Lady wants to know...

Last night was a night like all the rest (why do I sound like a music CD?), with the exception of a 10-hour power outtage in our entire village. After a long hot day of touring houses we cannot afford to buy (again!), all my hubby and I wanted to do when we got home was to take a nice cool shower and watch the American Idol rerun (since we didn't think we'd be home in time for the 6PM show) in our soft red couch.

But, alas, that was not to be with no electrical power so we just took a quick shower (thank God our water supply was still aplenty) and hied off to our friends' house just a few blocks away to have a nice galunggong and radish salad dinner. My hubby likes his GG hot and crispy, preferably with condensed milk on steaming hot rice. However, we did away with the sweet sticky milk and had cold Coke and Dalandan Soda instead. 'Twas a hot, humid and candle-lit affair as we shared some anecdotes of the day.

Just as we were winding down, our friends' kids excitedly informed us that there was a big black dog running around close to their house. It was obviously far from home and was causing a ruckus among the other caged dogs in the neighborhood. They also said it looked like Beans (our 2-year old black Labrador Retriever), so, being the dog fans we are, my hubby and I looked out the gate (remember that there were no lights everywhere so the village was bathed only by the light of an almost full moon) and saw the silhouette of what seemed like a Labrador Retriever. Upon closer inspection, the wagging rudder-like tail and the boxy head gave it away - it was, indeed, a lost labrador.

She (it was close enough for us to determine its gender) poked her wet snout through the gate, perhaps picking up the salty scent of fried leftover GG, and begged to be let inside. She is perhaps 5 to 7 years old as we saw in the white fur around her snout, and is also very thin because her ribs were very visible even in the dark. Poor girl!

We ended up feeding her and giving her a tabo (dipper) of water to quench her extreme thirst. She was obviously exhausted from running around for days (or maybe weeks!) so she just lay by our feet, the sweet and friendly Lady lab. We did take her back eventually to the village guards who informed us that they picked her up just that afternoon but that she managed to escape.

Why do people get dogs, purebreds or mongrels, and treat them terribly? It's something that really irks me no end.

A neighbor who just moved in two houses away has two puppies, a yellow lab and a dachshund, trapped in a very small steel cage all day. They never leave that cage -- they eat, pee, poo and sleep in it -- all day! Only a flimsy tarpaulin covers the top of the cage so they are exposed to every imaginable element. Worse, the puppies' only interaction with humans is with the househelp, who feeds them and douses their cage with water every now and then to flush out the refuse. I know this because I see them everyday from the window of our 2nd floor room.

For all of you animal lovers out there, please let me know where I can report such animal abuse. I have checked our SPCA and other related websites but they don't deal with these cases the same way ASPCA does it in the US. We also don't have enough animal shelters to take in all these dogs.

I'm sure Lady wants to know why she is now tied to a tree and left alone without her people. I would adopt her in a heartbeat if we had a bigger home and budget to support another pet (we already have three dogs). Apparently, our village has a rule (which I have not heard about yet) that restricts each home to two dogs only. We've already violated it with our third dog.

I'm sure Lady wants to know if she will ever have a nice warm place to go home to every night and people who will feed and treat her right. After assuring the village guards that she is friendly and just needs to be petted and loved, she stopped calling us back (she barked incessantly the moment we left her) and settled in with her temporary handlers.

I'm sure Lady wants to know why we didn't take her home with us when we saw her again tonight. She remembered us and yanked at her leash to get near us. It broke my heart to leave her again. If anyone knows someone who wishes to adopt a mature and friendly black labrador, please let me know. We will try to make arrangements for her adoption if her owners do not claim her anymore.

'Til then, Lady wants to know...when?