A blog of a proud dog owner Pinoy Dog-Lover

I’ve always found it weird blogging “for” my dogs, like as if they’re the ones writing the entries. But in this instance, I find no better way than to tell the Taste Asia party in Sheero’s perspective. Enjoy!

My dad Marc wanted to go to the Mall of Asia early, he had a meeting with a client, so my mommy Gail decided that I should have my first ever flea bath and grooming session while waiting for him. I nearly threw up during the trip up the carpark (the spiral driveway made me so dizzy), and I really, really hated the man who cleaned my ears and soaked me in the bath! I was already in a bad mood, my mom didn’t make me wear my bling-bling. Good thing she bought me a fashionable denim shirt, or I’d be in a terrible, terrible mood.

My mom picked me up (my dad still in a meeting) with her friend Juned, who told the nice lady at Animal House they don’t have clothes for fishies (he’s a fish-lover), on their way to the Taste Asia party at SM Hypermarket. He also carried Tita Aileen’s hamsters (it took every inch of my willpower not to nip at them!).

I felt like a real celebrity at the party! I even got a printed name tag, while my mom’s was only handwritten. People even asked for my autograph, can you believe that? I don’t know how to write, so I just gave them fans my paw print instead of signing my name. Tito Mike thinks I’m “so cutie,” while the other Tito Mike kept touching my fur (or was it my tail?). I wanted to play with the kid with Tita Dine, but Tito Chris was holding my leash. I also met Tito Jayvee, who wanted me to meet Hondo, and Tita Sharm. Tita Noemi took my picture (I looked like an evil dog with glowing eyes! Rawr!), and I wanted to nip off Tita Lauren’s hand again (I smelled cats!).

I spent the rest of the evening eating barbecue (I had an entire barbecue all to myself!), while listening to Tito Eugene, Tita Sasha, Tito Rico and my mom and dad chat about something called blogging, and avoiding that evil, evil Guitarchic’s clutches (I suspect that she’s a hamster-lover. Grrrr…).

I wanted to take home barbecue, but there were still humans to feed when we left. Taste Asia definitely beats eating dried dog food all day!

Anybody who blogs about pets out there? Here’s a chance for us dog-lovers (ok fine, “animal-lovers”) to meet and greet!

SM Hypermarket invites you to the biggest blogger party and announcement of winners of the SM Hypermarket Blog Writing Contest (you have until August 21 to join!).

What: SM Hypermarket Invites Bloggers to Party!
When: August 23, 2007, Thursday, 7:30 pm
Who: bloggers of any size, age, status or whatever
How: Just leave a comment on my blog or any of the coordinators blogs
Why: Party and awarding ceremonies for the winner of the SM Hypermarket blog writing contest and, of course, to meet many, many new friends!
Where: Taste Asia (beside SM Hypermarket), SM Mall of Asia

If you’re interested, you can leave a comment on this post or send me an email so you can be added to the guest list!

Oh, and yeah, each blogger is entitled to bring one non-blogger human guest

This is a sponsored post.

Meet Hunter, a fully certified mold dog. He’s currently employed by Advanced Mold Diagnostics from New Jersey, helping the company get rid of mold and their sources from homes infected by these fungi.

According to their site, molds result from moisture and can be very hazardous to one’s health once inhaled. Molds are only detected when they’re already doing damage, and the source is usually very difficult to find. Well, that’s where Hunter comes in to save the day!

I think it’s common knowledge that dogs have a very keen sense of smell. They can detect things that we can’t. And as highly intelligent creatures, dogs can be trained to detect smells that are otherwise undetectable to the human nose. As an avid fan of the Animal Planet, I’ve seen how dogs are being used in the US for detecting diseases, prohibited food and other stuff from airport baggage, as well as concealed bombs and illegal drugs. Heck, they even help the police look for missing cadavers buried deep down in the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll have to admit that I haven’t been blogging much about my dogs lately. Sheero’s been sick, and I just didn’t have the heart to write about them
Marc, my husband, and I normally bring our dogs to Animal House for check-ups and x-rays. My dad prefers the University of the Philippines Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital at Diliman, Quezon City for our dogs, but I guess we usually had somewhere else to go to after every vet visit that we’ve never really brought Sheero there. But last Wednesday and Thursday, we had nothing else to do but bring her. And frankly, we didn’t have much of a budget at the moment, so we really had no choice but to settle for a government-owned vet hospital.

Apparently, we made the right decision. Not only was UP Vet Med cheap (consultation is just Php100, approximately $2), but you’d be able to see that the vets are genuinely concerned about the animals. The fact that Marc and I are avid House MD (an American TV show) fans just adds a bit more fun to the experience—you see, the setting of the medical-inspired show was a teaching hospital as well. Lucky for us (and Sheero) that our vet wasn’t like Dr. House! Read the rest of this entry »

We live along a highway—specifically the Katipunan C5 extension. That’s the main reason why Sheero and I take utmost care when taking a walk (most of the houses and sari-sari stores are across the street). Sheero has learned how to behave when crossing the street—she probably knows the dangers of crossing without me guiding her. She knows that when cars are driving past, she should stop, and start walking briskly along with me when there aren’t any more cars.

We sometimes come across a stray dog or a pet dog let loose every now and then, but it was only last week when we almost stumbled upon a dog carcass. Read the rest of this entry »

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post.

My dad is a photographer (he’s also a photographer for a local newspaper), and he likes taking photos of our pets a lot. Each one of them has their own portrait photo (even the fishes!), but he never really got into pet photography except for trying out a new camera or he just felt like making them his photo subjects. He said it’s hard to make animal pose in a studio setting especially when they’re untrained (I think he just didn’t want to risk his expensive equipment for unruly animals making a ruckus out of his studio).

Knowing how difficult animals are to photograph makes me appreciate Pittsburg pet photographer Vincent Strangio’s work even more.

The site offers Dog shirts, sweatshirts, mousepads and other merchandise with dog photos featuring the work of Strangio. But these aren’t just t-shirt transfers or any other those rubbery printing that’s easy to peel off, mind you. I’m not exactly sure what that type of printing is called, but I’ve seen printing like that and I can definitely say that they don’t peel easily (having a husband who does the laundry, it’s important that shirt designs don’t peel easily, else I’ll be stuck with plain old t-shirts!). I’m not sure if that’s exactly the type of printing they use, as I haven’t seen the shirts in actually, but I do believe the designs are worth it.

I love the designs. Ok fine, I’m biased. I love dogs. But having seen quality photos all my life, I’m able to discern what looks good and what doesn’t (that’s one of the perks of being a daughter of one of the country’s award-winning photographers). The photos on the shirts look good—one look at them and you’ll get an idea of what the dog’s personality is. And this, I think, is what makes the photos great.

“Photos speak a thousand words.” For me, that’s really important. I’m no photographer, but I try as much as possible for my graphic art to convey something: an emotion, a story, or a personality. Photographing dogs is no different—a photograph becomes truly beautiful when the artist gives the viewer an idea of who the dog is. This, is what I see in the designs of Dog shirts, sweatshirts, mousepads and other merchandise found on the site.

The section on White Westland Terriers is my favorite. But this is a real bias: the dogs look like my Sheero!

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post.

Sheero is a mixed breed, but I never really knew what breed exactly was mixed with her Japanese Spitz descent. I once suspected her of having a Terrier parent, but that’s mainly due to her innate hunting skills. Another breed I considered was a Shih Tzu, though I never really had the time to research about that kind till now.

Breeder Retriever’s site is a treasure box full of breed information. I know I’m only supposed to review the page on Shih Tzu, but I can’t help it—I love dogs, and I love reading about them.

The Shih Tzu page that Breeder Retriever provides gives in-depth information for a non-scientific person like me. I usually get lost in technical terms of information found in other sites—I think those were made for die-hard breeders or veterinarians. Since I’m neither of the two, Shih Tzu helped me understand important information that I needed to know about the breed. Which, I must say, made me doubt further if Sheero’s other half is indeed a Terrier—the page shows quite a lot of similarities in temperament with my little white princess.

The page shows that it’s been made for pet aficionados—the first time I saw it I couldn’t help but say, “aww, that’s so cute!” at the adorable Shih Tzu featured on the page. As a web designer, I strongly believe that this is a very effective strategy: appeal to the viewer’s heart strings, then give them the information they needed. The design of the page is simple—pretty straight-forward—though I’d rather have it a tad bit more colorful and cute, which basically shows the personality of the dog through the design. It would be nice to if the colors scheme of the photo gallery and the forums is “happier.” Maybe it’s just me, but I’m a strong believer that pets give color to our lives—and a site that’s a bit more colorful shows just that.

Other than these aesthetic quirks (sorry, I can’t help it… Design is my profession), I think this page will be another addition to my “doggy info” bookmarks.

My dogs don’t like taking baths. Or rather, Sheero hates taking baths. Look how pissed she was at me:

Choknat wasn’t too happy about the bath either, but I guess he missed hanging out with me so much that he didn’t seem to mind at all:

Harry… Well, I really wouldn’t know if Harry didn’t like it. He didn’t complain, and he was back to his usual happy self even after the bath:

You can imagine how tiring it can be for me during my pets’ bath time. Luckily, my dad doesn’t require me to give our other 10 dogs baths, or I’d probably drop dead in exhaustion!

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?

I think it wouldn’t come as a surprise if I say that Sheero is a spoiled dog. She’s famous in the Philippine blogosphere for a dog in her own right (well, in my opinion at least!), and anybody who met her has seen how Marc and I pamper her with attention (she was even a bit miffed when the BoB gang ignored her during a podcast session at our house. Anyway, being a “home dog,” Sheero really enjoys taking walks and going out. She’s very sociable, you know.

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…

Read the rest of this entry »