Mama Gina parties with fur babies

Actress Gina Pareño with her fur babies

At home, several fur babies keep actress Gina Pareño on her toes. She has four Shih Tzus: Dotie, Turon, Sake and Tarah. Also keeping guard are four black Labradors and one white named Chika, Dora, Mario, Tony and Snopy.

She also takes care of two cats that are plain white and black—imaginatively named Whitey and Blacky! To top it off, there are 12 big goldfishes swimming contentedly in her aqua-rium.

Quite a menagerie!

Daughter Racquel, Gina explains, only has one pet: a brown Pomeranian named Whitney.

“Raquel says she can only love one at a time,” Gina quips. Well, Gina, by comparison, is simply “overflowing with love.”

Of course, the monthly supply of dog and cat food can be expensive. “Not to mention the regular trips to the veterinarian. Nakakaloka! It drives me crazy!”

But it’s all worthwhile, she insists.

“They give me pure happiness and peace of mind,” she remarks. “We work hard for our babies.”

They patiently wait up for her when she comes home late after marathon taping sessions for the ABS-CBN soap opera, “Ikaw Lang ang Iibigin.” “I look forward to seeing them after a long day at work. I would catch them waiting for me on my bed. I love it!”

The pets were the guests of honor when she threw a Christmas party at home. “It was also my granddaughter’s birthday. So we combined “noche buena with the salubong.”—BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR.