DOGS AND ROOSTERS AND GECKOS, OH MY!!!

One afternoon I was sitting upon a bench outside the cinema at Robinson Mall in Bacolod waiting for the ticket counter to open when a middle aged man sat down beside me. His name was Kevin. He was 38 years old and a welder from British Columbia (Canada). He was thinking of living here, but had not quite decided where. He added that friends had offered him space in their home, but after three weeks he had to move out because he couldn’t handle the constant crowing of roosters and barking of dogs twenty-four hours a day.  I listened quietly as he bemoaned the fact that the noises were driving him mad. Only after he finally took a long breath did I inform him, that in the Philippines, there was no safe haven from those and many of natures other sounds. 

Two Roosters fighting

When I first returned to the Philippines in 2009, I was on the 19^th floor of a condominium and even in the middle of Manila, it was impossible to escape the crowing and barking from the side streets and alleys below. Even in the provinces, those two distinct sounds were a constant reminder that I was not in Kansas anymore. It was just a harsh fact of life within this tropical land; if you wanted to live here, there were certain things you had to accept. In essence, you had to culturally evolve with the lifestyle and all its insignificant inconveniences. I made a light hearted attempt to empathize with him and expand upon his plight, but it appeared those were not the answers he was looking for. In the end, he decided he would go to Dumaguette to find relief. I smiled and wished him luck as he slowly strolled off down the hallway.   

 

So, let’s talk about dogs. The United States has dogs, but I truly believe that there are more dogs in the Philippines than the entire human population of America.  In my compound alone, there has to be at least fifteen to twenty dogs within a group of twelve houses. Also, I have come to the conclusion that the nicer the home, the more dogs it occupied. 

Now dogs would bark in the daytime, but most times, they could be found sleeping in the shade of their “castle” or on the side of the street. While the sun was up, they were indifferent to ones passing. However, I must stress that those canine had an uncanny ability to tell friend from foe and whenever an unsavory individual walked within their territory, those culprits would be quickly dispatched by exposed teeth and a loud warning not to return. 

Yes, those dogs slept the better part of each day away, but as the sun settled into the sea, those same slumbering dogs would shake off their sleepiness and take up watch at their post. Whereas in the daylight I was invisible, it was in the twilight I was considered an intruder and treated as such. Most dogs did not attack per se, but the hair did rise on their backs and the barking was quite vicious. As I got closer to my

Chow time for future generation of guard dogs

compound, those property protectors had become accustom to my scent (?) and ignored me completely. Still, several times throughout the night, the pack of dogs in my compound would be warding off potential trespassers.  One other thing about those canines was if a dog down the street set off the alarm, the dogs here would race to the gate and continue the alert. At first, all that barking was inconvenient, but one morning after I had seen the gate where my motorbike was parked behind had been tampered with, but unsuccessfully opened, I decided their racket wasn’t so bad after all.

Roosters.  The Filipinos are very fond of their roosters and there are actually farms that raise roosters.  There could be hundreds of little lean-tos’ with a rooster in each one within a gigantic field. You would find roosters on man-made wooden limbs or branches of trees and they would all be securely tied with a cord around one leg to a pole. Rarely did you ever see a free range rooster. The humorous thing about them was they crowed just as much at midnight as they did at noon.  I would be laying in bed late at night or perhaps wakeup at two or three in the morning to the loud flapping of wings followed by a “Cock-a-Doodle Doo!” But what compounded the misery was that if one rooster crowed, then every rooster within a kilometer of him had to follow suit; hence you got a crescendo sort of effect (kind of like, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat except it was in crowing). After a minute or two, the calling quieted down until another rooster got that involuntary urge to crow and thus the routine started all over again. It would last all night AND all

New Cock Fighting Arena Under Construction

day. Now, I felt fortunate as the rooster next door must be tone deaf because he always sang off key. The other roosters had a pretty good (albeit monotonous) pitch when crowing, but the poor performer next door was always a bit off key. Where the others crowed, “Cock-a-Doodle Doo,” his sounded like, “Cuck-a-Duddle Dud!” Even at three in the morning, it would still bring a smile to my slumbering face. 

Now I am sure there are those of you wondering why all of the Roosters? The Filipinos are proud of their male fowl and a favorite sport activity is cock fighting. You will always see the men carrying their favorite Rooster cradled in their arm. They trade or sell their Roosters and seem to raise one heck of a lot of them and if their prized pet won in a cock fight, it was financially rewarding to them as well. 

Just like dogs, you eventually got used to the roosters racket and accepted the fact that you had to tune their burdensome voices out and I learned to do that quite easily.

Hmmm, Geckos. We are not talking about a GEICO commercial here. We are talking about little four legged creatures that walk on the ceilings, walls, and in my case, floors. During the daylight hours they are quiet, but at night they are quite vocal. Not as loud and obnoxious as dogs or roosters, but you hear them all the same. Most leave humans alones, but I have to admit, I have enjoyed my Gecko friends. There was an adult (who had lost its tail) who would walk up to my bare feet and sniff them. It loved the crumbs that fell to the floor selecting them over nearby ants. Another juvenile gecko would snuggle under my computer for warmth (?). He ran up my leg one day…I had to admit, it was tingling. Then there is the baby gecko who would hang from the wall or ceiling in my bed chamber. Twice it had raised its head off the walls surface, looked at its surroundings and then without warning jumped. Once it landed on the bed scampering off after a few moments. The other time it landed on the floor and skittered under the door and out of the room. I am not quite sure how I would take it if the tiny lizard jumped on me while I slept, but those are the risks you take living here. Those four legged creatures with tails may not be the greatest bug killers, but they do seem to be content with my crumbly droppings and I also think my company. Yes, I tell them hello every day. There are times when the housekeeper hears me talk to them and I am confident she thinks I am a bit loco loco, but let’s face it; they give me some semblance of companionship. Besides, I don’t have to feed them, and I am sure they eat a few ants every once in awhile.