My First and Last Halloween

By Achilles Wong

Halloween is received in most countries with a buzz of excitement. Everyone loves to play dress up. Unlike in other countries, the celebration of Halloween in the Philippines is not as popular. As a largely Catholic/ Christian nation, Filipinos celebrate All Saint's Day (November 1) and they do so by visiting their departed loved ones.

This year, however, manang cannot go home to Bacolod City because there is no long weekend. Work is expected to resume on Monday and going home would take a huge toll on her given the length of travel. Woofy for us then!

The day before Halloween, we had a serious talk and I asked her if all the talks on costumes, pumpkins and free treats are really inherent in Halloween. With a forced nod, manang assured me that even if other people will not celebrate Halloween with us, The Ilonggo House will try to make our Halloween somewhat special.

Now, the matter at hand... what to wear.. what to wear...

Poopie as the Emo Dog sans the black outfit and eyeliner

"But manang! Poopie doesn't look a wee bit scary!" I protested

She just coughed up an awkward smile and apologized for not making enough preparations for our costumes. More appropriately, she didn't make any preparations for Halloween on account of her busy schedule... buhuhu...

Rummaging through her belongings, she found a neat, shiny blue scarf and decided to experiment on some looks...

......... I should have kept my mouth shut when I had the chance.

... .........

Ummm... I look like I'm off to school in this outfit, manang...

Ummm.. Honestly, woman. You are getting the idea of Halloween all wrong!

I was supposed to look like Little.. er.. Big Blue Riding Hood.

I loved my basket of goodies, though.

I was going for something scary, not preppy.

I give up manang!

You are one clueless woof woman!!

My reputation is now marred.

How can I face other dogs, looking like a girly Labrador in a shiny blue scarf.

I am never celebrating Halloween again!
Just what is your impression of Halloween, anyway?

............................................................

Boooo!!!!

I am soooo humiliated right now... I'm not blogging anytime soon...

Happy Halloween Everypup!!

When Woof Women Meow

by Achilles Wong

Since day one, the Ilonggo House had always been a house for dogs and dogs alone… Okay, maybe there are a few humans living there but still it IS a dog’s house, that is until…

Ummm… manang? We’re over here…

Surely, you can’t be serious.
That is a CAT!
I know. I know… it’s your LASIK, right?

Manang had just undergone LASIK last August. I think she is still suffering from blurring vision or something. That has got to be it. I can’t think of any possible reason for her behavior. Why would a bona fide woof woman such as her associate with the ‘enemy’? Aren’t dogs supposed to be enemies with cats, just like that in the TV?

This makes me sick… Just look at that orange ball of fur. He is basking in sheer joy… Manang never rubs my chin like that.

Arggghhh… Do I hear purring?
Why I! I never purr.
She doesn’t rub my chin enough to make me purr.
So what if I can’t purr.
The point is, she is rubbing his chin, which she never does to me.
Buhuhuhu…

Truth is, I never had problems with Gring Gring at all. I just think he is a little snotty for not wanting to play with me. Eversince we moved in, I had always wanted to play with him but I was comparably bigger and manang said my rough playing was not just cutting it. On the sidelines, I just contend myself with looking at him while manang feeds him yummy cat food.

Come to think of it, Gring Gring is one friendly cat. Manang said that I should try to understand him more because he doesn’t have a permanent home nor a family to cuddle with. He is a little aloof when inside the house and is not used to being cooped up indoors so manang cannot keep him especially since she is not too sure about how we can keep peace inside the house with me and Gring Gring around.

Manang allows Poopie to play with Gring Gring. Meanwhile, poor little me was left inside our cage even after I begged and promised her that I will try not to play too roughly. Surprisingly, the two teeny furballs hit it off quite nicely.

When Jack-tzu meets cat

In their cutesy cat vs. toy dog game of bitey face


manang, they're having a cat fight!

Poopie the vampire dog

In the end, it was: Poopie -1; Gring Gring- 2 and Aki- 3 hours of detention

Meeting Belo

Meeting Belo: An arranged marriage without my blessing
By The Pooper Scooper

If you remembered my manong Aki’s previous post on our Carbonara Day, we met a hooman named Ms. Giselle, who was actually very nice to me. She had then offered manang to have me sired by her Poodle, which the woof woman, refused profusely in a matter of milliseconds.

Last Sunday manang R’ received a call from Ms. Giselle, asking her if manang was around. Apparently, my husband-to-be, was having some skin problems after his short vacation to the countryside. She wanted manang to check him out. Now, manang is not a veterinarian but she knows a few things or two from constant conversation with my mommy secretary (of The Animal Doctor).

And so…

Hurry up with my bath manang… our guest will be here soon..

Woofs! Manang, someone is at the door!

Hello there? Have you come to visit me?

Our Guests: Ms. Giselle and Belo- the miniature poodle.

Belo reminds me so much of T-man. He was the first toy poodle that we personally met and we were awed by his extreme cuteness. His fur sort of matted though, but it was not normal matting. He had rashes all over and his skin was pink from irritation. He also had a few sores from constant scratching. Ms. Giselle had to wrap him with a shirt while making their way towards our house.

Manang thinks Belo might have eaten something that he shouldn’t have i.e. the infamous danggit (salty fish), crabs, shrimp, etc..

Manang was peering closely to assess the extent of the skin problem

Belo enjoying manong Aki's ball. See his reddish skin?

They kept insisting for me to play with him.. I said “NO WAY!”

I Just had my akai (akai means ‘red’ in Japanese) month and the hoomans are afraid I might end up a mommy at such an early age. Of course that will never happen because manong and manang had banned me from going out on dates without a chaperone. During my akai days, I was instructed to lie down to prevent any perpetrator from defiling my little Jack Russel/Shih-tzu body.

Poor Belo, I think his sore was really itchy. Manang took pity and gave Ms. Giselle a bottle of our extra cod liver oil. They also rummaged for some old x-ray films to use as a make-shift elizabethan collar while the vet was still closed (It was a Sunday) to prevent the rabid scratching.

This is what they came up with…

Voila! Elizabethan Belo.
What can I say, he loves sleeping.

Even with the crappy thing around his neck

Jack/Shih-tzu meets Toy Poodle

Manang R’ and me and Belo with Ms. Giselle


And what better way to cap the day...

Manong: Belo, that’s my leg!

Guess Who?

Updated Contest Rules:

On our way to the beach, we had to meet up with manang R' and tin's officemate. Our rendezvous point was this place. Manang and I took a few pictures since there was no guard around-- woofy!!!. Expectedly, a few people milled about and checked us out. Apparently, dogs posing with the store's official mascot was not very usual.. haha..

This is a proudly Filipino fast food company that thrives in bringing the best yumburger, spaghetti and chickenjoy. This is also where my manang buys my vanilla sundae. It is a staple dining area for most busy Filipinos. Coincidentally, the proponent of this business won an the Entrepreneur of the Year Award a few years back. They have also opened several franchises outside the country, so some of you may have seen him around

And now for the Big Q:

What is the name of the BEE, whom we posed with?

The first one to give the correct answer will win something special, together with his/ her Christmas pressie. I know this may be quite hard for you guys, so in lieu of the correct name of the BEE, anyone who can give me the most unique name will win.

Think hard puppies. And think really fast.

Manang's note: we regret to inform but, puppies from the Philippines cannot join in the guessing game (for very obvious reasons). We'll try to come up with some other game for everypup to enjoy.

Good Luck!

My Beach Bumbum

Littlest Memories week brought about a sense on nostalgia in manang. She had been meaning to post my early pictures and videos. And since I only started blogging last month, I was not able to post all of my puppy mementos.

When I was a puppy my hoomans would often bring me with them. We would go to the beach (which was rather far, especially that we had no car here) together with the rest of the Ilonggo House residents.

One day, after a bad incident with the hair dresser, manang was told that manang Tin and R’ asked their officemate, Ms. Clavel, if they can bring me along to the beach.

We only tagged along with them :D

My hoomans knew how much I loved the beach and really enjoyed watching me frolic in the water.

Woofy!! Oh, did I kick some water in your face lady? Sorry...

We were supposed to go somewhere in Lapu Lapu City- where most of the beaches in Cebu are concentrated. It was a private, virgin resort with no overnight accommodations, just 2 barren huts and a makeshift bleacher made out of old wood.

Our very own Eden on Earth

It was a wonderful experience though. We enjoyed the beach and its tranquility. It was like having a piece of ocean all to ourselves.

Too much peace, makes manong and me want to snooze..

Manang brought with them my squeak ball. They learned that I loved playing fetch with it. And that it floats in the water so playing fetch was doubly fun.

7 optical zooms away...

afrer 14 optical zooms...

while somewhere stuck in the beach, looking on in sheer envy...

Here are some of my videos from my 2nd beach outing. (We had blogger problems again so we’re posting this ahead L ).

This time, manang promised there would be no rollercoaster video… wooffyy! Hope you all enjoy watching me swim as much as I did, swimming.

swimming is my genes. it is my 2nd favorite hobby next to eating my doggie treats

manang, come into the water. What? you DON'T KNOW how to swim? i'm appalled. What are you, woman, a cat?

My First Video (a.k.a. Another Foul up of the Lousy Video Director)

We are still celebrating Littlest Memories week. If you guys haven't visited Little Chef and Little Abby's tribute yet, please do so. We are learning a lot of things from our DWB friends. Poopie and I had also contributed our puppy stories, so if you pups and kitties want to know more about our past it’s all there.

This was taken together with our previous post. Mr. Randy Labrador a.k.a The Breeder was holding me for manang and manong to see. Manang was shocked at how heavy I was when she carried me.

Look closely at my tail.. Can you see it's distinct brownish color? That's because of my puppy incident with Mommy's huge paws. I'm, pleased to announce that it's all healed now thanks to Mr. Labrador’s magic spritzer.

We’ll post more videos once manang regains all the “uploading” patience that she lost in the last few days… hehe… For now, we hope you enjoy this rollercoaster video

My Top 10 S Things

I was meant to post my first puppy videos in view of Little Chef and Little Abby’s Little Memories Week, but manang had been having problems with uploading them through blogger since yesterday. She will only post the videos on a piece-meal basis so as to avoid blogger from cracking down.

So... to get myself out of boredom, I pawed at our handsome friend, Huskee Boy for a letter to work on- and he gave me the letter ‘S’.

And so here are my 10 favorite things starting with the letter ‘S”

10. Stuffed animals and squeak balls

I love to play with stuffed animals in lieu of my rawhides and squeak balls. I even snatched 'Adoy' from manang's room and asked him to play with me. I though he stole my bone so I tried to get it off his mouth. I never got to hear him respond because manang's voice reverberated in my ear drums after she discovered my new playmate- I think she's just envious because 'Adoy' won't play with her. *pppffft*

9. (the) Sun, sky and stars

I love seeing the sun and stars because it means more play time for me. When the sun/ star is out, then manang, manong and I can play fetch and chase. I love running and drooling. My muscles become soft from lack of exercise when it is raining because manang is afraid that i might catch pneumonia or something. When the weather is good, engaging in any game with my hooman siblings is always a welcome treat.

8. Sunny Singapore

I love Singapore because a lot of my DWB friends are there like the Three Musketeers, Huskee and Hershey and Cocoa and Barley. Manang says this is also where the hoomans can buy quality techie stuff at affordable cost. She plans to go there next year (if her schedule permits- all paws crossed) and buy an 'investment' video camera. I told her that the price of the camera does not guarantee quality videos, unless she can buy good videography skills too. :P

7. Saturdays, Sundays and Sundaes

Who does not love weekends? All the doggies in my block love Saturdays and Sundays because the hoomans are home. Weekends for us means lots of sleeping, eating, playing and slobbering. Manong and I go for our regular Sunday trips to the water station. This is also that day of the week that we meet up with our doggie neighbors and exchange drooly kisses (minus the occasional 'humping' from strangers - *icckk*) and manang buys me vanilla sundae after our morning jogs in the park, so Saturdays and Sundays are the best days in my book.

6. Smooches

See how I love smooches from the hoomans. Manong always gives me a good night kiss on the nose before going to sleep. He also gives me occasional kisses on the top of my head when I do something cute or simply when he misses me. As for manang, I kiss her in order to rouse her from her sleep so she can take me out for my morning potty.

The kiss above is different though. I was actually trying to pry her mouth open and get some of those pik-niks that she is eating.

5. Spaghetti and Pasta Parties

If you have been reading my bloggie, you'd know I'm a spaghetti loving dog. I love spaghetti and pasta parties (although the picture posted was from our Carbonara Day). In my 9 months of doggie existence, I have already hosted 3 pasta parties- 1 Carbonara Day and 2 Spaghetti Days. For us, spaghetti symbolizes a bond of friendship. The hoomans, together with their friends gather together to celebrate good food, carbonated soda, friends and fur friends.

4. Standing Poopie

Seeing my sister do her 'tan-dan-dan' and 'please' dance is always a funny sight- why? because she has to go to extreme lengths just so the hoomans will give her a treat. I, on the other hand, simply shake their hands and voila- food appears effortlessly *evil laughter*.

(manang's note: if blogger doesn't act up, we'll try to post the please dance and tan-dan-dan dance of The Pooper Scooper for our doggie friends' viewing pleasure)

3. Sleeping

manang read an anecdote from somewhere that among the top goals of all dogs are palying, eating and sleeping the day away. I don't think my love for sleeping needs to be expounded. If you doggies agree with me, let me hear some 'zzzzzzzs'

2. Swimming

I L-O-V-E Swimming. They say Labradors are natural swimmers and I do agree. The first time my hoomans brought me to the beach, I frolicked in the water as if we were long lost cousins. I learned how to swim before manang can even think of floating (hahaha!). Swimming is one of the things that I missed the most because we live quite far from the beach. :( When I grow up, I think I'm going to be a life guard dog. I can rescue drowning hoomans and lick them crazy until they restore their consciousness.

1. (my) Skin Siblings (a.k.a Manang and Manong)

I love my siblings so much- my manong, manang, manang tin and R'. They are my family here and they love me unconditionally. I love my sister Poopie also (coincidentally, the term manang means 'sister' in english, so that's another 'S' word!). My manang's eyes brimm at the thought of losing me or any of us for that matter. What we have is a permanent living arrangement and there is no way that she will trade us for anything. Families are for keeps and I am keeping my siblings for good, furry or not.

Littlest Memories (a.k.a Manang the Lousy Video Director

Finally, the blogger fairy looked kindly upon us and allowed us to upload this (amateur) video...

My manang has got to be the worst video director. If she were employed under me during the time she took this video she would have been out of the streets looking for a job. I am so sorry for the very bad videography skills and the wrong alignments. (This was obviously taken using a digital camera thus the woof woman kept zoning out and twisting the camera.. she might have been under the impression that she was still taking photos and can just rotate the crooked videos afterwards, *sigh*) again, apologies for my manang, she is only a woof woman.

This video was taken during their second visit. By then the hoomans have decided to 'adopt' me. Manang brought me a towel with my name (poorly-stitched) on it. The breeder asked why they gave me the towel and manang had to explain that it was meant to make my transfer a lot easier. My mommy's and siblings' smell will stay with the towel and it would make me less sad when the day came for me to move with my manang (she was so sure of this, yet it didn't seem to work).

The cute fellow playing with the towel is me. Did you see my mom? Manang says I look exactly like my mommy. This was my last (known) video with her. I was six weeks old at that time. Those were the other dogs in Mr. Randy Labrador's house a.k.a the Breeder. Two weeks after, manong came to pick me up and brought me home.

Announcements

we are currently experiencing problems with blogger. so until manang can resolve why we can't post pictures or videos, there might be no posts for today :(

Beware of Blind Dates

Back when we had Ford (which was like 2 months ago), my manang and manong would go to the park of the Ayala Business Park for their Saturday jogging. You see, my hoomans do not have a car here in Cebu City since they are only renting out an apartment and rely purely on public transport to get to places so we rarely get to go around the City. Their permanent residence is in Bacolod City which is in a different island and is some 221.25 km away.

Manang’s friend, the hooman known only as Attorney had been going to the park with her hooman children and their malshi sibling, Max. Now, I’ve never met Max before. I only heard of stories about him and his hooman sister Abby and brother, Vincent. Manang never saw Max personally at that time, too, except maybe for some baby pictures. Our relationship with max was similar to the one we have with our other DWB friends- we never get to rub noses and exchange drooly kisses, but we are good friends, we genuinely feel each others’ joys, triumphs, grief, despair, loneliness, etc.

Manang, which one is Max?

This was taken when he first arrived in Attorney's house

Manang feels especially close to Max because she had been very supportive of the idea of Abby getting a dog. Back then Abby was not allowed to get a dog but she was soon able to convince Attorney to get Max. Needless to say, everyone was very happy. Abby was only about 10 years old at that time. Attorney would often ask manang for advice and they would exchange stories about Max and me. :)

One day, Max and Abby’s hooman father came home from the U.S and he brought with him oodles of presents for Max- toys, clothes, treats, shoes, etc. They were even kind enough to give me a pair of doggie boots, which unfortunately didn’t fit me so manang brought it to Bacolod and gave it to my brother Heinz, instead.

When Attorney told manang that they would go to the park on Saturday, the woof woman got all excited and proceeded to give me a bath. She even attempted to cut my nails at 12:00 midnight in sheer excitement just to shriek in pity when blood from the nerves in my nail gushed out. She had never seen Max and she was genuinely elated to meet him. She was also excited at the idea of bringing me to the park (thank you Ford!) and meet other strolling doggies.

The hoomans woke up around 6:00 in the morning and got me all prepped and ready to go. The crazy woof woman kept forgetting things i.e. my water dish, towel, ball etc. that manong and I had to wait with Ford outside for some 15 minutes or so. In my excitement I jumped off the back of Ford and scraped my chin which meant more injuries for me and even more worry warts for manang and manong.

We were finally able to make our way to the park and lo…

Manang, who is that strange creature?

Hellow there! My name is Aki, what’s yours?
You’re Max, aren’t you.

After a few minutes of introduction we started to become comfortable with each other. The hoomans were very happy. Attorney’s family was very impressed about how well behaved I was. Even the hooman puppies played with me. They stroked my fur, walked me, gave me water and some treats and played fetch. At one point I even shook hands with them and demonstrated some of my neat tricks. Everyone was muttering ‘what a friendly dog’ and ‘he is so gentle’- of course, my ears were flapping. Hahahaha…

I even heard kuya Vincent say to manang… “His ears are so long, his tongue is so long, his paws are so big, I swear he is the biggest dog I’ve ever seen. But he is very friendly.”

Ate Abby and Kuya Vincent (Ford at the background)

Max and I played with my ball. We dived into the water (from the gutter- unfortunately) and got all wet and muddy- what fun! Ate Abby was saying that ‘this is the dirtiest Max I’ve ever seen.”

Dirrrrttyy Max...

You don’t have to thank me ate Abby. It was all part of the day’s work. Hehehe..

But then, just when you thought a stranger was no longer a stranger…

Max? What are you doing?

Is there something on my back?

The queer hound was sniffing like crazy.
What is with all that sniffing?

I took a bath yesterday, okay!


Eeeepppsss!
What are you doing you crazy hound?!
Get off me!
I’m a boy, for heaven’s sake!
Would somebody please arrest this molester?!

And so I say: Always beware of blind dates.
Never trust a stranger even if you are a boy, not unless you come with your own chastity belts.

If there’s any consolation to all of these, it is that manang and manong dropped by the bank after our morning jog for some breakkie. And since I already finished mine, I get to eat some...

Hmmm... this is yummy...

What's this stuff called manong?

Do you know what this is manang?

Vanilla ICE CREAM!!!