Pinoy Dog-Lover

When I first started this blog, I expected to receive comments and messages from readers asking advise regarding their pet’s health. I’ve made the necessary disclaimer on my site that I am not veterinarian, and that this blog is purely a chronicle of my life with my dogs. But still, I still keep on getting messages from people seeking answers regarding their pet’s condition. I don’t mind, honestly, as I’m ok with recommending vets I know anyway. But lately, I seem to be getting one two many questions on what to do about their pet’s condition that I find it quite disturbing already.

I understand that times are hard, and whatever you can save, you keep it. Consulting a vet or any of those pet health services don’t come cheap, and I know sometimes it’s tempting to simply search the net and try to discern for ourselves what our dog’s symptoms mean. But don’t forget that when you decided to keep a pet, you understand the responsibilities that go with it — and that includes vet expenses. (more…)

I’ve been wanting to post this entry for the past week, but I just didn’t have the time to because of work. I don’t normally like being bugged down by work, but we had quite a relaxing weekend last week so I was pretty much rejuvenated. You see, my husband Marc and I spent the previous weekend at Sonya’s Garden Bed and Breakfast with the two Shih Tzus, Shantee and Kubrick!

Shantee and Kubrick! by kutitots, on Flickr

Our other dogs, especially my two boys Harry and Choknat, hate traveling. They get dizzy even for just a very short ride. Shantee doesn’t get dizzy at all—she’s so used to traveling. Kubrick threw up at least once going and leaving Tagaytay—it’s his first long trip and he got all excited, and you know as well as I do that anybody can get dizzy moving around so much inside the car. Anyway, I’ll talk more about traveling with pets on different post, because this one is not about that.

Marc, Shantee, Kubrick and I would like to extend our warmest and deepest thank you’s to Sonya Garcia and her staff at Sonya’s Garden for their hospitality and kindness. Never before had my dogs felt like VIPs—Very Important Pooches—and we cannot help but feel a bit overwhelmed by the VIP treatment they’ve given us. (more…)

Do dogs grieve? I honestly think they do.

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? (more…)

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure we have all heard of—it has saved countless human lives from cardiac or respiratory arrest. But did you know that pets can be saved through CPR too? The question is, would you know how to administer pet CPR if something happens (God forbid) to your fur-baby that will require you to do so?

I was lucky to stumble upon a forwarded message from the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) mailing list regarding pet CPR and the basic steps on how to administer it. The instructions seemed to have been forwarded from a certain Dr. Andrew Jones’ email message. (more…)

Before the family transferred to our new home in Antipolo, I’ve lived along Katipunan Avenue all my life (the C5 Katipunan Extension, to be more precise). Our street (or more appropriately, highway) was always busy with cars going to and from Ateneo, Miriam, or UP, or simply passing by since it’s rather a major highway. You rarely get to see birds there (with all the pollution, it’s not surprising), though a number of cats loiter by the trash bins and a “gang” of dogs congregate after midnight on a vacant lot right across our house. From what I know, almost every single one of our previous neighbors owned a dog, but I do know for sure that we were the only ones who owned thirteen of them

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. (more…)

Even since our beloved Sheero passed away last October, I’ve wondered a lot about that. Do dogs have souls? Could really there be a Rainbow Bridge where spirits of our loyal pets go to and play while they wait for us? The dream I had last night made me wonder even more.

I normally dream of seemingly useless and unrelated things, but last night, it was different. I dreamed of playing with my late baby Sheero. (more…)

As I have mentioned before, our family (both human and dogs) recently moved to the suburbs of lower Antipolo in an executive village. We’ve been here for about three months only, and yet, we’ve gotten quite used to having neighboring houses that aren’t separated from us by tall firewalls. Even our dogs are getting acquainted with the neighborhood pets. Our neighbors are very nice, and probably each and every house on our street has at least one pet (mostly dogs).

This subdivision we transferred to has quite stringent “laws.” They’re pretty strict with security (no one without a village sticker may enter the gates without surrendering an ID no matter how expensive that person’s car is), and cleanliness (you get a fine if you or your household help got caught dumping garbage on places where you shouldn’t). Even owning dogs here have “guidelines”—you can’t let your pet out wandering in the streets. If you bring out your dog, he/she has to have a leash. If not, and unsupervised “wanderer” can be impounded by the village security—you will need to pay a fine to claim your wandering pet.

Our village’s policy on pets is something I totally agree with, and it really annoys me (not to mention our other neighbors) when this particular neighbor of ours just lets their dog wander around our street. (more…)

Sorry for the lack of updates. My family (both humans and dogs) just transferred to a new home here in lower Antipolo in Rizal. It’s been quite stressful for all of us—even the dogs. I think Shantee’s the only one who didn’t find it stressful at all, just another great adventure.

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. (more…)

Ever since I started working full-time on the web design company my husband and I own, I’ve been so used to having my dogs with me at our home office. Harry stayed under my desk (it was like having a furry rug under my feet), and Choknat under the printer’s table. Sheero used to like curling up on the dog mat I bought for them—there wasn’t too much room under my desk, so she just let Harry and Choknat stay there. She was already happy just having me on her line of sight.

Shantee used to be satisfied to curl up just under the desk (she’s so small it didn’t matter if there wasn’t much room), but now she insists on sleeping on my lap while I worked. (more…)

Apologizing is one of the things some of us humans have a hard time doing, especially if you’ve got a lot of pride. Others find it very difficult to acknowledge their mistakes, but some also find it easy to say “I’m sorry” even if they don’t really mean it. Before the dogs in our pack increased to 10, I’ve wondered if dogs are like us when it comes to apologizing.

You know what? I think they do and can apologize. (more…)