It’s incredibly hot! A few weeks back, the rain started pouring like there’s no tomorrow, low pressure and storms one after another flooded the streets and the weather forecast had everyone convinced that summer was over. But lo and behold, summer returned with a vengeance.
I ran some errands this morning and at nine, I expected the heat to be tolerable… it was, I thought, the perfect time to go out. A few minutes outside and I was already sweating my face powder off… I should have never underestimated the power of the heavenly ball of fire. Being on nightshift for the longest time, the sweaty situation coupled with the early morning traffic had become a distant reality. Finding myself, once again, in the middle of it all left me reeling and breathless and wondered how all these people walking along the long stretch of the avenue can still appear unaffected.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to parade outside all morning and the building that was my destination provided temporary relief from the scourge. Had I stayed longer outside, my hair could have caught fire and dried up what remained of my boiling brain.
Times have changed definitely. Summer heat and monsoon rains alternating like a revolving door. I wonder what will come next.. the entire metropolis transforming into a barren desert or submerged under a murky lagoon. I dont know if I’ll ever be prepared.
I saw Wilson’s photo taken a month ago, and I am reminded how quickly time flies, even if… or I guess, even more, if you don’t pay attention. It’s all in his hair. His white shiny hair that now so nicely frames his face, got me thinking of the last time I paid attention or complained of my dog’s short short hair.
Wilson, has allowed time to take its natural course and bring back that wasted cuteness when he was pushed under the razor, scared but without a single sound of protest.
As the summer heat wanes, Wilson, with the natural patience bestowed upon a dog, is slowly restored to his glorious beauty. Not anymore is he mistaken as a poor impostor or a poodle… his true breed is again evident with his growing white mane. Patient and meek, the little dog gains back what he lost, unknowingly and without a fight.
I wanted to write about something else… like the recent victory of Pacquiao, and the dogs that Wilson met and befriended yesterday in MOA… until I read the tragic and disturbing story of Tengteng, the UP kitten. I was so enraged that nothing can get it off my mind, and off my keyboard.
Tengteng was a stray cat who lived in the university campus and survived through the kindness of faculty and students who cared for it and gave it food. And that is in past tense… the fact is, Tengteng was brutally killed by one deranged student who claimed to have an extreme hatred for cats. What’s even more infuriating was how the devil bragged about it in his blog then arrogantly branded himself , the Cat Serial Killer. Apparently, Tengteng was not his first victim. He called it “The Accidental Crime” but obviously, there’s nothing accidental about it, by the way he recounted how he squashed his poor defenseless victim, then hurled it by the tail as far as his might can take. I searched the internet for more information on this incident and it looks like the story has spread and had animal advocates springing to action. There is a law prohibiting animal cruelty and, even if the self proclaimed serial killer has deleted his blog, people had not turned a blind eye on his documented crime. His entry was copied, reproduced, circulated even more, then landed in the hands of P.A.W.S.
The killer is sick in the head, a pathetic moron who is more an animal than the cats he has killed. Bragging of mercilessly jumping on a harmless animal is anything but barbaric. I hope that his so called accidental crime will haunt him for the rest of his life.
(picture – Ming, our house cat. His mom was a stray cat that we took in and cared for until she grew gray and old.)
