Pet Parade!!!

And so, here are the pet parade hosted by the Ceballos Household Company!

Our family are so fond of pets, be it domestic, exotic, or insect! Yes you heard it right, we came to a point that we have to entertain on our home my brother’s diversified friends such as umang, salagubang, gagambang bahay, gagambang talon, antic (large ants), dagang costa, itik (trained rigidly for the monthly itik race in our barangay), isdang banak, isdang gurami, isdang costa, gagambang antic, umang na tumatalon, dag--- whatever!!

We love having someone to be with us. Our most favorite of all kind of pets are dogs. Even when we weren’t born yet, Mama and Papa used to have pets back then. They had a dog and cat who were amazingly closed buddies. And when they had children, I guessed they had passed on (through the genes pare) the passion and sincere love for animals. Every one in the family got depressed when a pet have to bid his goodbye, we mourn like we’ve lost a family member, dark clouds seemed to enclose our home and each one of us find his or her own place to shed the tears of loneliness.

Man maybe considered the highest form of mammals, but animal, I believe is still the most good-hearted creature on earth. Their loyalty never fails, obedience never ceases and love never betray. And now, I would like to present to you my ever-loving best friends who never fail to greet me when I’m home, who still wag their tails even they were being punished, who follows orders even when they were being reprimanded and who still lick your face with love even when they were being neglected …

Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s my honor to introduce to you the loyal members of Ceballos Household Company:

“BAMBINA the mother of all dogs”

She has grown big, with a size not normal for a local breed of dog. Her hairs always look tousled no matter how we mind combing it or shampooing it. Bambina is the version of a typical “nanay” who finds no time to beautify her self because she’s all too busy the whole day taking care of her babies. But Bambina is barren. She never had a puppy of her own, she’s now eight years old but never did she get pregnant her entire life. I think that has been Bambina’s greatest frustration as a female dog, being unable to reproduce. Despite the painful truth, nothing stopped Bambi in fulfilling her designed role on earth of becoming a mother to the motherless. She performed the role to the other pets in our home treating them as her own. She cleans them (even now that they were all grown up), plays with them at a time, back up them in times of trouble and waited for them (especially Legolas) to be home before she finally get into sleep. (Our dogs go outside every after meal to heed the call of nature and sometimes to have a stick of yosi with their kumpare). Of all our pets, Bambina is the most vocal of her feelings. She often tell us how she feels, or when she’s hungry or when she needs somebody to open the gate for her, she’ll just approach you and bark in a lowly modulated voice..”wharr..wharr..” and you have to understand it quickly or else the soft roar will change to a growl! She just can’t help it, Bambina is not getting any younger, like any other aging creatures…Bambina’s patience now starting to get lesser…

Bambina during the photo shoot starting to get annoyed. Iba na talaga ang tumatanda, nagiging ma-attitude!

“LEGOLAS, ang ASO kong HOODLUM”

We named him after one of our all time favorites in the movie Lord of the Rings, the prince elf Legolas. Of course, many will surely disagree for naming a dog after one of the characters portrayed by the famous Hollywood star Orlando Bloom but we don’t care anyway! Hehe… We tagged Legolas as Siga ng Road 6, Road 6 is the number of our road and Legolas during his youthful years often riot the other dogs that used to pass by our house. Be it larger or smaller than him, he didn’t mind at all. My father always told him to be a cool-headed dog, reminding him like a father to a son that getting into trouble is not a responsible act. He’s the bravest among the rest and his posture often remind us of Buck, the dog character in Jack London’s Call of the Wild who happened to have a wolf blood runs on his vein. Legolas is more of being independent. He opens the gate alone when he needs to go out (bad thing only we never trained him to close it), and he eat grass whenever he’s not feeling well. (We can’t provide for a vet, but aside from the grass therapy, we are able to at least provide them generic medicine.) Legolas, a cowboy dog who’s senses is the sharpest and attitude is the most disciplined. You’ll count few times that he’s been a headache to the family and when you told him to be back in a few minutes after he went out of the house, that exactly he will do. Only that, Legolas is a bit of a jealous dog, newcomers especially the cute puppies often experienced to be chastised by him. Mama gets mad at this irrational act of Legolas, she would say “Hindi ka ginaganyan ni Bambina nung tuta ka ha!” At least Legolas has changed from his childish way, he’s not doing the same now with Jack and Jill… maybe he’s starting to realize na tumatanda na rin siya…and he has to be matured enough.

I instructed Legolas not to look on the camera

“JACK of Hollywood – tirador ng tsinelas”

He’s not the dog you’ll happen to watch at some telenovelas or movies but he’s a potential dog with an X-factor of making it to the showbiz world. He was being bullied by his twin Jill though he’s the guy and should-be the more dominant. He has already destroyed two slippers! And during his leisure time he finds time collecting nails, hammer, and even the palita he managed to carry inside the sala, I really don’t understand what satisfaction does he achieved in biting these objects, which happened to be rusted already. We will pick up those scattered pieces and return it to right places, after a couple of minutes Jack will again scatter those (tigas talaga ng ulo! Kanino ba nagmana to?) He’s not the typical guard dog who can be 100% courageous in facing danger, but like any other loyal pet, he will stand by you no matter what happen, he’ll never leave, he’ll just stay there behind you…

Jack is a handsome teenager dog whose fur so soft like that of a stuff toy. I always hug him and he like licking my face and sitting on my lap, though he’s grown up now (so pa-baby pa rin). Among our pets, he’s the one who’s not conscious to the camera…frustrated artist talaga (mana sa ateh).

Jack on his another pose…

“Jill the Bossy type of girl”

She’s not your ordinary girl. Jill can be lined up to the new wave generation of teenager today: liberal, up-to date, dominant, independent and very firm in all her decisions. We often tease her to look like Dobby, a character in Harry Potter’s Chamber of Secret, and it’s all because of her long and wide ears. Her character a lot of contrast to Jack, she’s very wild and a bit of ill-tempered, and the only thing that she and Jack have in common is their craving for rusting nails, hammers, and slippers… If she will be transformed into human, she will be 100% boyish type with strong and genuine character, maybe a sporty type or someone engaged into dancing or mountain hiking.

She’s too shy in front of the camera, we actually had a hard time getting an image of her. Jill is a lot of being a jealous dog. She wants the attention to be all her, and she often rival with Jack in being the star of the family. Maybe it would still take her enough time to realize that acting as such is very childish, and that she must change about herself.

“Wushu the Cockroach killer”

Wushu, is the newest and youngest member of the family. Her passion each night is to murder at least two cockroaches a day. A young merciless killer who uses bathroom whenever she needs to heed the call of nature, her mother cat trained her well. She stays up all night for her night duty of hunting cockroaches and rats, and during the day she would snore deeply in the sofa or sometimes in our swivel chair!

Close Up shot of Jill bratinella

Wushu Stolen shot

Animals know love, pay loyalty and acknowledge friendship. Pets are angel sent to each family. They rejoice with you when you’re happy and sympathize with you when you’re sad. They’ll stand with you through good and bad times…they’re more than of being a best friend to me. I love them very, very much.