May 10, 2006

O' CHEETAH of Paws & Tails aka NALA

i've had nala for nearly 5 years. i was so obssessed on obtaining a chow-chow, i went to every chow breeder i could find in the buy & sell pets section in the tabloids. that was early 2003. i had the money but i did not place enough thought on this breed's reputation. i was buying a dog who i simply wanted to toy with. ever since birth, i loved animals, preferably dogs. i had tons of dogs before nala, but she was the first pet i invested in. breeding chows was a plan as well. when i had her, being a dog owner became pretty serious....& expensive! she gave me such a huge headache in terms of caring, potty training, feeding..etc. she's had non-stop issues with her skin. all her hair would fall off about thrice a year. i would bring her to different doctors bargaining for cheaper checkup fees & medicines. i was able to cure her, but her skin ailments would just constantly recur after all her hair have grown. she was most of the time disobedient. she would pee & poo inside the house even if she has been outside half the time. she would cross everybody's paths, inadvertently trampling anyone (this makes ryan really furious..hehe). she goes wild whenever caged or leashed. she'll hide to the narrowest space in our rooms, under my bed often, when new year's nearing, w/ all the fireworks & stuff. she gets soooo scared during the xmas season.

nevertheless, she was my baby, i was her boss, her idol. she obeys when i tell her to go out, to get inside. she was afraid of me to the point of respecting me. she adores me...yet sometimes i ignore her flawless love for me. i actually began to give up on her 'health issues' when i got pregnant. no one wants me near her for her allergies might get transferred to me...though it wasn't her fault... & my attention for her had gotten lesser & lesser when rayne entered my life.
her birthday's november 1st. when i got her, i promised to observe her birthdays but the ocassion, coinciding with the day of the dead in PI, made it somehow improper to plan a celebration. she'd turn 6 this year.

my nala, aka o'cheetah, got ran over by a water delivery truck at the back of our house 2 nights ago. i wasn't at home, i was at work when my father texted me the awful news. i was told she tried to drag her feet to our gate but expired a few minutes later. the truck drove fast, my dog was outside who shouldn't be. nala was becoming a stray dog every since new year this year. she'd do everything to get out of the steel cage we placed for her..even if her bones would break & her skin bleed...

my niece nicole was rushed to the hospital 2 days ago. she was sent home by her lola from don antonio at 4am due to her constant crying & longing for her mom (ate anna). my mother woke me up hearing in the background her cries which were starting to get pretty annoying. she asked me to tend to my daughter coz nicole's eating up all her attention. nicole was complaining about breathlessness & numbness on her right limbs. she can barely move her right arm & leg. she was rushed to the children's hospital when she cried out loud "hindi ko na kaya". she was diagnosed to be paralized at the right portion of her body, to have an enlarged heart, to have an acute bronchitis. she's currently confined. the doctor said her paralysis was due to a blood clot in the brain. everyone was dumb founded by the numerous & critical condition of my niece. we can never understand why this is happening to her, a baby who had cancer in the muscles at the age of 2, gradually healed by our constant prayers.

our baby nicole...we love you!!! jesus is healing you as fast as he could!!

at that day, at 11PM, nala passed. what transpired before her passing sent chills to everyone at home. my brother ian, who came home after visiting nicole at the hospital, whispered to nala. he told nala to sacrifice for nicole. according to my father, it only took a few minutes from that whisper to nala's death. there is a saying that dogs take part in saving his/her owners' lives. it may be absurd or sometimes coincidental, but it happens, it unfortunately happens to a few homes. so the plentier pet dogs, the better? nah...
nala was the second pet i recently lost at the streets. i had a shih tzu, his name was chami. frightfully, he got ran over by a speeding SUV infront of our house. it took me awhile, including my mom, to recover from his loss. he was a gift from kuya benjo to his kids, nicole & trish. eventually, the ownership was transferred to me, when kuya benjo passed away. he had no papers, he was super lazy, poos & pees everywhere, yet he was most loved..not wanting to compare him to nala, but his relationship to my family was far more exceeding. i wept all day. i was again at work when this happened. my mother tried to revive him by sending him to the nearest vet, but the doctor couldn't do nothing. i tearfully remember how nala & chami constantly fought each other. they were like cats & dogs!!

chamito my love...hope you're no longer lazy in heaven!!

i didn't see both of my dogs' bodies. on both ocassions, they were already buried in dirt at our backyard when i got home.

this blog post is for them.

May 7, 2006

reconnecting

i invited my friends & kumares over to my place last sunday. was supposed to go to batangas as early as friday with a few girlfriends which got cancelled eventually. i really wanted to bond with them so there was no other way but initiate a party. my reason, intially, is i wanted to somehow show off my 5 mo. old daughter whom they last saw early february, at her christening. next to that is to fulfill a promise i made to them to arrange a supposed despedida (before i went to the states) and as when i got home. it took me a month to gather most of them together..w/ me & rayne..

it became more like a fiesta in our home during the afternoon. my dad watched his new concert 'pirated' DVDs, my mom setup the karaoke and sang some (as well as myself), and my brother, who had recently brought home his drum set, jammed with my cousin mike (w/ his elec. guitar). so it was n.o.i.s.y. i was so afraid my baby's eardrum would burst. everywhere i go round the house there was noise!

anyway, my kumareng alex arrived first. we fetched the bbQ i ordered from kumareng saleng at san mateo. she didn't join us yet coz she was still waiting for a sis of ours to join her. she and our sis whate followed later. ryan was home when we returned, my brother, my brother's GF, my cousin plus a friend were already starting to drink. i was expecting ate rose(a sis as well), and ayn, a kumare, to join, but weren't able to attend due to some 'credible' reasons.. *:) sure.. there's a next time i promise! *:P

sheila arrived w/ hubby vince. we went singing old songs, some baduy, enjoying ourselves. everything was my treat (again) by the way, so my pocket' had gone dry by the end of the day.

che's hubby holding my princess; mom & rayne
che & myself; alex & che
whate w/ her son lianne plus saleng
ninang alex bonding w/ my daughter