Animals, more responsible than humans?

My only girl dog just had a puppy. I thought that she had a full on miscarriage mid-pregnancy because she started bleeding, but thankfully, she didn't. :) I was starting to think it was a phantom pregnancy or something of the sort!

Here's a picture of both of them:


December last year, this same pet dog of mine had 3 puppies, one of which died at birth, and the other two, a boy and a girl, died on Christmas morning. Needless to say it was a rather heart breaking experience for my dog and me. I've never seen a dog or animal- really, as depressed as she was when her puppies died... that morning her pups died I started folding the blankets she and her puppies used and started crying. She was across the room and when I started crying- she did too! Not tears of course, but perhaps, even worse than tears, and since I was the only always with her and her puppies, each time she'd see me, she'd let out the same pitiful cry and look at me in a questioning manner as if asking where I brought her puppies.

This dog of mine is a hyperactive chow-hound. Seriously, I've been thinking of putting a big F on one side of her head and D on the other side, her eyes can serve as the "OO". Seriously. But whenever she has puppies, she is extremely calm, doesn't run around like her usual crazy self, and - even more surprising, actually chews her food slowly instead of her signature chomp-swallow style. She even leaves food on her plate overnight. Anyway, dogs are definitely the only good animal mothers. Like the story of the dogs who adopted tigers.. a tiger who adopted piglets, a chicken that adopted ducklings and what not.

It's gotten me thinking a lot about how a lot of animals are more responsible than human beings. With Nebraska's child abandonment law and Japan's Kumamoto Hospital where you can leave your children anonymously- it's a sad, sad world. I am not saying all humans of course, but at the very least, at least animals try to face their responsibilities as parents as best they can.

Here in the Philippines there are many very poor people. Go to any of their areas and it's a common sight to see children of all ages - say, anywhere from 14 or 12 to 2 years old running around in ragged clothes (if any) or half dressed. These kids beating each other, yelling, screaming, beating each other, etc. Worse- the mother is probably pregnant, again, and the father is either no where to be seen or can be found someplace drinking beer and smoking his cigarettes all day. Idyllic indeed.

Anyway... this is definitely something some humans can learn from animals.

Picture of the Day

Gotta love the smile of that kid. Ironic enough, this kid is from one of the very poor areas in the Philippines

Cross cultures… where to meet? We’ll figure it out someday.

Sometimes I wonder how Sam and I will manage- being from totally different cultural, racial, and family backgrounds. It'll be interesting, for sure, and as long as we're both willing, I know we'll get past the little kinks I'm sure we'll run into. Where exactly we're going to meet is kinda hard sometimes. We haven't even decided where we'll settle. It's a long time from now that we'll actually get married anyway, so it's all right, we'll figure it out later on.

I can cook- and he can' really cook well, so and so I'm at a certain advantage. :D
So far he seems to like a lot of Filipino stuff, which is good. Ayaw niya lang ng mga ginataan ganon. Bwisit. Dibale, masasanay rin sya! And even better, he eats a lot. I've always liked to feed people, so this will be okay. I just have to watch the sugar I guess. :/

Filipino Breads
This website has a few samples of Philippine breads. I've never had bread from this bakery before. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of my favorite bakeries and their breads.

Pandesal- very easy to make, rather fattening (if made right) but worth it anyway- and well, insanely cheap!! The very best place to buy Pandesal is no where else but Binmaley, Pangasinan, a small town before Lingayen. If you happen to be going in that direction, it's a must to stop by Louella's Bakery, which is found soon after the welcome sign and bridge entering Binmaley. mmm. Always hot, and crunchy on the outside, and beautifully soft inside. For 2 straight weeks I would buy my friends and I 5 pandesals each for our dinner when we were doing community work in Lingayen.

Pandecoco- my sister's favorite bread. It's bread with sweet coconut inside. Masarap (yummy) rin (too/also)! The best place to buy this is in Baguio, in a much beloved bakery on the road going to the Philippine Military Academy.

Spanish bread- really really yummy too. The best place to buy this stuff is also in the bakery I mentioned right above this.