AANHPI Heritage Month: On Pets and Immigrant Parents

By Johanna Casao, Communications Manager –

Growing up in a Filipino-American household, I experienced a unique model of adoration, respect, and fear of what animals can be. This May, to honor Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AANHPIHM), I wanted to explore my homegrown belief that pets are family. Both of my parents were born in the Philippines, and the start of my father’s service in the U.S. Marine Corps for 21 years was the impetus for my family to move from the Philippines, to Japan, (then back to the Philippines) before settling down in California.

Like many Southeast Asian countries, the stray animal population in the Philippines, mixed with more rural residential areas being developed side-by-side with nature, ensures there’s no shortage of domestic and wild animal interactions with humans. Still considered a developing country, there isn’t a nationwide effort to control overpopulation, and it’s not uncommon for Filipinos to experience traumatic encounters with animals. My mother, an allergic cat person by nature, was bitten by a large dog on the street outside of her home. After 25 injections, her wound was treated, and she still has the scar to prove it. It’s taken years for her to be comfortable with the large and small dogs my dad and I would bring home – despite how lovely she finds each one, she still jumps if they make any sudden movements. My mom told me she’d goad and gather the street cats when she was young, giving them all hugs and deep sniffs, until an asthma attack that sent her to the hospital caused her parents to force her to love her community kitties from afar.

Now, more than ever, many animals in the Philippines have become pampered indoor pets. But historically, animals had a purpose to serve for their families: working for or guarding their home, whether they live in a metropolitan area, or in a rural area that subsists on farming and fishing. Influenced by his own father’s love for dogs, and allergic to cats himself, my dad told me stories of his family dogs named Hans and Hot Dog. Then came Buns, Burger, and Cheese.

I couldn’t help but dream of my very own dog! My communications journey may very well have started in the letters, essays, and desperate pleas I wrote to my parents, promising that I’d take care of a dog and love them forever. Still young, I developed a condition that compromised my immune system – after daily visits from therapy dogs in the hospital, my parents felt a pet would help relieve some of my discomfort. My dream finally came true in Apollo and Orion, picked up at San Diego Humane Society’s campus in Oceanside, California. But adopting dogs wouldn’t be how I envisioned from my books and cartoons. “They can only come inside when it’s raining. They’ll have to sleep outside and watch the house.” They had shade, dogloos, and soft beds to sleep on. My father became meticulous with their water, treats, training, and diet so they had everything they needed, poring endlessly over the latest research for canine health and happiness. My mother loved them from indoors, teaching them tricks, feeding and caring for them hesitantly when my dad was deployed for months at a time. Though they weren’t inside dogs, they were so cared for and so loyal. They taught me responsibility, routine, hard work, and unconditional love. And when my soul dog, Rena, became sick past healing herself, my father cried more than I’d seen in a decade.

It took years of my pushing and prodding for our family pets to move entirely to an inside life. I had to deeply face my own history, my parents’ cultural norms, fears, and concerns. I committed to the hard work of understanding animal behavior and providing consistent training and care for our pets before the trust for this change was possible – I wanted them to understand my wishes, too. I had to meet my parents where they are, and accept what cultural biases they brought with them from their youth, side-by-side with learning the love they instilled in me for animals, who have no voice of their own. Examining my history, this Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month helps me to understand our journey through many miles and mindsets, to where we are now. Pets are family, and family can appear in our lives and adapt alongside us, in ways we never thought possible.