T​HE house has two huge dog statues on both sides of its gate. Above these imposing figures is a metal arc with a sign: “Villa Paraiso”.

It was outside this gate guarded by two concrete dogs, where an emaciated black dog that looked hours away from expiring made a last ditch effort to find help. Luckily for this dog, the house belongs to a family of kind-hearted animal lovers. 

Avery Paraiso, a showbiz personality popularized by the GMA television show Starstruck, lives in that house and he rushed out with her mother Holly to help the despairing dog. Without second thoughts, they let the dog in. 

It took six months before Avery shared in his Facebook page the story of how he and his family did a life-saving intervention to give the dog a new leash on life. Now called Raven, the once scraggy dog not only found her wings, so to speak, she also lives permanently at Villa Paraiso which for her is as close as it gets to paradise.

A visit at Villa Paraiso gives a better picture of how Avery and his family love their dogs. New arrivals are greeted by a cacophony of barks and wagging tails from dogs that have a free run of the house. 

“I have always been a dog lover. So is my family,” said Filipino-Irish Avery while letting Raven sit on his lap. 

Raven's malnutrition is all in the past now.  From 9 kilos when rescued, Raven ballooned to 17.4 kilos in no time. 

“She is now quite chubby,” said Avery with a smile. “But she is our sweetest dog.”

***FULL STORY OF AVERY AND HIS DOGS IS AVAILABLE IN THE LATEST ISSUE OF METROPETS MAGAZINE. SEND US AN EMAIL OR A MESSAGE ON HOW TO ORDER.

By ALMA J. BUELVA

​IN the concrete jungle of Rockwell in Makati lives a Panther. It is a charming animal with large, beautiful eyes and dark fur. It inhabits and prowls a unit at the 39th floor of a condominium building where, away from the public eye, it lets its guard down to be the pampered Persian kitty that it is.

Panther is the cat of Carmen Goetz-Blaylock, a freelance fashion and beauty photographer who never owned a cat before. But as fate would have it, she saw one day an online advertisement of a gorgeous blue Persian kitten that captured her heart.

​That Panther was for sale over at Sulit.ph, a popular buy-and-sell website but not where pedantic cat aficionados would look for purebreds, didn't matter to Carmen. She went out to get him and called him Panther after her favorite childhood toy.

Panther is now 2.5 years old and though he is the only pet in the house, he is definitely not alone. He has Carmen and her husband Jon, plus a legion of followers on Instagram that swell to over 22,000 and counting. 

When Carmen created the Instagram account @panther.cat in July 2015, it didn't take off dramatically. But a new world opened up for Panther a month after when one of his photos was picked up by the Cats of Instagram, the crème de la crème of all cat-related accounts on Instagram. 

With millions of cute cat photos in Instagram, it's quite amazing that Panther quickly amassed lots of followers in such a short time. His pictures and videos are delightful, but what fascinates people most about Panther is his expressive, handsome face.

“Bottom line he is cute,” said Carmen.

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