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!!!