Everything Under The Tropical Sun

Last weekend, we slept over at my husband’s cousin’s place (whew! a mouthful!) and there was Scooby. The only great dane I’ve had the pleasure to meet.

I’d think great danes would usually be temperamental but he’s so affectionate even though it was the first time we met. Such a handsome dog too.

I’ve always been impartial with big dogs. I don’t have too much of a problem with toy breeds except for the Chihuahua. I think they’re acquired tastes. But all in all, I adore dogs (most living things for that matter). I’m not too much of a cat person but I don’t hate them. The only living things I don’t have any problems in hurting are cockroaches and mosquitoes. Otherwise, I’d try to just get them out of the way (even spiders).

Anyway, so here’s HUGE Scooby. He stands about as high as my hips but he’s such a sweetheart. We didn’t have any problems from the start. At the request of his owner, we took photos and came out with a number of nice ones (soo happy about that). I’d have to ask permission ofcourse, but I’d like to include him in our portfolio. Such a handsome big dog.

It’s been a week since we let Courage and Ashley hang out in the warehouse during weekdays (because of the bigger space and my husband wanted to keep them close) and I have to say the mysterious power of pets is something that never ceases to amaze me.

Their current schedule is that they’ll stay at the warehouse (my husband’s turning them into junkyard dogs – I cringe at the thought!) during weekdays and on the weekend, they’ll hang out with us at our very cramped house (where they seem equally as happy being with us). So we started two weekends ago. They came home with us.

Our neighbors were swooning over them asking us a million questions whether we take them to the pet spa (i’m embarassed to admit that i do) and what do we feed them… who do they follow… what’s their routine… just random questions thrown at us while I was giving them a bath. So amazed at how they love the water and that they’d just sit down while I rubbed shampoo into their coats.

When it was time to go (this was Monday morning)… I was so shocked at the “Bye, Courage! Bye, Ashley!” from the neighbors. It was like a couple VIPs were leaving and weren’t coming back for like a year.

Then they went on to staying at the warehouse. A couple of my husband’s staff stays over during the weekdays so they could watch over them. It’s funny how last weekend, we asked one of them to stay instead of going back home to their families. Just to watch over our babies because we couldn’t get them ’til the next day.

We were worried that they’d give us all these excuses that they can’t because they have to go home, etc. But my husband was so surprised that without hesitation, one of them volunteered to stay and watch Courage and Ashley. Goes to show, one of them’s attached to my babies already.

Ah, the mysterious power of pets. I think they’re aware of the power they have over me (especially Courage) because they just know the right way to look at me and know that I’ll immediately hand over whatever treat I have in my hand. The greatest power they have is that they manage to take all the stress, worries, and negative feelings I had last week and made it all vanished. With a single day, I feel recharged and ready to face the world once more with a smile on my face.

Nikon D80,  f/1.8, 1/30, ISO 500, 50mm

I know I said I wouldn’t be writing anything until August 1 but I am feeling so sad and worried now. I hope that writing about it would make me feel better… I couldn’t sleep last night. As soon as I closed my eyes, my mind wandered to how much pain I can cause to the people who hurt my babies. The thin line between anger and revenge is something I wouldn’t want to cross, though.

Courage and Ashley are our babies. Courage is a 5-year-old male, black, labrador retriever while Ashley is a female, yellow colored one and is about a year younger. They lived with us while we were staying at my mother’s house and when we transferred, we took them both with us. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that big dogs were banned in that compound so after Courage picked a fight with one of the smaller dogs in the place (an alpha dog thing – he’s used to being the big boss), I couldn’t justify that they stay there with us. We were forced to move them back in my mother’s house.

At my mother’s place, I commissioned the son of my mother’s household help to watch over them, to give them baths, take them out on walks, etc. I would regularly pay him a monthly salary just to do that (when in fact he stays in my mother’s house for free – he has a day job somewhere else). I would pay for their monthly food as I did not want to burden my mother with their expenses.

Now that we’ve transferred, I went and got my babies from my mother’s house yesterday. I wanted to cry when I saw the condition Courage was in. He’s skin and bones! My once magnificent and healthy baby has deteriorated into a vision of my worst nightmare. I don’t have the heart to post what he looks like now. Ashley wasn’t in as bad a state as Courage was. She has always been the chubby little one but she looks like she has caught whatever Courage has and is going towards that same path. We rushed both of them to the vet and had to leave them there.

I got off the phone with the vet earlier and they both have heartworms and we’re still waiting for their blood test and urinalysis results to rule out kidney and liver problems.

The least Dexter could’ve done was inform me my babies were losing weight really fast so I could’ve asked the vet to see them right away. Now they’re in really bad shape and I wonder whether I was taken for a ride.

At a very short span of time, for someone (even a dog) to lose weight very fast is a clear indication that there’s something very wrong. I can never expect anyone else to take care of them. I thought since they’ve been with my family since I was a teenager, they’d have the decency to take care of my dogs properly. I was wrong.

Serves me right for trusting the wrong people to watch over them. I’m never going to do that ever again. I’ll fight with everyone else if they want to banish my dogs. Seeing them like that made me feel so helpless. I just pray that there’s nothing else wrong with their health.