Shantee and I were given a complete FURminator deShedding kit for review: FURminator deShedding Tool, deShedding Shampoo, deShedding Solution, Waterless deShedding Shampoo and Conditioner, and deShedding Dog Treats.

Shantee is a teacup Shih Tzu, and most of the information we’ve read about her breed say that normally their type shed less than the usual. But the thing is, they still shed. The hairs I collect in my dustpan whenever I’m cleaning the house can attest to that. According to the FURminator Tool fact sheet, the Tool can reduce shedding up to 90 percent in boht long and short-haird dogs and cats.

My sister and I are going to try these products on Shantee, Harry, and Coal and then see how they turn out. Coal is a black Labrador Retriever, the perfect example for a short-haired dog; while Harry is a native dog and Japanese Spitz mix. His hair isn’t as long as Shantee’s, but not as short as Coal’s either.

We’re all excited how our little FURminator experiment will turn out for the next few weeks. Stay tuned for updates!

As much as possible, I try to cover stuff that would be relevant to all Filipinos—both here and abroad. So when I received a head’s up on Iams’ Home 4 the Holidays pet adoption campaign, I jumped at the opportunity to take part in helping spread the word to Filipinos abroad.

Iam’s Home 4 the Holidays campaign aims to have 1 million pets adopted in various participating countries from North America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. With the help of Desperate Housewives TV star Felicity Huffman, the program hopes to give loving homes to these animals in need starting last October till January of early next year.

Although the Philippines is not included in the participating countries of this program, I will still support it as much as I would local shelters such as the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). In my opinion, adoption should always be an option, and not euthanasia. Euthanasia may be “humane” or not, I still believe rescued dogs deserve a chance to live and find loving homes. “Financial constraints” shouldn’t the excuse—I have witnessed a lot of small shelters struggling to provide rescued animals good living conditions, and yet, they still do their best to avoid taking the life of a cat or a dog in order to give them a chance to experience the love and care of a family through adoption.

It doesn’t matter where it’s done; the important thing is to spread the word about how we can help these animals. The internet made it easier, and though I can’t physically contribute to the cause like I could with local shelters (fundraiser event for a local shelter coming soon sometime in early 2009! :D), I’ll help out spreading the word.

I hope you guys can too. And if you’re in the area where the program is being implemented (I’ll try to ask for a complete list of participating countries for your easier reference, but at the moment I think you can find it on the Iams Home 4 the Holidays website), hope you can help the campaign more—maybe even adopt a pet and celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas with the newest furry member of your family

Congratulations to PAWS for the wonderful event! Shantee didn’t win (my dog was bitter, but don’t mind her, she likes the limelight a little too much!), but it was so much fun nonetheless. Next year, I swear I’ll prepare for this! I’ve been so busy with the preparations for our subdivision’s trick or treat that I didn’t have time to make Shantee a costume. Didn’t really matter, my dog loved having her photo and video taken so much that she didn’t seem to mind her costume She just loved it whenever cameras were pointed at her

If you can’t view the photo slideshow, you can just visit the photo set I have in Flickr.

Anyway, here are some of the photos Marc and I took during the CARA event (little Shantee was enjoying herself, she got so many dog freebies!).

More coming soon!

This coming October 26 (that’s on Sunday!), Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) will be having its annual grand Halloween fund-raising event at Eastwood Central Plaza on at 3pm. Registration starts at 130pm, program starts at 3pm. There will be a P250 registration fee which will go to the PAWS Animal Rehabilitation Center.

With all the Halloween hoo-la-ba-loo happening here at our house (my family and I are preparing decors for our village’s Halloween Trick or Treat event this coming Saturday), I just hope I find the time to create a Halloween costume for Shantee. She just LOVES dressing up!

Here’s the complete press release…

The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), in cooperation with Eastwood City, invites everyone to SCAREDY CATS & DOGS, a grand Halloween fund-raising event to be held at the Eastwood Central Plaza on October 26 (Sunday) at 3pm.

Now on its 5th year, kids & pet-lovers can once again dress up themselves and their pets and compete in the fun costume contest. Categories are as follows:

Crypt Keeper’s Choice ” Most Original Costume
Casper’s Choice “ Cutest Costume
Phantom’s Pick ” Most Creative Costume
Scream of the Crop “ Scariest Costume
Midnight Society “ Best Group in Costume
Halim-Aw-Aw / Hali-Meow Award “ Best Native Pet in Costume
Best Ghoulist Partners “ Best Pet & Guardian Tandem
Mr. Boogeyman “ Best Male in Costume
All Hallow’s Eve ” Best Female in Costume
Transylvanian Star “ Best Pet in Costume

Aside from exciting prizes for each winner, this year’s best dressed Pet & Human will win Eastwood Cinema Season Passes which will entitle the bearer and a friend to watch FREE movies for 6 months at Eastwood Cinemas.

There will be FREE face painting for kids, fun Halloween games and the much-awaited Trick-Or-Treat around Eastwood City.

Registration starts at 130pm, program starts at 3pm.

The P250 registration fee will go to the PAWS Animal Rehabilitation Center, a temporary shelter for more than 100 dogs & cats rescued from cruelty or neglect. Volunteers work hard to rehabilitate these animals with the ultimate goal of finding new loving homes for them so that they can get a second chance in life. The facility is solely dependent on donations and fund raising activities such as this to keep it running.

So celebrate Halloween with your pets and help make a difference in the lives of the animals in the PAWS Shelter. =)

So far, I’m aware of three events happening this coming October. It’s still early, so there might be more slated in the coming weeks (especially Halloween, Eastwood City and Tiendesitas usually have events for pets held during Halloween).

PAWS Animal Blessing and Candle-lighting Ceremony
When: 4 October 2008, Saturday at 6PM
Where: Bonifacio High Street

This event is sponsored by ALPO will be highlighted by a Candlelighting Ceremony and the renewal of pet owners’ commitment to their companion animals. This activity is part of PAWS’ participation in World Animal Day which also falls on October 4th.

PAWS Animal Blessing and Procession
When: 5 October 2008, Sunday at 5pm
Where: Eastwood Central Plaza

Guardians and their pets attending the Eastwood City Mass will get a chance to join the procession of a life-sized statue of St. Francis around the venue.

Offerings and collection will be done by PAWS’ Dr. Dogs while music will be provided by the 92AD Choir. The PAWS Animal Blessings are made possible with the generous help of Frontline Plus, Krispy Kreme, Bayopet, ShopaholicPooch.com and the Philippine Star Pet Life Section.

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Here’s another event that I wish I learned about sooner (I’ve been rejuvenating lost energy from the Phil. Blog Awards the past few days, and I haven’t checked my email till now). It’s happening already tomorrow. Hopefully, my husband and I (and little Shantee, of course) would be able to make it.

The Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Animal Industry Department of Health and the Animal Welfare Coalition World Rabies Day Event and Pet Club Launch
When: September 28, 2008, Sunday
What: Pet Parade 8AM to 9AM, Press Conference 9AM to 10AM
Where: B3 Bonifacio High Street, Global City Taguig

See you all there!!! I’m hoping the three of us (and some of our other blogger friends) would be able to attend these events. I don’t know, I guess I feel that pets are just a bit under-represented in the Filipino blogging community and covering events like these might actually help… somehow

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UPDATE: More pet events (courtesy of meekerz) and a head’s up from Compassion and Responsibility for Animals (CARA) Philippines.

Pet Blessing, Free Anti-Rabies Vaccination, Purebred Registration
When: October 4, Saturday at 10AM
Where: G-Strip Parking, Greenhills

Blessing of the Pets
When: October 5, Sunday at 11AM
Where: Tiendesitas Activity Center, Ortigas Avenue cor. E. Rodriguez Ave. (C-5)

CARA’s Animal Blessing
When: October 5, Sunday at 9AM and 12PM (noon)
Where: Malate Church, across from the Rajah Soliman Park, Malate, Manila

Birthday greetings to our special girl: Shantee! She turns one year old today

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.

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Pet CPR

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation is the most important First Aid technique that every pet owner should be comfortable with. Chances are that you will never have to use it, but it will save your pet’s life if a ball is lodged in his airway.

There are some very basic steps:

1. Assess responsiveness
2. Establish a patent airway
3. Perform rescue breathing
4. Cardiac massage - establishing circulation

STEP 1: RESPONSIVENESS
The first step is making sure that your pet is truly unresponsive.

1. CHECK his breathing by placing your hand in front of his mouth and nose.

2. CHECK for his heartbeat by placing your ear against the left side of his chest. This is the area where his left elbow touches his chest, immediately behind his left armpit.

STEP 2: AIRWAY
The second step in CPR is obtaining a patent airway.

1. PULL the tongue out of your pet’s mouth, but be careful to not get bitten.

2. STRAIGHTEN the neck by moving the head to be in line with the neck. DO NOT HYPEREXTEND IN CASES OF NECK TRAUMA.

3. PERFORM two rescue breaths, by closing the mouth and performing mouth to nose ventilations. IF they continue, then proceed to STEP 3, BREATHING. If there are no breaths, then look into the mouth.

4. VISIBLY inspect the mouth and look down the throat for a foreign body. If you see something, reach into the airway and remove it.

5. IF the airway is still not open, attempt HEIMLICH (shown in following steps).

6. TURN your pet upside down, with back against your chest.

7. WITH both arms, give sharp thrusts to the abdomen.

8. AFTER 5 thrusts, stop and check to see if the object is visible in the airway. If so remove it and give 2 mouth-to-nose rescue breaths. If the breaths do not go in, repeat HEIMLICH.

STEP 3: BREATHING
After achieving a patent airway, perform RESCUE BREATHING.

1. CLOSE your pet’s mouth and breathe directly into his nose until his chest expands. If the chest doesn’t expand then go back to STEP 2 - AIRWAY.

2. VENTILATE at 15 breaths per minute. One BREATH every 4 seconds.

3. PROCEED to STEP 4 - CIRCULATION

STEP 4: CIRCULATION

1. ENSURE there are no major points of bleeding. Control as necessary.

2. GENTLY lay your pet on his right side.

3. LOCATE the heart, which is found on the lower half of the chest on the left side, behind the elbow of the front left leg. Place one hand below the heart to support the chest; place the other hand over the heart.

4. COMPRESS the chest 15 times followed by 2 rescue breaths. 3 compressions every 2 seconds. Compress the chest 1/2 inch for small pets and 1 1/2 inches for large pets.

5. EVERY 15 times follow up with 2 rescue breaths.

Continue heart massage compressions and the rescue breathing until you hear a heart beat and feel regular breathing. Once your pet is breathing and his heart is beating, CALL your veterinarian immediately!

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Hope that helps!

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.

But then I realized that putting this blog on hiatus for such reason isn’t something Sheero would have wanted me to do. Sheero and I started this blog together (she was my dog model) for the simple purpose of giving her canine relatives a voice and give ourselves (and dog-lovers alike) a little home on the World Wide Web.

Reminding myself of this blog’s purpose somehow inspired me to write again. Sheero would have wanted me, Shantee, Harry and Choknat to continue what we started.

So yes, you can expect regular posts from me here again