I know this might come as a surprise but you have to share me with three men – three furry four-legged males, actually.
They are quite possessive of me since they have gotten used to having me to themselves for years.
Arsinoe
Meet my feisty but sweet baby, Arsinoe.
This blue-eyed little angel was named after the teenaged Egyptian princess who almost dethroned the great Cleopatra. We call her Arsi or Sin for short.
She was also named as such in honor of my boss, Col. Noel Detoyato, who gave her to me.
She is one gorgeous brave lady who immediately evicted Alpha from his bed to claim it. She asserted herself and made clear to Alpha that she wouldn’t be a submissive girlfriend to him.
I was impressed and Commander Alpha is in love.
First Visit to the Vet
So I took my little Commander to the vet today. It was his first trip out and he almost freaked out on me while we were on our way to the clinic in Cubao.
The vet, who looked bored and tired, administered vaccine shot and dewormed him. I was slightly embarrassed that he smelled a bit because I couldn’t give him a bath as it is raining here in Quezon City.
The vet said his left leg has a bit of a trauma, meaning he should not jump around too much. This might be due to his sharing his first kittenhood home with other kittens where they roughhouse each other like there is no adult life waiting for them.
After his checkup, I went to the pet store and bought him food and a harness leash so we could walk together. We still had a hard time going around so I put him back in my bag so I could buy him fried chicken from McDo as a reward.
As we were about to sit down to eat, some old lady on the next table stared at us like we were the most offensive things she has ever seen. She even stopped eating to look pointedly at my dear Commander Alpha.
Just then, the security guard told us that pets are not allowed there. Then, as if sensing that he was unwanted there, Alpha shit himself! In the bag. In that crowded fast food.
Quickly, I told the guard to have our food wrapped as take-out, took Alpha out of the soiled bag to throw it in the trash can then scurried out of there (SO SORRY RONALD McDONALD).
We hailed a taxi to take us back to camp. The driver was really nice and loved cats too. He called Alpha Chichi. This little Commander made a round of all the available seats in the taxi and sat on every surface.
Just then, I noticed his butt still had some cat shit sticking to the fur. I know what you’re thinking because my head screamed the same thing. He had been marking the newly washed taxi seats and interior with his shit!
By the time the taxi entered the gates, I have already uttered a thousand sorry in my head for the kind driver. I paid him extra, picked up Alpha to take him back to our room where he gave me the biggest cat claw scratch yet.
A few minutes later, he curled up in his bed and slept like an angel. I stared at his sweet face and sighed.
The Fossil People
The “Lumads” are frozen in time – living in the past yet thriving in the present.
They have existed this way for thousands of years, seemingly stubborn and resistant to the ebb and flow of modern life just a few miles away from where they are.
Theirs is a society headed still by a “datu” or chieftain and his religious counterpart the “babaylan.” Their culture is protected by the “bagani” or the warrior who are also entrusted to protect the lives of the members of the tribe and the ancestral lands they have.
Housebreaking The Cat
After working the field as a journalist for more or less six years, I thought I already know all there is to know about humans and myself. I was so wrong.
Some seven months ago, I gave up my job as a correspondent of Philippine Daily Inquirer for a desk job in a government agency. It was a drastic but beneficial move.
I have to admit I didn’t think things through as much as I should but it was a chance I could not pass up. I am already 29 but still single and working in an industry my family do not entirely approve of considering the dangers it has for a woman. To their eyes, I am getting old in a job that does not promise me prospects of wealth and security.
Bicolano PMA top 3 not afraid of Mindanao
NAGA CITY – Bicolano Cadet Firs
t Class John Paul Bacsain said he never saw himself ending up as top three on the honors list when he entered the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) as a nerdy and skinny boy of 17.
Speaking from his barracks in Baguio City, Bacsain radiated with humility through the telephone while he and his batchmates were preparing for their graduation rites come March 15 in PMA.
Bacsain gained the third spot among the Sundalong Isinilang na may Angking Galing at Lakas na Handang Ipaglaban ang Bayan (Sinag Lahi) Class 2015 PMA. Cadet First Class Arwi Chiday Martinez, 21, from Buguias, Benguet emerged as this year’s topnotcher followed by Cadet First Class Genesis Salvador Dizon of Sta. Maria, Zamboanga City. They lead the 171-member graduating class.
PNP probe finds slain Masbate newsman involved in ‘love triangle’
NAGA CITY – Police investigators in Masbate are now looking into the involvement of a local journalist in an alleged “love triangle” to identify his assailant who stabbed him dead last Saturday.
Follow up probe done by Police Officer 3 Sunday Gacuma and Police Officer 1 Aldee Delavin under Masbate City Police Station revealed that victim Ariel Lerit, 48, former news anchor and publisher of local tabloid Masbate Times, was the subject of a certain Paulo Sta. Romana’s jealousy over his estranged wife Redalyn Sta. Romana, barangay secretary of Anas, Masbate City where Lerit was the incumbent chairman.
Gloom in Masbate for ‘Dayan’
MASBATE CITY, Masbate – Going to work weekdays at the provincial capitol of Masbate is no longer the same to employees since Governor Rizalina Lanete surrendered herself to authorities last Wednesday.
Employees like Masbate’s provincial spokesperson Merien Efver said they feel like they are now in a “limbo” after the governor turned herself in on the same day that the Sandiganbayan released an arrest warrant against her for her alleged involvement in the multimillion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam when she was still a congressman representing the province.
Cam. Sur farmers, LGU fight ‘cocolisap’ infestation
SIPOCOT, Camarines Sur – Farmers and the town agriculturist’s office are fighting the spread of “cocolisap” which was noted in at least six villages in Sipocot town, Camarines Sur.
Judith Mangalino, Sipocot’s Municipal Agriculturist, said at least 506.50 hectares of coconut farms in barangays Cotmo, Salvacion, Tula-tula, Vigaan, Anib and Calampinay were affected by the feared bug in Sipocot. Alteza, another barangay, is also suspected to have been hit by cocolisap.
Stray Cat 