Welcome home, Kubrick!

Come and meet the newest member of our family, Kubrick!

Kubrick is named after the default WordPress theme, Kubrick! It’s a really nerdy way of naming our new pup, but my husband wanted to name him with something that’s related to web design and development We thought of naming him after the WordPress founder, Matt, but then we remembered that Matt Mullenweg will probably return to Manila next year for another WordCamp. It’s going to be quite awkward naming a dog after a person you’ll most likely meet again, so we just settled for “Kubrick,” the name of the popular default theme of our favorite blogging platform.

Before Kubrick came along, we had 8 dogs (so yep, Kubrick’s the 9th!). It’s not that we’re trying to keep our dog number to 9, considering that one of them recently left us so suddenly. The reason for our getting another small Shih Tzu is Shantee’s increasing lack of social skills when around other dogs.

You see, Shantee is a very sociable dog—but only to humans. She loves having her photo taken (she had a knack for posing like a “dog model” whenever she sees cameras around) and particularly enjoys the company of children. But the problem is, she isn’t well-adjusted when it comes to socializing with her fellow canines. And to think she lives with 7 other dogs under the same roof!

Shantee is separated from the main dog pack. She’s way too tiny to play with them—the last time we tried to let her blend in with the others she almost got hurt from their excited “stampede”—so we had to keep her separated, which is probably the reason why she doesn’t know how to socialize with other dogs. Members of our dog pack are aspins and Labradors (you can just imagine how tiny Shantee compares to them, her entire body is probably just as big as our Labradors’ heads). Because of this, the only other animal she probably knew and played with was my sister’s white hamster named Peter.

My husband and I didn’t want her spending the rest of her life panicking every time she sees another dog—Shantee likes traveling a lot, and meeting other dogs is something that cannot be avoided. Besides, we didn’t want her growing up anti-social—she needed a friend. And that’s where Kubrick came along.

Shantee is still not happy having Kubrick around, but she’s slowly warming up to him. She doesn’t know how to play with other dogs yet, hopefully Kubrick can teach her that (he’s a very playful pup). Shantee is still just a year old, she’s still young, and we are hoping she’s still young enough to have her aversion to other dogs corrected.