My Love Affair with Dogs and Some Cats

Those who know me know that I am an animal lover. My family has always had pets. We primarily had Fox Terriers and Terrier mixes and other mutts or Aso, Askal as they call strays in the Philippines. My next few blogs will be about my pets and my love affair with them.

Besides the family dogs I always had my own. My first was Polka a mixed breed who didn't live too long. I designed a bed for her using four pieces of wood to create a box and wove plastic tubing to create a springy platform.

I was out on my first dance and came home to the news that Polka died, possibly bit by a snake from the field in front of our house in San Juan.

The next dog I got was a German Shepherd. This was about 3 years later. We will call him Mr. H. His real name is so politically incorrect I'm ashamed to disclose it. 1960, well PC wasn't really in then, but shameful just the same. He was a gorgeous saddleback. He was the gentlest dog and so loyal.

We lived in a fairly large compound with 4 good size houses (the main one was my grandparent's) and three separate duplex apartment structures. It was secluded from the main busy street by a long 75-100 yard driveway. My house was second to the farthest away from the entrance. It had double gates, one by the street Old Sta. Mesa and the other on the top entering the property.

About 4:30 pm everyday, Mr. H would make it to the top gate and wait for me to return from school. And everyday it was a grand reunion.

I left for the US in 1968; Mr. H was about 9 years old at the time and was left behind. It was sad. I had no idea what my future would bring.

I came back to the Philippines in 1971 and was welcomed with a BIG party. I could still envision how Mr. H, weaving through 40-50 pairs of legs in our house's living room to find me amongst the crowd for another grand reunion. He was a one-woman dog.

I left the Philippines after eight months and didn't return until two years later, again leaving Mr. H behind. He was very good natured, loved my family as well so didn't get into bouts of depression like some other dogs do.

When I returned, I wasn't greeted by Mr. H, there was no grand reunion. Mr. H, had apparently disappeared earlier that year when my family moved out of the big compound to another house in San Juan. It was incredibly sad. My family kept it from me of course knowing I would be very upset. They suspected that he was stolen by the laborers who were hired during the big move. The worst part is that they suspected that he was stolen for food. It wasn't uncommon for Filipinos to eat dog. No offense to Filipinos, I am one too, but I am only telling the story as I had been told.

It is a known fact that eating dog meat is not uncommon in many parts of Asia; Korea, Vietnam; Laos; Cambodia and the Philippines, maybe more. It is apparently legal in China. I can't confirm any of this. I will not judge cultural practices. There is an interesting discussion on this at http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=dog,%20the%20other%20white%20meat

Anyway, back to dogs as pets, specifically my pets:

In 1973 when we returned to the US from the Philippines, we stayed at a friend's house in Oakland while we were in transition. My friend Carol had just gotten a male Irish Setter pup named Casey. I fell in love with him. On my birthday that year, my husband at the time; Dan, gave me a female Irish Setter whom I called Ganja. She was American Kennel Club registered so I gave her official name Ganja Patchouli. Obviously I was a Hippie then :)

I bred her once; she had a litter of nine puppies at the same time my daughter was born. It was fun; they all went to good homes. BTW, the father was Casey.

Ganja was my soul mate. We had a special relationship and we were so in tune with each other. She knew me so well and vise versa. She was so smart. I could communicate with her just by looking. She lived until she was 16; it was a very sad day when she passed.

Along with Ganja I had several cats. This was a new thing for me. I have always been a dog person, but I discovered that cats were also nice to be around. So different than dogs, but nice to have around (as long as they didn't have to go on a litter box) I hate those things!

I had two Sheenas, (nickname for Hash Hish, still a Hippie then) Smokey, Sunshine and Max. But the one I had for twenty years was Patches. She was a beautiful black and white long hair Persian mix with an attitude. She was also a one-woman-pet. She was feisty and got nasty sometimes. She had the loudest purr and in her later years made the most bemoaning sounds. I think she had just had it with the world! Twenty years is a long time for a cat to live, although many of them do.

After Ganja passed I wasn't going to have another pet for a long time. I was working at Autodesk at the time. We had a common kitchen where we all ate lunch and took breaks. One day on the refrigerator door was a picture of a black lab mix. "Needs a Home"

Shirley who worked in shipping was a burly woman with a boisterous laugh-very friendly. She saw me reading the notice and chided: "Why don't you adopt her?" I said, "I'm not ready." "Oh come on....she needs a good home...I know you'll give her a new home...you need a new dog, come on." I thought about it and thought about it. I was living and working with my partner Sue at the time and she was even more of a Saint Francis than I was, so of course she didn't discourage me.

My primary concern was that this dog was not a pit-bull mix. I called Jesse. Jesse was the Autodesk employee wanting to find a home for this dog. His spiel was that he and his family were moving to New Hampshire and they couldn’t take this dog with them. I made an appointment to meet the dog.

Lucy was a six month old (more or less) female lab mix. When I met her she was well behaved, she was very trusting, lying on her back when I pet her. I asked if she was house broken or if there was anything special I needed to know about her, etc. Of course the answer was positive. In retrospect why would someone tell me anything discouraging? I took Lucy home for a test. The rest is history.

Lucy was a funny dog; one thing she did that was so amusing to me was that she had a habit of taking her kibble from the bowl and buries it. It was how she buried it that was so notable. First she cleared a shallow spot very gingerly, dropped the kibble in it, and then she used her snout to shove the dirt back into the hole and carefully cover it by patting it down with her muzzle. If there was no dirt around, she would find leaves or any debris to cover it. She didn’t leave it buried for too long. She went back the same day and ate it. I don’t know what the purpose of this dance was, but I came to the conclusion that she was marinating her kibble.

Another funny story about Lucy is the truth about her adoption. Lucia also worked at Autodesk at the time and my boss Joe and her used to commute together sometimes from Oakland to Sausalito. Hi Tech companies then spawned many young entrepreneurs, especially those who were in on IPOs. This was way before the DOT coms. So Joe had given his notice, he and his young family, one child and mother on the way with the second were moving to North Carolina. He was going to start a publishing business.

His wife’s second pregnancy was not an easy one. So having a little boy who just started walking, a pregnant wife who wasn’t so well, developing plans for his new business, buying a house in another state and trying to sell his house in Oakland was more than he could handle. To top it off he had this rowdy pup that was knocking over things including Seth, his little boy as well as bothering prospective buyers. The dog had to go!

So Joe in desperation, with an aching heart and a bag of kibble decided to drop the dog off into the wild, up on the side of Lucas Valley Rd. to be exact. But when he got to the point where he was going to drop the dog off, he just couldn’t do it. What was he thinking? So the story goes that he was sharing this story with Jesse when Jesse offered to take matters into his hands. So Lucy wasn’t Jesse’s dog after all.

She was a sweet dog and what a great swimmer! She got along well with any animal.

In 1990 I moved in with Lucia and Lucy met Luke the Cockapoo (Cocker Spaniel, and Poodle mix). Luke was the first little dog I loved and he also loved me. Luke was an adorable lap dog. He smiled. I even got him an Autodesk ID card with his picture. Autodesk allowed dogs to come to work, they had a simple 3 strikes you are out policy and it worked. No fighting, no peeing, no pooping; three offenses and you were banned. Then when Luke died, we got two adorable Cockapoos, Dash and Lilly. Lucy lived happily for 16 years.

Cat and Dog Play

My first YouTube Post

Starring

• Bill the Cat
• Abbe the Black Cockapoo
• Special Cameo: Angus