Lakapáti – a guide to toothsome food, history, pets and life

These two are the most adorable felines in the world and they are absolutely responsible for at least a third of my daily collection of simple joys. Two lives would have been less eventful and interesting without the pleasure of the ginger brothers’ company. We adopted the pair last year, in the uncharacteristically still-painfully-hot-month of May.

Their sweet grandma, Roxie—a bona fide cat lady with 7 felines and some—wholeheartedly entrusted the marmalade twins in one condition, that we love them as much as she does. Our 6-week old orange bundles of joy arrived in a huge rice cooker box, a water bottle with spent litter, and their tri-colored sibling who will be en route to Rockwell. They each have a pair of ostensibly ill-fit huge ears riding on their small heads and were a little shaky; they cast a spell with occasional meows in high-pitched staccatos. They looked so much alike and were almost indistinguishable from each other.

They were purr-fect.

In the not-so-distant past…

As a child growing up in a menagerie of sorts, I took care of a variety of chickens—bantams, native, black silkies—and an Amazon yellow head parrot named Tinay; schools of freshwater and saltwater fish; rabbits who were born to mate with a mission of world domination; a couple of cats who baby sat our puppies; and lots of mix-breed dogs. Obviously, pets were an essential part of my life growing up and as an adult, the demands of a grown-up life made keeping pets difficult and at times, a liability. For more than a decade, I cared for nothing but my books and boys—the latter did not keep very well.

After a considerable stretch of time cranking out stress hormones in a place that never sleeps, I decided to give in to the itch of owning a pet but a question remained, which one? Kamote kook does not like dogs and I am more of a dog person. Following a string of minor squabbles and logistic check of our lifestyle, Felis catus won. We lived then in a small zen-style 32-sqm loft two blocks from Makati’s CBD, and our then little experience with cats understand that it’s probably the only domesticated animal who can comfortably roam our modest floor space without a lot of fuss and without losing its mind.

The naming of cats is a difficult matter. It isn’t just one of your holiday games. You may think at first I’m mad as a hatter. When I tell you a cat must have three different names… - T.S. Eliot

Jesse and Jerry’s—their previous names—granny always had a hard time giving her cats non-unisex names simply because it can be difficult to determine the gender of kittens during the first few weeks of their life. As the days roll into weeks, “Jesse” and “Jerry” didn’t seem to fit these vivacious kitties any longer. Taking that as cue, I began hunting for names.

I am a huge believer of the saying, “If a person can make a name, so does a name make a person”—in this case, cat. Being mirror images then—only one stubby tail end to tell them apart—it is all too fitting to name them after twins. I thought of three mythological twins:  Rome’s Romulus and Remus; Ramayana’s Kusha and Lava/Luv; and the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux. The latter had a nice ring to it and the twins took to it like fish to water.

The “real” Castor and Pollux

The dioscuri or Gemini twins—they are popularly called—are the twin brothers of the face that launched a thousand ships, Helen. They are Leda’s twins fathered by the Spartan king, Tyndareus and Zeus. Castor and Pollux were inseparable and legend has it that the two in some way, set the clock in motion which led to the Trojan War. The twins left their sister alone with Paris to steal back their herd from their cousins and this permitted Paris to kidnap Helen.

After they caught up with the herd, Castor climbed the tree to keep watch as Pollux freed the cattle. One of their cousins, Lynceus saw Castor and fatally stabbed him with a spear. Pollux ripped Lynceus to shreds and wept at the death of his brother. Zeus, his father, offered Pollux the opportunity to spend all his time in Mt. Olympus or give half of his immortality to his brother.  He chose the latter therefore making Castor and Pollux the brightest stars of the Gemini constellation.

How did I know which one is Castor and which one is Pollux?  It did not come instantly; I had to constantly observe the rascals individually to see which one bore closer resemblance to which dioskouroi. Subsequently, Jerry became Castor and Kulit and Bright Eyes; and Jesse became Pollux and Tabs and Big Boy and Pogi and Fatty.

T.S. Eliot could not be more right.