I finally have a female in my life. OK, now that I have caught your attention, it
is a little puppy I got from one of the neighbors in the compound. I figured if I was going to have a house,
then I was going to have a
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| Yen Yen |
pack of guard dogs to keep the intruders away. Her name is Yen and although she does whine
every once in awhile, she has been a good outdoor dog and does not whine at all
after sunset. She eats everything I (or
the housekeeper) gives her and after the first day, we have had a good time
together. I want to emphasize she is not a house dog, but will live entirely
outside. I will pick her up and hold her;
and she loves nestle in my goatee. We also have a great time when I rough house
with her on the ground.
There is a story as to how I acquired her. The dog at the house kitty corner from mine
had a litter of six puppies. I asked for one, but they said it was too late as
they had been promised to others. A few
days later, the lady came to my house and asked if I would still like a
puppy. She added, that particular puppy
kept running away from the new owners and always returned home to her
mama. Of course I said I would be happy
to take her in.
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| Yen's Mama |
The first thing that happened was she (with the help of
mama) broke through my bamboo fence. ‘So, there’s the problem’, I thought to
myself. I thus went out into the lane and
separated babes from mom and then cut a stretch of cord from the back clothes
line. Clothes dryers in the Philippines? NOT IN THE PROVINCES. I tied one end of the cord around her neck
and then with the other end, it was tied to the metal portion of the fence on
the west side of the house. As would be
expected, the four legged addition was not too excited about the
situation. With mama at the outer fence
barking encouragement, Yen would back up and then run as fast as her four
little legs could move. Every thing was
fine until she reached “the end of her rope” and then TWANG. Her head and neck
went up into the air as her torso, legs, and tail slid underneath due to the
momentum. It took less than a second,
but there she was on her back wondering what happened. Still, she was determined to be reunited with
her parent and thus repeated her performance twice more before giving up in
TEMPORARY defeat. She then tried to chew
through the cord, but the teeth weren’t developed enough. Finally she backed up trying to pull the
noose off her head, but that didn’t work either. I had to admit she was persistent,
but Yen finally became pretty exhausted from all that puppy work; hence the
poor canine finally curled up and took a nap.
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| Are you here to play with me again?!? |
I thought that things would settle down quickly after that,
but I discovered this was not to be the case.
Within the hour, Yen was barking, whining, and whimpering. It seemed that mama had squeezed under the
metal gate at the back of my yard and was now chewing on the tether holding her
baby. I did not touch mama, but opened
the gate and told her to GET! She knew
she was not welcome, but a little over an hour later, there she was in my enclosure
again. Once more, I opened the gate and
ushered her out. “Mama is just as bad as
baby,” I grumbled to myself.
I would go out every so often to give Yen attention, but she
was having nothing to do with her captor.
Then about 4:00 pm while
writing, I looked up to see mama walking along the fenceline. I got my sandals on, walked out into the
kitchen and peered out that widow. Sure
enough, mama was squeezing under the metal gate. Racing outside I yelled at her in English,
some Illongo, and a few words that probably had no decipherable meaning and
picked up some pebbles. Mama made a hasty retreat under the barred barrier as I
tossed a stone at the gate, which bounced off it harmlessly. I then tossed a rock at her as she trotted up
the street toward the compound gate. That pebble bounced off the screen that
was on that side of the house. By the time she reached the lane in front of my
house, she was up to a pretty good run as I just yelled at her some more. Yen?
She just stood there and watched as mama made a hasty passing. Interesting thing was that mama never came
back again. Whatever bond they had was
terminated by my tirade. It seemed that
puppy realized it and warmed up to me immediately after that.
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| I am really trying to take a nap |
You may think that this is a happy ending to a sad story,
but it continues on. I got Yen on
Wednesday. On Thursday a six year old neighborhood boy was talking to Yen
through the bamboo fence. The housekeeper
asked what he was doing and the youngster said it was “his dog”. I guess the housekeeper said, “Not anymore.”
Well the child said that he was going to take her back. The housekeeper told me not to pay any
attention to him as the youth was just upset over losing a dog he could not
control.
This morning, I was sitting at baby reading my morning
emails when I spied this same kid using a stick to get the lock moved so he
could open the gate. I asked him what he
was doing in VERY BASIC Illongo. He
looked up and saw me watching him through the open window. His eyes became huge
as he stopped what he was doing. For a
moment he stared at me in total terror as the piece of wood slowly dropped from
his (now open) hand and then he just vanished. The only consolation is if that little boy
doggynaps my Yen, I do know where to find them.
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| On the crowded streets of Cebu City, Cebu |
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| As well as the quiet streets of Himamaylan City, Negros Occ. |
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