Jericho and I adopted a stray puppy around a year ago. Jericho stumbled upon him (almost literally) when coming home buzzed from a fun night out. He mistook the wee thing for a small plastic bag and was surprised to find the bag had followed him inside. And had little legs. And a snout. And a big smile on his face.
We have been taking turns in caring for him over the past year (he shuttled back from my place in BGC and Jericho's place in Las Piñas for a while) and the little plastic bag has grown into one very happy (and spoiled!) young dog, and he now shares our affections with another small rescue, the ninja maltipoo, Zoey.
The stray puppy was incredibly small, frail, yet very sweet. All he ever wanted was some affection, some food, and a roof over his head. He was suffering from an anal prolapse when we got him (part of his butt was outside of his body), and he had to have minor surgery to get it fixed. Twice.
I remember the first vet we went to suggested we don't bother with him anymore if the prolapse happens a third time. That it was probably genetics and the previous owners had probably let him go because of just that. She was a heartless, unfeeling bitch (who tells a pet owner that?) so we dropped her and found a vet that actually cares about the pets he looks at, and have been quite happy ever since.
Jericho named the small guy Ghost, after the white dire wolf in the A Game of Thrones. I call him Mr. Wiggles because that's what his butt does when he walks. I can be profound when I put my mind to it, I know.
Bringing up the pup was an uphill battle. A few months after he recovered from the anal prolapse, he got really sick and weak from an infected tick bite, and was anemic and possibly needed a blood transfusion for a while. Jericho treated him with steroids and tons of medication, and I would carry him around as much as possible and feed him the only thing he could care to eat - chicken. He's a big fan of the local rotisserie, Andoks.
Wiggles has grown up quite a bit from when we first got him. We celebrated his birthday (the day we found him) at Bulgogi Brothers. He had most of the short ribs and pork belly. We were pretty stoked that the Bistro Group is so pet-friendly!
And then at around Christmas of last year, we saw a small maltipoo and shih tzu running around the BF Resort Village. We picked them up, and they seemed to be gallivanting around by themselves for quite sometime. We gave both of them a nice hot bath and some food, and posted their pictures at the barangay hall in case a family was looking for them. We didn't get a response. I kept the maltipoo and named her Zoey and gave the shih tzu to Justice's boyfriend who named him Mirmo.
Zoey was infested with ticks when we rescued her from the street. Her hair was long and matted, and covered with ticks from the tip of her snout to the end of her tail. The poor thing couldn't stop scratching and her cheek had an open wound from her long nails. We had to give her a buzz cut to get at all the ticks.
Her hair eventually grew back and she started to look more like a dog and less of a rat after a few months. Since she was out on the street for so long, it was quite the challenge getting her housebroken. Aside from trying to get her to do her business outside the condo, he also kept trying to escape. I've had around four instances of my running down the stairs barefoot trying to catch her before she disappeared around the corner.
Today, Zoey is a sweet, happy little thing. She can still be a huge pain in the hiney - we're still working on her not peeing on my rug - but she's mellowed down considerably and doesn't try to escape every time I crack the main door open. She's also in dire need of a haircut.
When mucking around Manila and thinking of running down to the horrible local pet mill or your nearest pet store to buy a furry friend, rescue one instead. There are a lot of fuzzy four-legged furballs looking for a good home. We were lucky enough to have gotten ours off the street (technically, Wiggles followed Jericho home, but whatever), but CARA also has a lot of rescued furbabies just waiting for someone to show them a little love and compassion.
Just mucking around Manila,
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Images taken by Jericho San Miguel of Lightbulb Photography
