True Story #1
Neighbors always observe each other. Some choose to actively participate in their lives while some choose to just observe.
The house left from ours used to be a full home with a tiny sari-sari store. But since the matriarch died, the store closed, only one son was left who was also always out for long or drunk. With unfinished home improvement, he left the house for quite a while already, leaving his car in the garage and his dog wandering on the streets.
His dog, a white hairy AsPin, had similarities with our first family dog – Pulgoso. (You guessed it! We had him during Marimar Heydays.) Pulgoso started our family’s love for pets - dogs, cats, monkey, tortoise, rabbits and birds! (At one time, we had them all in our yard!) More than 2 decades from his time, he will always have our first love.
Going back, due to familiarity, Clark named neighbor’s dog Awaw. And when neighbor is not home, we (Clark and Mama) feed him dinner. After cleaning up the dinner table, Clark tells me, “Mama awaw eat (pointing to his mouth).” It became a routine for us. That every night, he will call “Awaw” or “tsutsu” to signal it’s his feeding time. Clark brings him water, at times too.
Awaw is probably old, as days gone by, his walk became weaker and weaker. Or it might be also because he’s not getting enough food.
Until the other night, his head was twisted and hesitated to move. His eyes were open but he seemed very ill and cold. Another neighbor (Neighbor A) was around him talking to him while another neighbor (Neighbor B) was on the phone talking to Awaw’s owner – telling him that “Homer,” his dog is reaching the end of his days.
At the time we left his food bowl, Neighbor A tried move the bowl closer to him telling him, “Tignan mo pinapakain ka rin pala nila, sige na kain ka na.” But Awaw didn’t budge.
We went back to our house and I thought that was very meaning. May God bless Awaw’s soul.