Daddy and the Doggies

Every early morning, my dad would wake up, pray, and go to the store to buy some pan de sal. He used to do this every day before breakfast all alone.

Almost a year ago, when I first came home, he's had companions do this task with him. I call them Choi-Choi and Chai-Chai. It's actually Tisoy and Tisay, since among the litter of nine puppies that April gave birth to, they were the only light-colored ones.

At first, my dad was hesitant about letting me keep them, but I wouldn't hear of it. There wasn't anyone I could trust enough to keep my peace of mind intact. There wasn't anyone who was cheesy enough to do what my dogs can do.

It's amazing though how my dad managed to train them to run into their, ummm, fenced space when there's bread involved. They become really smart when they see bread. I trained them to sit and wait, but my dad trained them to stay out of the house, and go to their room.


My dogs were always indoors back in Cebu since we never had enough space there, so it couldn't have been easy for them to adjust to living outside the house. They actually slept under my bed at night back in Cebu.

My dad's a little cranky. It's like his day's not complete if he doesn't get to yell at the only person who can actually stand his temper: my mom.

Later on, he'd yell at the dogs and they'd treat it as if he was trying to play with them. Watching them play every morning over bread is like watching my dad play with children. I guess they are kinda like children.

I have always treated them like kids that never grow up. This morning got funnier than usual. He was teasing the dogs to come out and play, but they wouldn't because they knew that the only way for them to get the pan de sal was if they stayed in their room. My dad tried coaxing them to no avail, then he was talking to them like they really knew what he was talking about.

It was nice though, seeing my Dad being jolly in the mornings now.