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In Emotional Weather Report, our column in the Philippine Star, 22 Sept 2012

On Monday afternoons Bel-Air Village homeowner Tracy Tuason boards a van from CARA and goes around the neighborhood catching cats. CARA—Compassion and Responsibility for Animals—is a non-government, non-profit, volunteer-run organization which advocates animal welfare. Bel-Air in Makati, like most neighborhoods, has a population of stray cats. Acting on reports called in by the residents, Tracy and the staff from CARA round up stray cats and bring them to the “cat condominium” behind the Barangay Hall.

The cat condominium at the Bel-Air Barangay office, where cats are sent to recover after they are spayed or neutered. Photos by JZ

The following day the cats are taken to the CARA clinic in Singalong, where volunteer veterinarian Dr. Riza Zunio attends to them. The female cats are spayed (their ovaries are removed, as in a hysterectomy) and the males neutered (castrated) so they will no longer produce kittens. In theory, a pair of cats can produce up to16 kittens in one year, 128 in two years, and 67,000 in six years—a population explosion. Spaying and neutering not only keeps the feline population in check, but it makes the cats less prone to disease. It lowers the risk of breast cancer in females, especially if they are spayed early enough, and prevents severe uterine infection. It also reduces the danger of testicular and prostate problems in males.

This cutie will be spayed or neutered when he (she?) is a little older.
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This is what we get when we brush the cats’ fur every week: furballs. Mat is white, Koosi is ginger. Even the fur Mat sheds is shiny because he spends a lot of time grooming himself. Koosi, on the other hand, is very lazy and expects her human to do the work.

We should save the fur to make a cat sweater.

Photo by Renmin Baratheon

Spotted in front of Faber Hall at Ateneo: a cat who looks like Hitler. Flee!

Elsewhere, here are two of the cats who live in our building.

Photo by Urok-hai.

The Game of Thrones theme meowed by a cat. via io9.

Happy Birthday, Matthias Eomer Octavian Federer-Urban! Today he will take your questions on any and all topics. Post your questions in Comments. They will be answered in the Jessica Rules the Universe podcast, which premieres next week.

A new episode will be posted every week. Our regular co-host is comic book writer and Trese creator Budjette Tan. We’ll ask Mat the first question: Why is he called Budjette?

Mat: It is a combination of his parents’ nicknames. Next question.

Sqeeky and Pouncer appropriate the chair of their human, Ren. Apparently they are Naruto fans. Photo by Manny.

Saffy and Koosi secure the work table. When they get bored they sit on the keyboard.

Mat is too polite to sit on the table. Unless he smells Palm liver spread.

The further musings of Henri the existentialist cat