Missing Hershey the brown Labrador.

Pardon me if the picture looks buttsecks-like.
(if you wanna know MOAR about what I’m talking about, join Plurk and add me here).

Talk about shameless plugging of Plurk.

The picture was taken before I left New York last year (that’s our house, by the way). When I was scanning albums the way I always do, in a slideshow format like some Powerpoint-ish memory lane, I saw this picture and thought of putting my love towards the whole world here, through this picture.

I’ve had enough dogs in my life, sure. First I got Jack and Rose (named after Titanic, and I know the reason sounds sloppy), Boogie and Booba, and Milky and all those asong kalyes my Dad get from lots of neighbors. Until suddenly, I found Hershey, a nine year-old Brown Labrador back then, and almost fainted since I’m seeing a REAL DOG in front of me and not just some Clifford or Blue’s Clues stuff toy.

The toothbrush looks like mine?

Eventually, with the one-month stay in New York - walking with Hershey with my hands gripping her collar chain, massaging her temples until she drools (my Mom then suggested that I take Physical Therapy a course, but I told her I’m just good with dogs), assisting her to brush her teeth and giving her treats (dog cookies, that kind of stuff) when she kisses me on the cheeks: I suddenly developed my hidden and long-forgotten love for dogs.

Somehow she (Hershey, I mean) made me cry when I was to leave New York for Manila. My longing even grew when my sister called once and told me that Hershey was scanning my room, hoping to find traces of her once-boyfriend, which is me, and becomes lonely as the days go by.

When I visited New York last April, though, I saw Hershey and she was really old. She turned eleven that year, and she got arthritis on one of her hindlegs and I massage it every time she was at her mattress. Her then-fast movements become slow and her gait becomes frail, and somehow I miss the youthful dog I walk with the sunlight and the chilling breeze of the Hudson.

Hershey sleeping.

I enjoy being with dogs for some reason. One, they ease my tension and comforts me in some weird kind of way (they’re just jolly animals, I think). They also can be a breather - like they therapeutically rubs something on your head when you talk to them even if they just bark or move or something and then the thing on your head just pops out to nowhere. And somehow, I have this thinking that dogs are not just plain dogs since they do share the feelings of their master and all (compare them to cockroaches, for Chrissake - they even fly towards you when you’re scared at them). They somehow understand and feel for humans.

Oh, whatever.

I hope, and I swear I really hope, that by next April I could still see and massage Hershey’s temples.

*I miss that watch I’m wearing at that pic. It’s a Puma and it was broken, sheesh.

June 12, 2008 at 11:14 pm, filed under Baaaack then, IRLs, Sentemotional, Slang and random, Stupid and tagged Brown Labrador, Hershey, Plurk. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.