Let’s start with an old photo of Sheero and Tootie I really liked… Sheero and Tootie: Looking forward

You see, Sheero and Tootie used to be great friends when Sheero was still alive. Tootie was older, so when Sheero came along, Tootie took her under her wing. She would defend Sheero whenever other dogs would try to fight with her—I think Tootie knew Sheero was at a disadvantage; Sheero was our smallest dog before Shantee came along.

Tootie was very sad when Sheero passed away last year

Me with Sheero (who’s now at the Rainbow Bridge), Harry, and Choknat

So how can you celebrate Be Kind to Animals Week?

Aside from simple things like being responsible pet owners, another way to celebrate the Be Kind to Animals Week is to adopt a dog from the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) shelter, or help out with the cause by the donating some stuff they would need to keep the shelter running.

Marc and I pledged to ourselves that we will donate as a gift to our late Sheero, who would have turned six years old last 25th of April. The stuff we plan to donate are somewhere within the gazillion boxes still left unpacked (the renovation of our house isn’t finished yet, unfortunately). Hopefully, we get to donate before Be Kind to Animals Week ends!

You can contact PAWS through philpaws(at)yahoo(dot)com or give them a call at (+63 2) 475-16-88.

Oh, and by the way… Congratulations to the Philippine Canine Club Inc. for celebrating their 45th anniversary last week. Thanks so much for the kind invitation, which I unfortunately received too late (my fault… I wasn’t able to check my email immediately). It would have been fun to meet fellow dog-lovers in one place!

I tried this quiz on my three favorite dogs, and guess who they ended up to be?

Shantee is Paris Hilton!

The pet celebutante who started it all, Shantee is notorious for attracting camera crews wherever her peticured little tootsies take her. Always looking for a good time, play comes first and work comes… well, let’s just say you’re still waiting for that so-called work part to come. The only problem with Shantee is that she hasn’t really found her calling yet, unless sneaking in the back door of the hippest spots in town can be considered a calling. But, as it goes with royalty, she was born into it and wears the tiara divinely, so Shantee is in no real rush to secure one of those “job” thingies. Her pet worth is in the gazillions, which guarantees continued appearances on Lifestyles of the Rich and Furry.

Harry is Will Ferrell!

For a while Harry was just funny on Saturday nights, but that’s all changed now that he’s taken his act on the road. Whether he’s being silly in real life or on the silver screen, Harry has a true knack for making people crack up. Harry has even managed to make the crossover to the cyberwebs, where he delivers raw, fresh, uncooked humor to his countless cyberpet fans. A fast runner, Harry runs marathons when he’s not dreaming up his next slapstick routine. Widely talented and able to impetsonate any number of two and four-legged critters, Harry’s fans will be lapping it up for a long time to come.

Choknat is Mick Jagger!

The ePETome of someone who knows how to have a good time, Choknat is a mover and a shaker, onstage and off. His luck with his lady friends is legendary and Choknat has obliged many of them by giving them a little shelter. Known for his unique barking, Choknat relishes his time in the spotlight and loves to let loose and give his audience what they expect. Unable to get satisfaction, he and his pals still paw away at the prize, clinging to the memories of the past as he continues to churn out the hits that made him a leader of the pack.

Want to know which celebrity your dog would be if he/she was a celebrity? Take the quiz on Dogster to find out! Don’t forget to leave a comment and tell us what celebrity your pet is

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.

Our new Antipolo home isn’t actually that far from our old house in Blue Ridge, Quezon City, so we could afford to go back and forth moving our things. But on the night that we were to sleep in our new home, we had to find a way to transport all our dogs to the new house in the car. Dad decided that we should bring the dogs in pairs. Harry and Choknat were the first to go.

Dad woke me up as early as 7am to prepare my dogs. We didn’t have a transport cage, so it was all up to me to keep the two under control—and ended up running to our new home stinking in Harry’s puke when we got there I made a mistake and let Harry cry and shift around at the back of our really old SUV. So there. Like their late mom Sheero, Harry and Choknat have motion sickness. Choknat, being more reserved, just stayed close to my feet during the ride so I was able to put my hand over his eyes to calm him down and prevent him from getting dizzy. But Harry? Well, he certainly relieved his stress on me
The car ride was just the tip of the iceberg. It was a good thing these two were together (Harry and Choknat), so they adjusted pretty well (the brothers are inseparable—you can’t leave one without the other), but we had to endure an entire night of them whining. Which, I think, was normal. They were in a foreign place. Besides, they haven’t stepped on grass until now (our old house’s garden had very, very little grass and made of mostly concrete flooring and potted plants)—it was totally unfamiliar to them. They were city dogs plucked from urban living
Our male dogs already “marked” our garden. The boys, Harry and Choknat, including old Spike (the one on the picture above), sprayed their pee all over the garden marking their territories. My family and I spent as much time as we could with them so they would feel secure and realize that this was our new home. Our patience paid off. Just a few days after our move, our dogs were quite well-adjusted already. They seem to be enjoying suburban living as much as we do!

My family has been quite busy moving things to our new home (we’re sleeping there soon! Yay!), so unfortunately, I wasn’t able to blog this sooner. I just hope it’s not too late.

A few days ago, I received an email in the mailing list from Nice Rodriguez telling us about Rene Jose’s show which talked about CARA’s catch/spay/release program for cats and dogs.

I am just wondering if someone else watched UNTV’s Good Morning Kuya show this morning. One of the hosts Rene Jose was reacting to CARA’s catch/spay/release program, saying it’s not right to catch the strays, neuter them (kapon) and release them back in the streets. And when he asked around for the other minor hosts/guests to give their opinions, nobody opposed him. There were no advantages offered about spaying and neutering of stray cats and dogs.

I’ve been watching the program for the last few months because I find their political commentaries refreshing, enlightening and funny. I am just bothered because first of all, nobody in the show seemed to be interested in the topic. They didn’t really care about all the cats and dogs out in the streets, with only one commentator worrying more that he might drive over a stray at night and thus, endanger his own life. Mr. Jose seemed to be more concerned about emasculating the tomcats since the sterilization process appeared unthinkable for him–almost like it’s cutting his own balls!

I know the show is sexist at times but it’s still the best show to eavesdrop about the country’s affairs. I am only sad because we seem to be very far from being a compassionate society. I find Mr. Jose almost encyclopedic with his knowledge and commentaries on several topics in the show, and to learn that he vehemently opposes neutering and spaying of stray animals (like it’s a sin against the Pope) is worrisome, and there could be many like-minded folks like him out there. Sadly, he didn’t even bother suggesting an alternative to the stray population problem.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch the show. Heck, I don’t watch Rene Jose’s show at all, to tell you the truth. Political debates and talks usually annoy me. But, like any other form of media, it is nevertheless effective.

The problem I have with the commentary regarding the spaying and neutering of animals is not the commentary per se. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. You don’t think it’s good for the animal population, fine. But the thing is, being able to say that on TV is a different thing—you get the “power” to convince other people.

That is why journalists have the responsibility to deliver accurate information.

It is true that the humanity of spaying and neutering remains debatable. But not to also present its advantages is quite one-sided, and uninformed.

The damage is done. Maybe there are a number of people who believed what was discussed on the show. Maybe not. But no use complaining. We might not have the advantage of television reach, but we do have one medium readily within our reach: the internet.

I think some of you would know that I am a blogging advocate. Dog-lover, but also a blogging advocate Blogging has already helped a lot of advocacies on the Internet—the Blog and Soul Movement, Filipina Images, and Bloggers’ Kapihan just to name a few. These groups try their best to actually bring about their advocacies through action. A person can complain all he/she wants, but I honestly feel that action is much more effective.

I strongly suggest that dog-lovers informed about spaying and neutering help spread information through their blogs.

Allow me to start. Here’s my take
As soon as we get settled down on our new home, I’d have Harry and Choknat neutered. We don’t breed dogs, but we already have a lot of them. And honestly, my dad and I get headaches every time mating season nears. The dogs just go crazy. We needed to isolate the female dog in heat. But if they’re successful, we get another problem of what to do with the puppies

This is Moy-moy. He’s just about to get neutered in this photo. More details on his parents’ blog at The Animal Doctor

Neutering would definitely be an advantage in our pets’ case. But I think my opinion also applies to CARA’s catch/spay/release program as well.

There will always be the risks of surgical complications and other possible physiological disadvantages, but I believe that spaying and neutering stray animals are actually quite a humane way of controlling the animal population. It’s definitely cheaper than catching the animals, rehabilitating them, and putting them up for adoption (unless of course we have a hell lot more organizations like PAWS around), and by far more humane than euthanasia.

I don’t know… But I just don’t like euthanasia that much. Before Sheero passed away, I was willing to do anything just to avoid having her put down at all costs. What more a dog or cat who wasn’t even sick? I would rather have the street animals devoid of a sex life than putting them down.
What about you? What do you think?

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.

After Marc resigned from his day job and started working full-time on our company, he had wanted to impose a “no dogs in the office” policy. But I stood my ground. I couldn’t work properly without my dogs near me—I’ve just been so used to having them around that I found it really hard to come up with designs when they weren’t there. I suppose this effect on creative productivity convinced my husband that he just had to get used to having the dogs in the office
Maybe it’s because it’s just what I’m used to, but really, having dogs in the office can help a workers’ productivity. I saw a documentary on TV about a dog who’s job was to hang out in the office and keep the employees happy. Some job eh? The dog loved it. I even know of a local company that had a cat in the office.

Shantee pretending to be “stressed” with work

I don’t know what the effect of having furry friends in the office for other people, but for me, my dogs somehow alleviate my stress. Seeing Shantee curled up on my lap calms me down even after seeing an email message that really pissed me off. It’s hard to do anything productive when you’re in a bad mood (especially in my line of work, it’s hard to get inspired and create designs in a bad mood), but my dogs take care of that. One look at my furry friends napping loyally beside me doesn’t fail to bring a smile on my face no matter how terrible my mood was.

I’m so lucky I have these furry guys (and girl) beside me And yep, I’m still having pets in the office even after we move to our new home.

You know what? I think they do and can apologize.

That’s Harry in the picture, by the way. I caught him in that position after I expressed disappointment when he stole my sandwich. He took my chicken sandwich from the table when I was busy taking pictures of his fellow pooches. I wasn’t mad when I saw him eating my sandwich, but I did make him feel “guilty” by showing my disappointment at what he did. I turned away from him after telling him what he did was very bad, and he kept on trying to make me look at him. When I asked Harry, “what do you want?” he gave me that “I’m sorry” pose. I just couldn’t resist taking the photo And of course, I couldn’t resist forgiving him. Who can say no to such a cute apology? I bet even you can’t
Harry wasn’t the only one who ever expressed saying sorry to me. Sheero always apologized when she did something wrong, ie. peeing or pooping in places where she shouldn’t have. She always knew it when she did something wrong. And when she did, she would approach us with her tail between her legs and her ears pulled backward while giving us the most adorable “please forgive me” look ever possible in a dog.

Choknat expressed his apology to me already. It was funny when it happened, actually. I put on a shower cap, and sat on my computer desk to do some work while I waited for the hair treatment to take effect before washing it off. Choknat didn’t recognize me and started barking as he sat on my bed. Of course I was hurt, told him, then started to ignore him while I worked. A few seconds later, he realized that it was me under the shower cap, and immediately jumped onto my lap and “kissed” my face in apology.

Shantee is still young (she’s only five months at the moment), so she still got a lot to learn when it comes to apologizing—she doesn’t seem to feel guilty when she did something wrong. Maybe she still doesn’t know if she did something wrong, but she’s slowly learning! Shantee is beginning to realize that when Marc and I ignore her, she did something wrong—she’s now starting to associate the lack of attention to doing something that we didn’t like.

Funny how a dog’s mind works, doesn’t it? They love us humans so much that “pride” doesn’t seem to be in their vocabulary anymore—they’d do anything to please us, get our attention, and make us happy

Do you own a spoiled dog? Well, I do. Actually, all of our dogs are spoiled, in my opinion. All of them sleep inside the house. Harry gets a slice of loaf bread whenever he wants one from my sister, and Choknat even has his own Bonsai tree. Shantee has enough dog clothes to merit her own closet. My late Sheero has her own shrine in our garden. But none of them have Designer dog beds (Shantee has a dog pillow though, and all of the other dogs like sleeping on the sofa or on padded chairs).

If you’re a Filipino born in the ‘80s, you’re probably familiar with the TV commercial of Salem bed mattress for humans. There was this elephant in the commercial stomping on the mattress to prove that it’s really sturdy (the Salem elephant passed away already, by the way). Sorry, that was off-topic—but I just couldn’t help but remember that elephant when reviewing the Mammoth dog bed site… It’s like a dog version of that commercial (there’s an elephant on their advertising materials too!) Ah. Don’t mind me!

Well, moving on… Back to the review
I have actually seen a lot of dog beds from grooming salons, but they’re quite expensive. I can honestly say that I can create those myself using my mom’s scrap textiles and foam—kind of like the same way that it’s easy to create a pillow for a human. But the thing is, it won’t be orthopedic and the foam will eventually shrink through time and usage.

Same thing with dog beds. You can make one on your own, or buy a cheap one, but it’s not going to last (I’m actually preparing to make a new pillow for Shantee in case hers shrink and get too worn out). The Designer dog beds that Mammoth sells were made to last from non-balling high memory furniture upholstery fiber fill, which makes sure that the bed bounces back after every use. They also assure that their beds’ covers don’t shrink when washed, which is a good thing since you will eventually have to wash it so it won’t stink
The Designer dog beds sold at pet shops here are very expensive—especially for those large breeds like Coal, Scout and Crunchie who are Labrador Retrievers. The ones that Mammoth offers are actually half the price of those I see at local pet shops for large breeds. You’ll also have the convenience of ordering online, and having the dog bed delivered straight to your doorstep.

But like any other outside-the-Philippines online store, the only thing I have a problem with this is the shipping costs. It really is expensive getting products delivered across the globe. BUT, there’s still a “work-around.” If you got relatives in the US who are visiting the Philippines soon, you can always ask them to receive the delivery for you and just bring it here when they travel. The only risk there is when they have a lot of baggage and adding your dog bed will make them exceed their luggage weight limit.

I’ve slept on an orthopedic bed already (of course, the one I slept on was for humans not dogs!), and I have never slept as comfortably as I did on that bed. If you got some extra cash to spare, why not let your dog experience such comfort too? I would get each and every one of my dogs if only I had a lot of money! For now, all other dogs will have to just sleep on the coach and padded chairs and Shantee on her little home-made golden dog pillow

Shantee and Peter met a LOT new “friends,” though I don’t think Shantee liked the alligator at all. Hehe. We have more behind-the-scenes photos with Shantee’s new animal friends, but posting them before the feature could ruin the surprise So for now, we’ll just show you a few snapshots of Shantee’s first ever (and probably the last) trip to Manila Zoo.

Normally, pets aren’t allowed within Manila Zoo. And with good reason—doing so could turn nasty for your pet and the zoo animal. You don’t know how the animals would react to each other, and that’s a risk that the zoo doesn’t want to take. Bringing Shantee and the other pet animals was a special case—Rated K had to get a permission from the zoo and reserve an entire area for their event.

To be honest, Marc and I only let Shantee mingle with the pets brought in for the event. We only took pictures with the zoo animals we passed by on the way to the reserved venue.

Ok, I’ll have to admit that we were worried Shantee would pick up illness from the other animals—they weren’t really well taken-care of. The state of the animals in Manila Zoo is a far cry from those healthy animals in Zoobic. And yes, this may sound really snobby, but Marc and I also didn’t want Shantee get her paws dirty. There weren’t any trash on the ground, but the walkways were quite dusty. I would be the one carrying Shantee during the blessing, and I didn’t want getting dirt on me.

As an animal-lover, mingling with animals is always a treat. But I was torn between pity and fascination when I looked at some of the animals at Manila Zoo—I wanted to take home some of the monkeys and bring them to the vet or something. It’s the same pity that strengthened my resolve to work even harder so I’d become rich enough to have the resources to rescue and rehabilitate sickly and abused animals. That’s actually one of the reasons why we have so many dogs here at home—some of our dogs just showed up at our doorstep one day seeking shelter and food.

My experience last Thursday was the perfect example of “bittersweet”—a mixture of happiness and sadness. It was a sad thing seeing the zoo animals needing more care than they seem to be receiving, but meeting fellow animal-lovers and their pets was an incredible experience—you can just see the love emanating between the handlers and their pets. And that, is a rare moment that I’d love to see again and again
Many thanks to the Rated K crew for giving our pets a moment in the spotlight and bringing together this wonderful group of people!

Anyway, there were a lot of things we found out about Shih Tzus. It’s not advisable to feed them food with yeast (it can make their coat fall off). There are arguments between breeders about the acceptability of Imperial Shih Tzus (some say they’re undersized runts, while others prize their small size). But the best thing we found out was that Shih Tzus are great with kids, but not very small children (they tend to get jealous of newborns).

We never really thought how true this was until we actually saw her with kids. She just loved them.

Shantee’s small size makes her an attention-getter everywhere we go. We always hear “aww, look at the cute dog!” every time we pass by people, or see even the grouchiest person smile when they see her. Shantee got so used to it that she sometimes ignore her “admirers” already. But not kids. She gets all excited whenever she sees kids.

Shantee always made sure to say “hi” to kids every time she sees them. And kids say hi back to her. Most often than not, they even give her a hug and a kiss.

This could be because Shantee’s breed is naturally friendly. Her breed makes a terrible guard dog (I can just imagine her wagging her tail in excitement upon seeing a thief or something), but they make great companion dogs. They get along well with people, and even other dogs. Heck, Shantee’s even friendly with Peter, our hamster! But I don’t know, I still figure that maybe her size got something to do with it, and the way we raised her to be friendly to everyone.

Shantee’s always been more comfortable with strangers who are children. Maybe it’s because they’re “less threatening” since they’re still small—like her. And the kids approach her just the same—she’s like a live teddy bear to them.

We’re still cautious when kids play with Shantee. We don’t want her getting too excited, or the kids too rough on her that she might react instinctively. But nevertheless, it’s still quite a sight seeing Shantee play with kids—and bring happiness to a kid even for just a few minutes.