Rescued animals FB group helps rice cake vendor take care of pets

Nanay Natie with one of her pet dogs. | Contributed photo.

CEBU CITY, Philippines— A Facebook page for stray and rescued animals is going the extra mile in helping a “puto” (rice cake) vendor in Consolacion town, northern Cebu take care of her pet dog.

Hope for Strays, a Facebook page by couple Gea Ybarita and Kevin Biera, alongside with their friend Christine Maiki, aims to help animals on the streets by doing food drives and treating animals with the help of donations from netizens and friends online.

The page started June of last year when they noticed that a lot of stray animals in their area need to be fed or treated.

“This page was made last June 14, 2019. I decided to create this page to raise awareness about the increasing number of strays in Cebu,” Ybarita said.

Ybarita added that the group also has an Instagram account.

She said that netizens were quick to help in their advocacy. In fact, PAWssion Project has been helping them feed street dogs and cats in Cebu.

But Hope for Strays apparently is not just about helping stray animals. Just recently, the group is extending help to a dog parent, Natividad Hastia or Nanay Natie, 63,  from Danlag, Consolacion.

In the Facebook post, they said that Nanay Natie lives alone in her small house in Danlag with five adult dogs, some puppies, and cats.

“My mother-in-law is a regular customer of Nanay Natie’s rice cake. That’s why we [knew about] her story,” said Ybarita.

According to Ybarita, Nanay Natie sells “puto” in their neighborhood for a living since she has no kids of her own to help her sustain her needs as well as her pets.

When Hope for Strays visited the house of Nanay Nati last Saturday, June 20, they were surprised that one of her dogs, Moymoy, has this unbreakable bond with the late husband of Nanay Natie.

“Her husband passed away just this January and their dog Moymoy waits at the chapel every day where her husband’s wake was held,” said Ybarita.

Moymoy, one of the loyal dogs of Nanay Natie and her late husband. | Contributed photo.

Upon knowing Nanay Natie’s situation and her passion to take care of her animals despite her lack of finances, Hope for Stray stepped in and started an online donation campaign for Nanay Natie.

Ybarita said that by launching the online donation campaign, they will be able to help Nanay Natie with her daily needs like groceries and food for her pets.

“Today we are scheduled to go back and bring her the grocery items which we brought with the help of the donations by netizens online,” she added.

If you want to help Nanay Natie and her pets, you can message Hope for Strays on their Facebook page to know more about the details and process of donating. /bmjo