My Pet Dog "Bambi"

I miss my dog. She was called Bambi. She died this year on June, 2018 after a few days of suffering from severe stomach problems. It caused her to vomit a few times and avoid drinking water It was maybe of indigestion after eating some soft left-over chicken bones which was her favorite.

It looked like she suffered a little before she died. She was about 10 years of age. It is somehow like the equivalent of 70 years of age in humans. It was heart-breaking for us.

Veterinary care for pets here in the Philippines is expensive too. We only gave her some pain-killers that work with dogs which she was receptive in the past.

We were living in an apartment compound. There wasn't a good place to bury her around our neighborhood, so my father wrapped her body in cellophane and old cartons and had it transported and dumped far away in the city garbage dumps. It was a common practice to get rid of dead pets in the city. There's no such thing as a pet sematary.

I wish I was damn rich. I wish I was living in a big house. I could have her at least buried in a good backyard and mark the grave with flowers.

Bambi was a good dog. She was given to us as a mangy, skinny puppy by my cousin. Even though she wasn't trained, she could understand some basic commands. She kept me company in the house when my parents or siblings went out for a short time and I was alone.

I could not identify her breed. Some claimed she was half-Aspin and half Wolf Terrier. She loved to be stroked and patted on the head. All I knew that she got some foreign dog blood in her as she was fond of and gentle with children. But she can also fight back at other dogs or strangers who threaten her.

Bambi was a hero too. Severe Tropical Storm Washi, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Sendong, was a late-season tropical cyclone that caused catastrophic damage in the Philippines in late 2011. Bambi woke my sleeping family up during the night of the blacked-out storm by howling. She was warning us of the flood waters flowing into the living room of our former home.

The last great act of Bambi was waiting for me to come home from the hospital for two weeks. I had a delicate spine surgery in June, 2017. At home, the dog would always lay besides my computer table and chair never leaving it except to eat and answer the call of nature. When I came home, she was barking happily and wagging her tail rapidly.

Dear Bambi, thank you for being a good pet to a disabled person like me. May God bring your soul to Paradise if there was one for animals. Thanks for the joyful memories.

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