went to PAWS early 2008. I just wanted to attend the Volunteer Orientation. I have just taken in a rescued cat then (Maxee) and decided one is enough. After the orientation, a lady arrived with two kittens - one is an orange tabby and one is gray. We held the gray one for a few minutes to help Liza Umayam (Adoption Head of PAWS that time) bottlefeed him. He slept on my hands so we placed him back inside the cage to be brought to the quarantine area. When about to be placed in another smaller cage, he jumped out; and with his tiny claws, hang on a bigger cage facing us and cried his little lungs out as if begging to be taken home. It was the loudest cat cry I have ever heard. No human with a heart can ever turn his back on this cat after seeing what he has done.

I agreed to do my very first volunteer work – fostering. Fostering is providing temporary shelter to future adoption candidates because they are too young or are sick. They also get a chance to be trained – interacting with humans and other animals; and to use the litter box (for cats). When the kitten reaches a certain age where it is ready to be adopted out, I should start looking for a home to take it. A few months after, I was advised by Anna Cabrera (PAWS Executive Director) that Champ’s sister (orange) was killed by a tomcat. If I had not taken Champ, he would have suffered the same fate.

Taken January 14, 2010

So, yeah I took the challenge of fostering Champ and…I failed. Why? Because when I was about to bring him back to PAWS, I felt that he already found his home – in mine. I adopted CHAMP but sometimes I feel like it’s the other way around. Maxee rescued me from indifference and Champ adopted me to take me away from the world of ignorance – a world who thinks native cats are not beautiful.

I was rescued and adopted by cats and all the other animals in the shelter.

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Please vote for my Champ. Minimum vote is $5 and your money will go to PAWS to fund our Spaying/Neutering Efforts. I am no longer after winning the photo contest but the amount I can collect for PAWS. Follow this link to vote:

https://photocontest.humanesociety.org/contest.html?page=viewInd&id=101633&contestId=3