‘Man and animals are partly the same. Both deserve love, loyalty and law.’
I have two dogs. They don’t have names. They are Brown and Dalmatian. The latter is a combination of spotted black and white colors. One morning, when I woke up, I heard somewhere in the house faint crying voices. I was not sure what it was. And so I went outside from the main room. I found out that pups have just been delivered by the mother dog. They just went inside my house, and sought comfort at my terrace. I pitied them very much. I bought powdered milk, mixed it with water and served it to the little dogs and the mother dog.
I roamed around my neighborhood telling them that a dog has just delivered her puppies in my house, and they replied that the pups already belonged to me since they were born inside my house. The five little puppies grew very fast. My budget for food increased because I have six more mouths to feed.
When the dogs were still young, they were led by the mother dog to my immediate neighbor. After a few days, they returned back to my house where they were born.
One day, my neighbor asked to have one of the pups so that he could keep it as his pet. I didn’t hesitate to give it for as long as they are not going to be slaughtered and be served as food during celebrations or party.
It was very difficult to catch these dogs. With my neighbors’ persistence to catch one of the pups; they succeeded and finally, they placed it inside an empty sack.
The remaining four dogs grew faster. I lost the next dog to another neighbor who asked for it as a gift for his birthday. The men struck the dog with iron but the dog was hit in his feet, yet he was able to run away from the dog eaters. Later, the same dog visited my neighbor’s house, until it no longer came back to my house.
The other dogs grew faster and became bigger and older. The third dog was brought by one of my friends to his house situated beside a big river. After almost ten years that had passed, the two remaining dogs remained with me. The mother dog went home to its original master, leaving only her puppies.
I only have two dogs left. I didn’t give them names. It is an automatic adoption. What I have is the right to help these creatures. These two dogs have different colors and have distinguishing behaviors. The Dalmatian is behaved, civilized and cultured, while the brown dog is the exact opposite of these traits. During feeding time, the Dalmatian would just wait for the food to be served to him while the brown dog would jump over the food fed to it.
The brown dog had a very harsh attitude. He wanted to control everything. When the Dalmatian ate his share, the brown dog blocked the Dalmatian dog and ate voraciously the Dalmatian’s share of food. When it was all consumed, the brown dogs left the feeding area without any sounds or just even a waggle of his tail, leaving the Dalmatian hungry.
To solve this issue, during their feeding time, I would let the Dalmatian enter the kitchen and then close the door so that the brown dog would stay outside and wait for his share.
The two dogs only barked to strangers. For ten years, it never happened that they bit somebody. If it is your first time to encounter them, they will keep on barking at you but for the second time around, they just want to smell and jerk on you and sometimes kiss your feet.
The dogs, both the Dalmatian and the brown dog, have very sensitive nose with very extra sensory perceptions. Every afternoon when I went home, and still just about 100-meters away from my house, the dogs would immediately sense my presence and ran towards me. They waggled their tails and barked, signifying my arrival.
When I am at the house’s main door, the dogs would enter the house with me. There were instances where the dogs got locked up inside the house. When I got home, they were barking loudly for freedom. The dogs were just around my house when I was having my summer and Christmas vacations too.
My dogs were more than just animals to me. They’re like humans to me because they don’t do any actions that would ruin others’ life. They don’t have the capacity to sabotage my future and they are willing to defend and protect me against criminals or anybody who is planning to destroy the peace that I have in my life.
Dogs may be treated by others as lowly types of animals but I regarded them as the highest kind of animals. They value ‘utang na loob’ and they are willing to die in the name of love and in the name of service for their master.
Jed P. Acero (Benjie), aka Kadiya is a creative writing teacher in English and Filipino of Sta. Ana Sr. National High School, Davao City, at first his passion is research and now a literary writer.