How does a pet lover grieve when a cat in his menagerie passes away?
It was the wrong question to ask of a pet lover like Victoria Rico Costina, author of the recently launched book Those Who Love Cats and a literature professor at the University of the Philippines Baguio.
Costina looked away, her eyes filling up with unshed tears, paused for a few minutes before slowly answering, "Someone once said that when cats die, the place to bury them is in your heart."
She had taken leaves without pay and a sabbatical to attend to her manuscript, find the right artists to illustrate the cover (Czarina Calinawagan) and inside pages (Rishab and Costina's husband Ruel).
She is not above declaring that her late cat Ziggy was her soul mate along with another cat, Chico. She has a "heart connection with them that is maybe stronger than what I feel for my husband," she says with a laugh.
The book derives its title from a verse by poet Francis Scarfe: "Those who love cats which do not even purr,/ Or which are thin and tired and very old,/ Bend down to them in the street and stroke their fur/ And rub their ears and smooth their breast, and hold/ Their paws, and gaze into their eyes of gold."
The professor in Costina cannot help but discourse on the flyleaf's inscription, saying, "It refers to cat lovers who're drawn to the scrawniest, dirtiest cat they can find on the streets, and yet they get to see the cat's eyes of gold that are its quintessence."
The book also carries a strange dedication. It's normal for an author like Costina, an only daughter, to dedicate her first book to her mother Nenita, but a cat book to a dog named Hubert?
Costina explains that Hubert, a long-faced mixed-breed dog with a gash on his leg, was adopted by her family after it hung around their gate waiting for the scraps of her cats.
When Hubert became part of the family, the cats would sleep on him or lie on top of him. He was with them for 10 years until his death.
Costina has divided her slim book into four parts: 1) personal essays of "a life spent on cats;" 2) profiles with matching pictures of special cats in her life, including those who have moved to cat heaven; 3) a review of assorted books of cats, including children's books by Filipino authors and illustrators, May Sarton's The Fur Person and Marge Piercy's Sleeping with Cats (the last two being full-length creative non-fiction about the esteemed writers' co-habiting with cats); and 4) "Basic Cat Care for the Filipino Home" where she persuasively argues for euthanasia for over-aged, incontinent or seriously ill cats who can no longer eat or drink.
She writes: "…(T)he humane thing to do is to have it put to sleep by your vet. This is a very difficult decision to make, but is likewise the more merciful option to prolonged suffering for your cat…Stay with your cat. Caress its coat, speak its name, your love and thankfulness, to the very last."
To Those Who Love Cats is also a revelation of what a fine essayist Costina is. Our favorite of her essays is the first, "Three Homes in Baguio," which follows the odyssey of her family in the small city of Baguio.
The first cats in the young Costina's life were the ones inherited from a Spanish mestiza neighbor who used to feed the hungry child strawberry jam and butter sandwich to which she became addicted. She became a fixture outside the neighbor's door, waiting for her sandwich ration.
When said neighbor had to leave, Costina writes, "Mrs. Ryan's legacy was one of kindness to a little girl and a spread of cats."
As she matured, Costina acquired the solitary habit of taking walks that took her to the boundary dividing Baguio and La Trinidad. She writes with such vividness, "A long line of cats followed me each time, lifting their paws in the tall grass. I would stop where the afternoon breeze was strongest, overlooking the hills much farther off. Then we would head back home, the cats taking their time, smelling the air."
She narrates the under-handed schemes she has done to rescue mistreated cats that are tied, mishandled, underfed. She has already rescued one such cat under the nose of a police sub-station.
What Costina has done with her life and her book is to follow the instruction in the Book of Job which she quotes as saying: "Ask the beasts to teach you, the birds of the air to tell you. Who among them does not understand that behind all this is God's hand?"
Photo shared by IAN DAUIGOY
Reprinted from VERA Files/Yahoo Philippines. VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for "true."
