Lost Then Found: 17 Pets Find Forever Home With Gen Z Fur Mom
Giving abandoned fur babies a home has become her life goal.
(SPOT.ph) It started with a crying cat that Janella Custodio found at a jeepney terminal at SM Bacoor in 2021. Going through a rough breakup while tasked to financially provide for her younger sister who got kicked out of their home, she felt the urge to take care of the lost and dirty kitten.
Custodio, 24, found love in Sarang, the name she gave the kitten after she saw the similarities between the cat and her younger sister as both were "abandoned" by their parents. For her, rescuing Sarang and the 16 other pets that followed became her life purpose: providing a home for the lost.
"Ever since then, whenever I see strays I would always have the urge to bring them home, especially when my partner and I started living together. She loved all of them the same way I love them. She doesn’t see them as a burden... And so, we started rescuing cats together," she told SPOT.ph.
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Graphic artist and video editor Custodio said she had never imagined she would be taking care of pets as she confessed to being an impatient person. But just a few days after rescuing Sarang, she found herself taking in another kitten and naming it Bomi. A month after, she adopted another cat from her best friend and named it Jubal. (They're named after Korean idols and characters as she's a big fan of K-pop and K-drama.)
"It’s hard for me to be level-headed all the time, but for some reason, I don’t get mad at them. I do get upset but never to the point that I would hit them. I guess they just bring out the calm in me. I feel happy and at peace with them."
She would eventually adopt more pets from her own mother—this time, two dogs named Sophie and Macky who were "neglected heavily" by her mom. Macky was half-blind after his eye got infected, while both dogs were not groomed and fed properly before she took them in, said Custodio.
"I was heartbroken since my parents failed us how many times and I thought maybe she could at least be a responsible fur parent to Sophie and Macky but that didn’t happen. I told myself that I will be a better parent to my siblings and to these cats and dogs than our parents have ever been."
She and her partner spend more than P10,000 a month on all of their pets, and that still depends on their pets' diet. It's a lot to take in, she said, as both she and her partner also provide financially for their siblings.
"We look at them as our kids and so we never felt like giving them up so we could save up. We don’t even have that option in mind. We just continue to aim to earn more money so we can spoil them more," she said.
"I do get tired sometimes of constantly moving around the house and cleaning after them but I would always choose to take care of them. Moments like waking up with all of them cuddled up beside us, working while they rest on our laps, or going home and seeing all of them excited to see us, make it all worth it."
What the Future Holds for This Fur Mom and Her Pets
Custodio said she is saving up for a "catio" (that's patio for cats) so all her pets would be safe. Currently, the couple is in the process of transforming an empty room into their pets' home. She is also saving up for their spay and neuter.
Asked if she would stop adopting pets, she said: "Definitely no." Once her little sister finishes her studies which frees her from financial responsibilities, she would start adopting again.
"One of my ultimate goals in life is to be able to build an animal shelter. I want to be able to spend the rest of my life being able to help creatures on this earth that don’t have a voice," she said.
"I guess another thing that most fur parents can relate to is as soon as you start adopting or rescuing animals. It's that you’d always want to save every last one of them. It’s heartbreaking going outside and seeing other strays on the streets scavenging for food. For me, that’s the most difficult aspect of being a fur mom, not being able to rescue all of them."
Does she plan on becoming a mom to human babies in the future? Not really.
"For now, I just am really happy taking care of them [pets] and I guess I somehow know the feeling of being a parent since I’ve taken care of my two siblings already and I already have an idea of how hard it is so I would rather grow old with our cats than kids," this fur mom said.
To her fellow fur parents and to those who plan to keep pets, Custodio has this to say:
"Owning even just one pet is a huge commitment. You should always be kind and patient without having any biases. Treat all of them equally."
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