Domestic cat 'Jon Snow' repatriated to the Philippines with his owner

Filipinos working abroad in countries adjacent to the Philippines are unable to get back to their home country because they stopped commercial flights due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Philippines government have stepped in to organise their own flights which I presume are chartered. They are 'sweeping up' the various overseas workers and then flying them back to the Philippines. Six of the workers are from the Yangon region of Myanmar and in all 55 Filipinos from Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand are being repatriated. The Philippine embassy in Yangon is apparently making the arrangements. This is the fifth government sponsored flight of this kind.

Jon snow thank you and in carrier. Photo: Twitter.

Jon Snow the cat repatriated from Myanmar to the Philippines. Image: Twitter.

Welcome back to the Philippines, Jon Snow White! 😺

A domestic short-haired cat named Jon Snow White is the first pet to be repatriated to the Philippines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ: https://t.co/N8v6dg1Nnt pic.twitter.com/C8XKrUerOQ

— Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) June 1, 2021

The point of the story though is that one of the passengers wanted to bring her cat back and they wouldn't allow it because of the pandemic. The overseas Filipino worker concerned is Karen Vinalay and her cat is Jon Snow. I presume that he was named after the British television presenter. She wrote to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and made a special request. Others had been similarly denied the opportunity to bring their pets home. The minister responded positively and included Jon Snow on the flight. We are not told whether he or she extended the exception to the rules to the other pets.

It seems not because a tweet on Twitter asks the government to do the same for the other pets.

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian has 2 cats

The Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines, Huang Xilian, has 2 cats, Ding Ding and Yuan Yuan. They are both grey. One of them, who I believe is Ding Ding has partially folded ears which indicates to me that this cat carries the Scottish Fold gene or a variant of it. The ambassador adopted both cats in the Philippines during the pandemic. 

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian has 2 cats.
This is one of them possibly Ding Ding.

He adopted them as kittens. He took them to a veterinarian to have them checked thoroughly. He says there now strong and healthy. They love each other but sometimes they fight and are a bit naughty. He likes their company during his work and he finds them comforting. He said the work hard during the pandemic.

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian has 2 cats. This is 
possibly Yuan Yuan.

He wants cat lovers to guess which cat is called Ding Ding in which cat is called Yuan Yuan. I haven't got an idea about that! The Chinese word "Yuan" is the currency in China. I checked out what Ding means in Chinese. It's a family name humans and there are just two strokes to it when writing it in Chinese. Someone Facebook said it means (round) in English. I read that it means strong. I'm no nearer to figuring out which name fits which cat. I have guessed.

Huang Xilian should be screaming from the rooftops for the cat cruelty that takes place in China's cat meat markets to stop immediately. It is horrible behavior and it is time it stopped. How can he love cats and be silent about this damnable market where tens of thousands of cats and dogs are brutally killed annually for meat because they belive that the flesh has some medicinal qualities. It is pure bullshit.