When I lost Sheero, our human family wasn’t the only one who grieved over her passing. Coal, our black Labrador Retriever, was closest to her. We heard him howling every night for about a week after Sheero’s passing—his way of showing how much he missed her.

But what about when dogs lose their human friends?

I have read stories of pets expressing grief over their departed human best friends. How one dog kept waiting for his friend at a train station even after his human passed away—stories like that are heart-wrenching, but I never really knew anybody personally who left behind a dog. That is, until my husband’s godmother lost the battle with cancer about a month ago.

Tita Mila wasn’t only my husband’s godmother, she was also one of our wedding sponsors. She was kind, and was an animal-lover. Skittles, a beautiful Shih Tzu, was her “baby.” They were inseparable.

When Marc and I went to Tita Mila’s wake, we were surprised to hear barking. It was the first time I heard barking at a wake. Funeral parlors and chapels usually don’t allow them, but I guess Skittles was so special to Tita Mila that her family did everything they could so that the dog could be there as they kept vigil.

Skittles was very friendly, she greeted us happily. But when she neared the coffin, her mood suddenly changed—Skittles’ sadness was obvious. It was a heart-breaking scene—sad little Skittles cried as she kept trying to reach the elevated coffin, she wanted to cuddle with her departed mommy

Dogs do grieve. Their loyalty and love for us are not only unconditional, but everlasting as well. They will love us even after we die.

Ah. I guess that’s another reason why I love dogs so much

** Beautiful aspin on photo is Kutonbol, one of my sister’s favorite dogs. In the picture, Kutonbol waits for Joyce to come home from school.

I guess that’s why it wasn’t so surprising that strays considered our house a sanctuary. We’ve adopted stray cats, stray dogs, and heck, we even fed the Maya birds who liked hanging out on our Atis tree (unlike our neighbors and passersby, we got to see birds everyday). I don’t know, I guess our family just loves animals, and we just couldn’t resist taking them in.

Our old property was L-shaped, so we had a really long driveway. We had two gates as well, one where guests knock and the other one near our house. We had so many dogs that we really didn’t need a doorbell They hung out in the garden after the second gate, so the driveway was pretty much were we parked our cars without any dog claiming them as their territory (ie. no pee!).

Since the dogs couldn’t get to the driveway, that’s where my dad’s feline adoptees ate and had siesta They didn’t really hung out there much, so we didn’t have to worry about their pee or poo since they usually turned up during feeding time anyway. We didn’t name the cats, because Dad said if we named them we might get attached and just have our hearts broken since the cats only came and went as they pleased. The cats visited the driveway until the day we moved away.

But before the cats, I can recall we provided shelter and food for one sickly dog, and adopted lost pooches.

The dog in the photo was Lala. Was because she passed away about two years ago due to old age. She was a bit old already when she sought shelter from our home, and it also seemed like she was abused too by her previous owner. She was always on the defensive during her first month with us, and it took us a while before she allowed us to pet her. My dad was her favorite; he was the only one who could give her baths.

Lala was the only adopted dog who permanently stayed with us, maybe because she had nowhere else to go and that she just grew to love our family. But before her, there were two others who went back to their owners.

The first one didn’t stay long with us. I always thought somebody owned him, and he just happened to stray from home. He cried outside our first gate one rainy evening. He had a few scabs, so Dad made him a make-shift dog house in the driveway—we were afraid our dogs might pick up whatever disease the dog had, but we didn’t want him to get wet from the rain either. We gave him food so he could be stronger (he looked really weak).

My mom wasn’t too hot about the idea of adopting the dog, but she let the dog stay since like me and my Dad, she also thought that the dog had a home. True enough, he left us after staying for only about a week. I was on my way out to take a walk and he went outside with me. He gave me a look that seemed to say “Thank you!” and went about his way. After that, we never saw him again. We only hope he found his way home to his family.

The second dog who strayed to our home was beautiful Japanese Spitz. She didn’t have a collar on her, so we figured she was another lost pooch away from home. We had no idea where she came from, so we just took her in. There was no dog pound in our area, and no way we would leave the dog with the police (we were afraid that bringing her there would make it even more impossible to find her family). Good thing she was really sweet, she just gave my mom goo-goo eyes and after that, Mom just couldn’t say no taking her in

This dog was really smart. We didn’t know her name, so we called her different names every day But one time I was in the living room watching television and chewing bubblegum my sister gave me. The dog suddenly started barking like mad, pawing on my unopened strips of gum. I kept asking what she wanted, but the dog was going crazy. When I asked, “Bubbles? You want bubbles?” the dog got excited. From there, I put two and two together and realized that “Bubbles” must be her name. True enough, she answered to “Bubbles” whenever we called her.

She stayed with us for a few months until finally her owner came. One of our carpenters told his neighbor about our story of finding the white dog and how we are looking for her owner. As it turned out, they were missing one. The dog’s owner was so surprised we were calling her dog Bubbles, and told us that Bubbles was the name of the dog’s mother

I highly doubt that we’ll experience having pooches begging to be taken in ever again in our new neighborhood. We’re now living in a gated executive village, where expensive dog breeds have microchip identifications, leather collars, and sure to belong to a family. Any stray here won’t get pass the only entrance and exit to our village without a neighbor or a security guard noticing. Besides, our new property is only half as big as our old one, so we really don’t have much space for more canine residents.

I don’t miss the hustle and bustle of the city (I love living in the suburbs), but I will certainly miss the satisfying feeling of helping lost animals by taking them in and caring for them.

I’ve long noticed that my dogs have community and a hierarchy of their own. They have a pack leader (old Spike) and a “queen” (Tootie). But one of my favorites in watching their behavior is how they forge friendships with one another.

Little Shantee and big black Coal

That’s Shantee and Coal in the picture. Coal is big Black Labrador Retriever, while Shantee is a Tiny Shih Tzu. Though Shantee is sometimes scared of Coal’s size (she’s just way too small), she considers him her “big brother.”

Coal protects Shantee from the neighborhood dogs barking at her from our gate. He’d intervene whenever they scared her, barking to scare them off. He’s also very gentle with her whenever Shantee’s in the mood to play and run around Coal like a crazed maniac

Shantee is naturally very friendly (she’s even friends with our pet hamster, Peter), but Coal isn’t. Shantee is actually the only dog he got along well with (aside from my late Sheero).

Harry and Choknat are also inseparable. Probably because they are brothers, but these two is way too difficult to separate. They won’t leave each no matter what. I’ve seen Harry escape through a fence but Choknat unfortunately got stuck. Instead of running off and playing with the other dogs, Harry stayed beside his brother all throughout and even whined in worry while Marc and I freed Choknat.

Kutonbol and Patatas, another sibling pair (they’re sisters), are also inseparable. The other even helps take care of puppies whenever one of them gives birth to a litter.

Dogs are just amazing, aren’t they? They show loyalty not only to their human best friends, but with their fellow dog friends as well—the same unconditional love and loyalty to their canine buddies.

Ah. If only humans can be like dogs in this aspect… There would be less severed friendships that are usually broken up by an abuse of trust.

I’ve had dogs for as long as I could remember, and I always knew that huge changes like moving can be very stressful for them—especially when our dogs were used to having a run of the house.

Our new Antipolo home isn’t actually that far from our old house in Blue Ridge, Quezon City, so we could afford to go back and forth moving our things. But on the night that we were to sleep in our new home, we had to find a way to transport all our dogs to the new house in the car. Dad decided that we should bring the dogs in pairs. Harry and Choknat were the first to go.

Dad woke me up as early as 7am to prepare my dogs. We didn’t have a transport cage, so it was all up to me to keep the two under control—and ended up running to our new home stinking in Harry’s puke when we got there I made a mistake and let Harry cry and shift around at the back of our really old SUV. So there. Like their late mom Sheero, Harry and Choknat have motion sickness. Choknat, being more reserved, just stayed close to my feet during the ride so I was able to put my hand over his eyes to calm him down and prevent him from getting dizzy. But Harry? Well, he certainly relieved his stress on me

The car ride was just the tip of the iceberg. It was a good thing these two were together (Harry and Choknat), so they adjusted pretty well (the brothers are inseparable—you can’t leave one without the other), but we had to endure an entire night of them whining. Which, I think, was normal. They were in a foreign place. Besides, they haven’t stepped on grass until now (our old house’s garden had very, very little grass and made of mostly concrete flooring and potted plants)—it was totally unfamiliar to them. They were city dogs plucked from urban living

Our male dogs already “marked” our garden. The boys, Harry and Choknat, including old Spike (the one on the picture above), sprayed their pee all over the garden marking their territories. My family and I spent as much time as we could with them so they would feel secure and realize that this was our new home. Our patience paid off. Just a few days after our move, our dogs were quite well-adjusted already. They seem to be enjoying suburban living as much as we do!

You know what? I think they do and can apologize.

That’s Harry in the picture, by the way. I caught him in that position after I expressed disappointment when he stole my sandwich. He took my chicken sandwich from the table when I was busy taking pictures of his fellow pooches. I wasn’t mad when I saw him eating my sandwich, but I did make him feel “guilty” by showing my disappointment at what he did. I turned away from him after telling him what he did was very bad, and he kept on trying to make me look at him. When I asked Harry, “what do you want?” he gave me that “I’m sorry” pose. I just couldn’t resist taking the photo And of course, I couldn’t resist forgiving him. Who can say no to such a cute apology? I bet even you can’t

Harry wasn’t the only one who ever expressed saying sorry to me. Sheero always apologized when she did something wrong, ie. peeing or pooping in places where she shouldn’t have. She always knew it when she did something wrong. And when she did, she would approach us with her tail between her legs and her ears pulled backward while giving us the most adorable “please forgive me” look ever possible in a dog.

Choknat expressed his apology to me already. It was funny when it happened, actually. I put on a shower cap, and sat on my computer desk to do some work while I waited for the hair treatment to take effect before washing it off. Choknat didn’t recognize me and started barking as he sat on my bed. Of course I was hurt, told him, then started to ignore him while I worked. A few seconds later, he realized that it was me under the shower cap, and immediately jumped onto my lap and “kissed” my face in apology.

Shantee is still young (she’s only five months at the moment), so she still got a lot to learn when it comes to apologizing—she doesn’t seem to feel guilty when she did something wrong. Maybe she still doesn’t know if she did something wrong, but she’s slowly learning! Shantee is beginning to realize that when Marc and I ignore her, she did something wrong—she’s now starting to associate the lack of attention to doing something that we didn’t like.

Funny how a dog’s mind works, doesn’t it? They love us humans so much that “pride” doesn’t seem to be in their vocabulary anymore—they’d do anything to please us, get our attention, and make us happy

Anyway, there were a lot of things we found out about Shih Tzus. It’s not advisable to feed them food with yeast (it can make their coat fall off). There are arguments between breeders about the acceptability of Imperial Shih Tzus (some say they’re undersized runts, while others prize their small size). But the best thing we found out was that Shih Tzus are great with kids, but not very small children (they tend to get jealous of newborns).

We never really thought how true this was until we actually saw her with kids. She just loved them.

Shantee’s small size makes her an attention-getter everywhere we go. We always hear “aww, look at the cute dog!” every time we pass by people, or see even the grouchiest person smile when they see her. Shantee got so used to it that she sometimes ignore her “admirers” already. But not kids. She gets all excited whenever she sees kids.

Shantee always made sure to say “hi” to kids every time she sees them. And kids say hi back to her. Most often than not, they even give her a hug and a kiss.

This could be because Shantee’s breed is naturally friendly. Her breed makes a terrible guard dog (I can just imagine her wagging her tail in excitement upon seeing a thief or something), but they make great companion dogs. They get along well with people, and even other dogs. Heck, Shantee’s even friendly with Peter, our hamster! But I don’t know, I still figure that maybe her size got something to do with it, and the way we raised her to be friendly to everyone.

Shantee’s always been more comfortable with strangers who are children. Maybe it’s because they’re “less threatening” since they’re still small—like her. And the kids approach her just the same—she’s like a live teddy bear to them.

We’re still cautious when kids play with Shantee. We don’t want her getting too excited, or the kids too rough on her that she might react instinctively. But nevertheless, it’s still quite a sight seeing Shantee play with kids—and bring happiness to a kid even for just a few minutes.

Ever tried doing something like that with your dog?

We did last year. Only Spike and Sheero passed (that’s Sheero waiting patiently for a piece of pizza on the picture).

Having a lot of dogs, there are canine behaviors that you can’t help but notice in a dog pack—it’s easier to compare their personalities when you know all of them. It’s so easy to see who the alpha dog is, but tests like this “Marshmallow Test” really helped us know more about our dogs.

Discipline-wise, I would say that they rank the same. All of them know they are not only part of a dog pack, but also a small community within the bigger pack that included us humans. They know their place. The human pack ranks higher than their dog pack, so even their alpha dog Spike knows that he has to obey. This is actually the most effective way to discipline your dogs—by letting them know you’re the boss.

Now, back to the Marshmallow Test we did. My sister and I tried the test in two different scenarios. One was when each of them was alone with us in room with no other dog around, and another when they’re accompanied by two other dogs. All of them responded well when they were alone with us—which I strongly believe that their consideration of us as having higher “ranks” played a big role. They did not touch the meat-laden pizza, because me and my sister, having higher ranks, had “first dibs” on the food.

It was a different thing when there were two or three dogs in the room. All of them failed the test except for Sheero and Spike. I think they felt some imminent threat from others who “had the same rank,” so they didn’t wait patiently. They made sure they got the food first before the other one did. It’s basically survival of the fittest.

I think that the reason Sheero and Spike responded well was for the simple reason that they had confidence the other dogs didn’t have. Spike, being the alpha dog, knew the others wouldn’t dare touch the food—they were his subordinates, they should wait when he’s done.

Sheero, on the other hand, wasn’t an alpha dog. To be honest, she was a bit of an “outcast” in their doggy community for being my favorite. But she knew she always had first dibs on anything I would give. She was confident she would get the food even if there were other dogs in the room with her, or at least she knew she’d be given the food first. The other dogs would give way for her, for they knew (and she knew) she was special to me. Call it overconfidence, but hey, that’s Sheero for you

Dogs are interesting, aren’t they? I myself never got bored observing them.

That’s Peter the Hamster on the foreground.

If you’re an avid fan of the TV series, Supernatural, you’d know about the Yellow-Eyed Demon. Well, we have our own White-Furred Demon: Sheero!

Although Sheero and I have been trying to schedule a regular “walk-the-Sheero” task (in our desperate attempt to get fit), Sheero’s still neglecting her job. She’s a hunter, and yet, she seems to be “hunting” the wrong sort of rodent in our house. Admittedly, I haven’t seen any rats scurrying around the house for the past few months, but she’s been focusing her attention where she shouldn’t: Marc‘s hamsters.

The hamsters consider Sheero a menace now. I don’t think she’d like to eat them, after all, she did catch the rats and just killed them (and “offered” them to me when she felt like it). She’s severely drawn to the hamsters, and from what it looks like, she just wants to play with them (which, obviously, can kill the hamster).

Marc has been accusing Sheero of killing and eating (oh, how horrible!) his hamster, whereas I honestly think it got away. I know my dog. She won’t hide her “crime,” she’d actually brag about it and show me how she killed the “rat.”

What do you think? Do you think Sheero ate Abe-ster?

Sheero night-jogging at the Ateneo de Manila University campus

Except for a recent trip to Marc’s family’s house in Marikina last month, Sheero hadn’t been able to go out much. I’ve been very busy with design work ever since my husband resigned from his call center “day” job. Today was a very rare instance: I was actually awake in the morning. With all the work I needed to do for the day, I decided to take a walk going to a nearby store to get me some liver spread and corned beef before I tackled the pile of work ahead of me.

I took Sheero along. As I have said, it’s been a while since she had a walk (she usually just ran around our garden for exercise). Here are some things I’d like to share with you when walking a spoiled brat of a dog…

• Use a harness instead of just putting the leash on the collar. This is particularly handy if your dog isn’t very well-behaved. Spoiled brats have a tendency to want to walk ahead of you, trying to show you they’re the boss. Although Sheero considers me the “alpha female” in the house, she can get pretty excited during walks and tries to walk ahead. When that happens, the dog can choke on the pressure of her pull if the leash is attached to the collar. Other than that, if the collar is loose, the dog can squirm her way off the collar and get away.
• Bring a walking stick. There are quite a number of dogs roaming around our street (especially at night), and some of our neighbors leave their gates open in the morning. This can get pretty dangerous for your dog if they’re attacked. Dogs are very territorial, and when an unknown dog passes by, they want to show her that they own the place. A walking stick can come in handy when fending off other dogs if they try to attack your pet.
• Keep your dog close. If you got one of those high-tech adjustable leashes that can make the length easily adjustable, use it and keep the dog close to you. Sheero only has a chain leash, so I just shorten her leash manually by winding it on my hand. This gives you a degree of control over your pet while you’re walking, and makes it easier when crossing the street.
• Bring a poop bag. Even if your subdivision isn’t that strict when it comes to dogs pooping on the sidewalks, you might want to bring a poop bag so not to add work for the metro aids After all, it’s your dog. You should clean up after her if she makes a mess on the sidewalk!
• Head home when it gets too hot. I think this is quite self-explanatory. You wouldn’t want any of you dropping on the sidewalk because of a heat stroke

Hope that helps! I’ve been trying to fix my odd biological clock, so I might make this a regular thing for Sheero and me. Who knows? We might even lose some weight because of all the walking!

He’s now a Bonsai hobbyist!

The Bonsai was a present from my aunt (she wanted us to get into the Bonsai hobby), but Choknat took it upon himself to take care of this plant. He trims it regularly (he doesn’t eat the leaves, he actually spits them out after removing from the little branches), and even tries to “water” it with his pee. Choknat still has a lot to learn in gardening (like, you water plants with water, not pee), but he’s getting there. He actually loves the plant so much that whenever he’s beside it and his brother Harry (or any of our other dogs) tries to get near his precious, he gets really pissed and growls at him.

Weird dog.