Ever since I was a child, our household often kept dogs, basically to serve as guard to our house, to eat our leftovers, to culture ticks and polgas, and to play with us kids. It wasn't fashionable then to have dogs with breed, and we never cared. Dogs come and go in our household, but not as often as maids do. Some of our maids, made lasting impressions, but all our dogs left remarkable imprints in our lives as we grow up. They taught us how to be responsible and caring, it helps us get over life's stresses, even up till now. They may not be as famous as Hachiko, but they gave us lasting memories that is fun to look back and reminisce as days go by.
FOSTER
He was Mama's dog. A beige colored dog, he was big. He looked like a cross between a mongrel and a labrador. He gave us all the love and attention. I still remember him running from our old apartment to our new house, effectively leading us to the place. He played with us. He fathered lots of puppies, and became a terror dog in our neighborhood. He hates kids who are noisy and kept on banging our gate. He hates tricycles and would often run after them. He's bitten quite a few of them. But the loyalty he showed us is unparalled. His only addiction is to be petted on his head, We as kids would often pet him simultaneously so he couldn't open his eyes, it gave us a lot of laugh then. He lived to a rough old age of 12 (84 in dog years) after losing much of his hair. One day, while all of us was home, watching TV, he approach us one by one, asking for his much needed pet on the head. He never missed anyone, even our maid. He waited for us to all go to sleep. We found him dead the next day.
POGI
He's an Agdanganin. With curly gray hair, which is a rare breed for us, thus we call him, Pogi. His long ears earned him a nick, Kapitan, because we would often anchor our hands to his ears while we walk. Foster never got jealous nor territorial when he arrived, in fact, they got along quite well. There isn't much memory I have of him, except that she was my Lola's dog back in Agdangan and she decided to bring it home to us. He did sire lots of puppies, one of whom died as a puppy, who playfully died while trying to eat a metal stand. I can still hear that puppy's whine when we tried to remove him from the stand. We managed to disengage him from the stand, but died a few hours later. Pogi also became a terror dog in our neighborhood, with Foster, they became a tandem prompting us to post "Beware of Dog" sign on our gate.
We found him dead one morning near a pack of half-eaten hotdog. He was poisoned.
PATOLA
A brown mongrel who snout is just too long to earn him the name Patola. He is dumb, slow, plain stupid, but we loved him. He wasn't the pick of the litter when he was born, one of my sibling taped his snout because he's a kid. When we try to remove the tape, it also took off the fur on his snout. We pity him for being that way> He tried to be like Foster and Pogi but he was not even close. One day, he tried to chase a car, he was killed on the spot.
There were numerous other dogs when we were growing up, but when I started to live on my own, I still maintained pets.
BOUNCER
Say separation anxiety and it will spell out BOUNCER. He was my dog back in Gumaca when I opened a resto/bar there. I named him such because we needed a bouncer back then and he just happens to be there. He would run after me where ever I go and won't stop until I notice him and order him to go home. When I returned to our house in Lucena, he came with me. He was my anchor when I was down. He understood me, comfort me. He is the first dog I knew who has an allergy (with Chorizo).When I went to Baguio to visit my sister, I asked my aunt to take care of him. But she didn't. He grow thin and may have became a scavenger. When my sister decided to relocate to Lucena, they found him still at our house, thin and still guarding, still waiting. My sister luckily adopted him, took care of him until he bounced back. When I returned home, he still remembered me. I will never forget how he reacted when he saw me. Then I got accepted for a job, and every morning, it has become a ritual that he would walk with me till I take a ride. Sometimes still running after me, only stopping when he can no longer catch up. In the evening when I pass by the mall near our house, I see him there, waiting for me. And we will go home together. Maybe he never left the place where I left off. Talk about loyalty, and he emulates that word. Bouncer passed away after being poisoned by his enemies at an old age of 60 dog years.
OISHI
My first attempt to take care of a dog with breed, a shih tzu. Oishi came into my life when everyone doesn't want him. He was near blind, his neck is oozing with pus from a wound probably from spending too much time on a leash. That wound emits foul odor. He was heavily infested with fleas and all but I took him in. He was a brat though, owing to his lineage and breed, he demands constant attention. He always gets what he wants, and always in his own term. He is old when I took him in, and a year after, he left me. After suffering from renal disease and paralysis of the lower extremities for two days, he died, suffering. I was at his death bed when he left.
At present, I still have two dogs, namely Chuchai and Poknat, both mongrel. They are my stress busters. Some time, I will devote an entire post to them. But since this is a post for my dogs who's died, I think it is unwise to put both of them here.
Dogs as they say are man's best friends. Sometimes, we think that they depend on us for their food, their bath, their walks. But, living with dogs, I think we gain more from them than they to us. They are survivors, they can live without masters, but can we live without them, specially after taking care of them for so long?
