Once an animal welfare advocate, always an animal welfare advocate—and no amount of time can stop you from fulfilling that purpose. That’s what CARA Welfare Philippines learned about Kathryn Bernardo, one of the Philippines’ leading actors and now the ambassador of the organization’s adoption drive, dubbed “Adopt a Cat from Kath.”
Apparently, six years ago, when Kath turned 18, one of her first tasks as an adult was to reach out to an animal welfare group to lend her support–and she had already chosen, at the time, CARA.
“I actually visited their facility then, but work got in the way, and nothing official came through,” says Kath.
But life has a way of leading a person where she is destined to be—and in March 2020, Kath officially became CARA’s ambassador. Reaching out to her fans and animal lovers like herself, Kath was able to get the word out to Filipinos wanting to get a pet to, as much as possible, adopt. The Covid-19 temporarily slowed the program down, but by June, around 1/10th of the cats temporarily sheltered in CARA’s clinic facility finally found their forever homes.
Growing up, Kath admits she was more of a dog person. Memories of her childhood living in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija are always filled with dogs—so many, in fact, that she has lost count. At present, she has five living with her: Snow, Summer, Cloud, Kaya, and Tala. But recently, Kathryn has become pawparent to her first cat, a Persian named Chloe, whom her family adopted from one of her mother’s friends.
“She was actually supposed to be my mom’s, because she really wanted to have a pet cat. But now, Chloe has become very close to my niece, who lives with us, so we kind of just borrow Chloe from her now,” Kathryn says, chuckling.
It was a bit of a challenge, but now Kath says her dogs get along great with Chloe. She describes herself a “strict” fur mom, but also one that balances the time she spends with each of her pets.
Living with both cats and dogs has led Kathryn to see the differences between cats and dogs, which she describes as very stark. Kathryn says dogs are much more clingy and are always wanting attention, while cats are more independent and can go for days without human interaction.
“And cats prefer people with more relaxed energy. Ayaw nila yung masyado mo silang kinukulit,” adds Kath.
But for all their differences, Kath says that ultimately, when cats and dogs are loved, both give back that love to their humans a hundredfold—and she hopes that’s reason enough for Filipinos to adopt homeless animals in need of a family. CARA still has over 100 cats in its clinic waiting to be loved, and through the “Adopt a Cat from Kath” program, Kath hopes to help them find them the best homes and pawparents who will shower them with love.
“My pets are like my angels—I can’t imagine living without them,” says Kath.
And to the kind hearts who will “Adopt a Cat from Kath,” she asks one more thing: Please have your pet neutered/spayed, for their own sake. “If you don’t neuter or spay, then the animal population just grows, and some of these pets may not receive adequate care anymore if the resources needed to sustain them become limited. That would just be unfair to our pets,” she says.
View our gallery of Pets for Adoption. One of our pets might be the purrfect addition to your family.