Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Paquito Is His Name!

The other day my housemate found a stray cat in the street just outside our apartment. I think the cat had an owner before because my friend said that it was not afraid of him, in fact the cat was the one who came towards him and seemingly asking for food. My friend called me so that I would   see the condition of the cat personally. The cat was not in good shape, he was having a hard time walking, a huge part of his back has a bald patch and it seems that there's something wrong with his skin, it almost looks like a big open wound when I saw it.

We already have 4 cats inside our small apartment and I know it'll be crowded, but still we decided to take the cat in. I can't imagine how that poor cat could possibly survive outside without food and water under the burning heat of the sun in that condition. I then bathe and fed the cat. I can tell that he was very hungry and thirsty, but may be because of what he was feeling, he just can't eat the way a starving cat usually does. I also noticed that he moves very slowly, another sign that the cat is sick.

This was not the first time I took in a cat inside my apartment, in fact there were 3 of them (in 3 different occasions), but I released the two back to the street when they got well, I really didn't want to do it, but I had to, I couldn't possibly keep them all. The one that was left now has 2 offsprings and a grandkitten, that is Brüno.

Anyway, the other day I tried to find the breed of the cat in the internet, for me to know more about him and yes I did find out his breed, he is a Himalayan, a cross between Siamese and Persian, meaning they have the color of the Siamese and the long fur of the Persian cat. Himalayans have light colored bodies and dark extremities which are called Color Points, the colors could be lilac, blue, chocolate, flame and cream. I'm just not sure about the color points of my cat.

And about the name of the cat, we used to call the cat 'Sweety', but after I discovered that the cat is a male,  it's appropriate to give him a name that would suit the gender. We wanted to give him a name that has a 'growl' in it, that would sound mean to offset his pitiable condition and so we decided to call him Paquito, after Paquito Diaz, a Filipino mestizo actor who always played the role of  'contra vida' or villain in most of his movies.  I think his new name suits him.