lui is in heaven

His name is Basti. He is a brown labrador I met with his keeper one sunny day. Basti was taking his regular morning walk and I excitedly rushed to greet him. Basti looked exactly like my dog Bogart, except that Bogart is black and Basti is all brown. But Basti growled at me! I know dogs enough to understand that when they growl, it means to back off. Basti did not mean to be rude. He just wants to enjoy his walk and he does not appreciate any distraction. I, of course, respect that and bade him farewell, looking at his retreating figure with fondness . . .

Dogs are like that. Normally, the dogs I meet for the first time would come rushing to me. They would sniff and when they wag their tail and sit before me, I would hold out my hand for them to sniff (a friendly act to indicate you mean no harm) and when they lick my hand, I caress their head until I can sense enough invitation to caress their body. Dogs, by nature, are very friendly to me. People notice this and this is the reason all my friends pet dogs are also my great friends. So much so that whenever there are "emergencies" (pet owners leaving, etc.) I usually get approached for help in keeping watch over their dogs. And this is where the problem gets complicated.

First, I can not afford to adopt ANY more pets. My three dogs are already a handful and being territorial (they are quite jealous of other dogs) it is quite difficult to get other dogs near them, our house Heaven and me. This, plus the fact, that even if my dogs come from the same family, they became hostile with each other after four years of living together. I practically have to separate their father (Sumo, the leader) from his pups (Sweepy and Bogart) because Sumo once fought with Bogart over Pica (Sumo's mate and Bogart's mother) and any responsible pet owner must understand this. Any female dog on heat is a potential disaster when there are two males and female dogs (bitches) goes on heat every 7 months! So if you own a female dog, please be considerate enough NOT to parade her (take her on walks around the neighborhood) when she is on heat. She will be restless to look for a mate and ALL male dogs near can sniff her and go crazy! Mark my word.

This is the major reason I said no to a lot of urgent requests to adopt another dog. And each time I say no, it breaks my heart to do so! I said no to adopt somebody whose dog will be left behind when his owner left on vacation. I said no to adopt a dog who became restless and bit other people in their house except me. I said no to adopt another friend dog whose owner moved to a condominium (and will not allow dogs) because they lost their home in the recent storm! I said no to a dog whose owner does not want anymore. . . I love those dogs as much as I do mine. And my heart bleeds each time I say no to keep them . . . . and my heart has not stop bleeding since then . . . .