Get a pup or not?

NOTE : This is going to be a "pet" talk. So bear with me.


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It's been 2 months since my dog passed away and I kinda missed the feeling of having a canine friend. I grew up with dogs. I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have a pet. I usually have one and it's always a dog. (sorry. i'm not a cat lover)

When Piper died, I'm not sure if I'd like having a pet again. Call it mourning but yeah I guess I'm badly hurt that I didn't want to have another my-dog-died stint in my life. I've had many dogs in the past and everytime they say goodbye I would always cry a river (you have to be a dog lover to understand the feeling). The last one was the hardest coz I had her for 10 years.

Two weeks ago, a friend asked me if I'd like to have a puppy. I said, "of course". She said she'll give me one and jokingly said it will be her early wedding gift to me. Hahaha! Thanks but I want to kill her for having said that.


The pup is a mongrel. I usually go for mongrels coz they're not hard to take care. They are less maintenance, they can eat whatever, sleep wherever and most of all they are intelligent and protective making them a good house dog. Though I wanted to have an akita (like that of Hachiko's breed), or a retriever or a labrador but they're damn expensive and taking care of them could be costly (if they get sick) and it would entail me to spend more time with them coz they're very needy of their owners. (Except for akitas. they're independent. *trivia*) Well I don't have the luxury of time coz I'm working and I'm renting a place. There's no one to look out for them when I'm off to work and that's where mongrels become the best choice.

Now my dilemma is if I'm ready to have a puppy. Would I be able to take care of him properly? I don't want to send him home either. I want to bond, play and talk to him like I do before. I want to see a tail wagging when I get home. I miss getting those scratches in my arms whenever a dog jumps at me in mere happiness to see me.

Having a dog is like having a baby. Uhm I'm not sure if this is a good comparison but for me it is. You take good care of them, feed them, understand what their needs are - which can be a challenge since they don't talk. From my years of bonding with a dog, I can say I became good at telling what they think, what they feel and what they need. But still I'm not sure if having a pup right now is a good idea.

Man's bestest friend

The moment I saw this headline on Yahoo News, I knew I shouldn't watch this coz it will break my heart. But then curiosity and love for dogs got the better of me.

Here's the video, courtesy of youtube and yahoo news, I'm talking about.



"It's a universal truth that dogs are man's best friend, but they're pretty darn loyal to their own as well. Case in point: this tear-inducing video, via the website Jezebel, showing a dog, shivering and disoriented, remaining loyally by the side of a stricken fellow canine amid the devastation of the Japanese tsunami. "

-Source : Yahoo News


I fought back the tears.

This is one of the reasons why I love dogs and I have so much sympathy for them. They're loyal and they're capable of standing beside you when you're in trouble. They give lasting friendship and sacrifices. That. Is. Beyond. Me.

When Dogs Get In The Way

Dogs make me emotional. Whether it's on TV or real life. This morning, on my way to the office, I was on a circumstance where I took side on the dog over the human.

But before that, let me tell you how my crappy morning went...

When it's Friday, it's a given fact that I come late for work. 5 minutes or so. The reason for that? Friday is wash day so we don't get to wear our uniforms, which means - we can wear anything casual and decent. So when Friday morning comes I'm always indecisive of what to wear. And after I picked my choice I will change for another dress and so on and so on. You know how us girls can be, right? Okay. So I'm just the only one. Fine!

As usual, my fickle-mindedness went a bit overboard and I missed the company's bus. Meaning : I missed the free ride and I have to commute.

Halfway through the ride, the multicab suddenly brokedown. Do you have any idea what does a multicab look like? Okay here, take a quick peek :

There you have it! That's the most common mode of public transportation in the Philippines for short distance travel. We do have buses, jeepneys, tricycles name it. But this one's ubiquitous. And it comes in different colors and decorations. The owner of this must be a huge fan of Bob Marley. He didn't actually made it obvious anyway.

So enough with the trivia. As I've said it brokedown and only god knows why. Oh perfect! Just what I needed when I'm almost late! Misfortune is mad at me and is conniving with the universe!

I got off and hailed another one. When I'm just a few yards away from the office, a dog is walking very slowly trying to make its way across the road. I knew the driver saw the dog clearly from afar. But the dog seems unmindful of the approaching vehicle. We were going very fast, the driver didn't blow the horn, and we almost reached him (the dog, i'm not sure though if it's he or she. so anyway...) in no time.

I just don't understand why some dogs are suicidal. I mean, sure they know it's a road and vehicles are coming through and I'm pretty sure he saw us coming but he didn't seem to mind. It's like he's thinking : "Hey I don't have any intention of walking fast to avoid being crushed, so you human driver must take the precaution and step on the brake now!"

Or : "Wow! it's so nice to stroll in the park in the early morning... Wait, there's a vehicle coming fast at me!" *looks at the vehicle. FROZEN* I'm sure you knew the next picture is not pretty.

Hey dog, even if you're suicidal or you think twisted like that? My sympathy will always be yours.

Thankfully the dog was able to wake up from his momentary trance and managed to avoid his imminent, awful, gross death. And I, being the dog lover, reprimanded the driver and told him to stop the cab coz I'm getting down. He looked at me. Bewildered. Well I told him, "If you were the dog and I was the driver, would you be happy if I'll crush you to death?"

Then I walked away. Huh! Soooooooo theatrical of me!

Maybe that was insane but I really hate it when people don't seem to care about dogs especially those mongrels or what we know as street dogs. I don't understand why some people are just mean. If other people treat dogs like human then why others can't?

Anyway, just a few months ago I had a dog-related incident that really made me cry. No, not the movie! While I was on my way to work a dog was hit by another vehicle. I saw him on the side of the road, gasping for breath, pain tormenting him, waiting for death to come. It was an awful sight. There were people around but no one bothered to take him to the hospital. Oh I'm sure no one would ever do such a thing! It ripped my heart and I restrained myself from crying on my seat. At the time I reached my desk I could no longer hold back my tears. My officemate was so concerned to ask me what happened. When I told him what I saw, I knew it took all of his strength not to laugh at me. For surely had he laughed, my fist would have landed in between his eyes. Seriously.

Speaking of which, my dog just turned 9 last month. She's already 63 in dog years. Quite old... I really miss her and I can't wait to see her next month when I come home.