Looking Back

At last,
the 'ghost month' is over . . .
Goodbye Au-gust. . .


And now, it's time to look back
and maybe answer some email queries:

1. To Sweatface from Arizona:
No, I am not a member of the bearface world.
Maybe, you meant the bare face, lol.
No, my keeper is not a shaman.
Maybe you meant she-man, lol2.

2. To Pacco from Malaysia:
(hey, mongrels rule the world, Pacco)
Although, I can sleep on the rocking chair
my favorite snooze place was my old black plastic cart
(circa: before my yellow house) because
it hugs my whole bulk and I can squirm
and it still feels snug . . .


3. To Colby from Ireland:
(methinks this one is human, guys)
Yeah, Troy is a lizard and he eats flies.

4. To Colby again: Yer right.
Spider-pie picture is actually (aghast!)
Mr. & Mrs. Spiderpie.
Colby, this site is rated GP so watch what you say.

5. To Manchester (from Manchester):
I am a male pinoy hound.
I am a mongrel but keeper tells me
dogs were actually crossbreeds
of something fierce and DANGEROUS
like a fox or the ancient dinosaurs.
I am positive we came from dinosaurs.

6. To Erky from Manila:
No, I am not a Fulgoso-wannabe.
And again, I have no intention
to rule and save the world again.
I did that once and that's it.
Closure.

7. To Mrs. Roberts from Canada:
Je sais, je sais. I know, I know. . .
Keeper is right. I am pretty OA.
Keeper was gone for only five hours
but you see, five hours feels like
five years when you don't have
Thy Keeper.



And to my newfound friends and fans at DWBs
keep rockin' and droolin' everybody!

A Chair is still a Chair

. . . even when there's no one sitting there . . .



but a chair is not a house . . .



. . . and a house is not a home . . .



when there's no one there
. . . to hold you tight . . .


. . . and no one there
you can kiss goodnight . . .

Home At Last!

The momentous event!
At last, keeper's back!

Suddenly, the dark world is all bright!
The stars appear shiny and bright
Oh, never mind the eclipse and red moon . . .

My keeper's back!


You know your sense of drama
is truly astounding, Sweepy!
My mobile phone kept ringing
with people all over the world
worried about the houndsinheaven
feeling abandoned in heaven!

But I do feel lost, keeper!
And hungry!
Hey, aren't we, guys?
Hey, houndsinheaven?
Er, ok, I'm glad you're back, keeper!

And I'm glad you're glad.
It makes coming home
so much sweeter . . .

The Waiting Game

Oh, where,
oh where is my keeper?


. . as I wait by the gate at day's end . . .


. . .as the day turns to night . . .


. . as we hold on to each other . . .


we will just wait . . .


. . . for soon, she will be home . . .

Zzzzz-sure2

Hello, houndsinheaven!
Is the keeper in yet?


Ah, ok.
I'll be back . . .



After two hours:
Hi, guys, is the keeper in yet?


Alright, alright! I'll be back . . .


After two hours:
Hi - er, knock, knock!



Hmmm, I guess the keeper is not in yet.

Zzzzzz -sure

It's a slooooooooooow week!
Floods = traffic.
Read: Keeper is coming home late!



Rain + sunny hot = drowsy pets.
Read: Sleep it off!



Well, animals are flexible creatures.
We don't waste time mulling our fate
(well, except for some, like me)
and when things don't turn out
much like a regular schedule
we start locating our nooks
and hie off to dreamland.

Keeper said the SLEX
(SLEX is supposed to be a highway
but now it's just a tollway and now
it's just bedlam with a capital B)
is undergoing rehab work and
connecting skyways is not easy work
so the usual one-hour trip
becomes a two/three hours trip!

I blinked and held my drool.
Er, keeper, what does that mean?
We have to forget romp time,
eating early and grooming before sleep?

It means that if I'm not home early
I'm stuck in traffic but I'm coming home.
No need to look like abandoned pets.
And no, you can still eat early
and have your furs brush till shiny
because your other keeper is home.
And yes, when I get home
I'll find time to play with everyone.
Fair deal?

Aw shucks, keeper. What a relief!

Keeper moaned that because of the traffic
most of the air-conditioned buses
now show two movies one at a time
so people will not notice the slow trip.

Keeper uses the time to take a nap
text people, read a book, do sudoku
and if only space will allow it
she wanted to do yoga right there
but she can't unless she wants to inhale
all the tired, stressed energies around.

Oh-ghost month blues.
There's almost a few days left
and I'll find something exciting to do
than sleep like the rest of the
houndsinheaven . . .

PinkCatTale

Once upon a Time

There lived a Cat
He was kindda unusual
for his furs are all Pink!


And because he is pink
he's kindda embarassed to go out
so he just takes a peek
from the open doorway
of their pink house. . .


Too shy and silly to go out
he just naps by the window
still hiding behind a hat
that is pink colored with pink dots

he thinks by doing so
no one will notice him . . .

He also naps in the big pink chair
because for sure
no one will notice him . . .


He loves to play under the pink lamp
because the light makes him warm

and again because he thinks
no one will notice him there.

But somebody did.
A strange blue cat
wandered inside the pink house
and asked pink cat
why he is hiding?



Pink cat says he is afraid
and shy because he is pink.

Blue cat says, "So what?"

Blue cat does not feel embarrassed
with her yucky blue fur.
Blue cat believes her blue fur
is cool and unique in all the world.

Pink cat agrees.
Blue cat does look cool.

So pink cat went with blue cat
to check the world outside . . .

It was awesome to finally go out
and be part of the colorful world




a story and illustration for Sweepy
from the houndsinheaven studio

Hello DWBs!

Wow!
So keeper's right!
There's a whole lot of smart, cool, animal-pies out there.
Keep rockin', DWB!
Mabuhay!

I'm not sure what to do with all the comments though, especially since most of what I received are from keeper's friends and her friend's friends. And I'm not too cool about having anybody else blabbering about anything in my blog since I want to rule this space and not share it like in Heaven where everybody's allowed to say his piece. But I'm glad to know you are out there and having a blasted time with your own animal-pies . . .

Keeper posted our i-rock story on her studio blog.
Until now meetings are going full blast!
Troy and the whole lizard-pies are too busy gabbing
that the mosquitoes are having a party
flying in and out of the place!
Keeper, nobody's watching the flies!

We just had a full week of heavy rains.
Classes were suspended. Floods. Traffic.
Before this, people were praying for rains.
Now they are praying for sunny weather!

Meanwhile, the houndsinheaven are busy
finding ways to keep the place and our sanity intact
in a world gone berserk from all these noise.
However, my brother Bogart and I
have decided to leave all these rantings
and high-profile conferences around heaven
which is too high-brow and makes us hungry.

Keeper, are there any 'power-lunches' around?
Holler when there's one on sked, ok?
Arf!

Cats in Heaven!

Once upon a Time
when heaven was way bit too lazy
(more lazy than it is today)
heaven was filled with cats . . .

My mumsy Pica remembers it well
(she's 112 years old remember?).
She narrated this story to me
while I was once cuddled beside her
in her small comfy bed.

Pica said that keeper's mother (bless her soul!)
was known to adopt stray animals
or accept them as gifts.
Pica was a gift from a neighbor.
When Pica arrived in heaven as a puppy,
she found hundreds of cats all over heaven!
Keeper said the cats arrived one at a time
and before you know it, wham!
they were all over the place!

The cats brought their cat friends over
and their cat friends stayed.
Some would go on vacation
to nearby houses and subdivisions
and returned with more friends.

But you see, cats are not as noisy as dogs
so they can fill up the place
and neighbors won't noticed
that there was a federation of them inside heaven!

Like us, they sit up for photos . . .


and feeding time is like a huge buffet!


after which, they start grooming themselves
since according to keeper cats don't take baths! (yech!)


after grooming, they take long naps . . .


and when they wake up, they eat again.
This is one long, boring tale, believe me.

I only remember Gold.

Gold was from that batch.
Gold took care of Bogart
when Bogart got sick as a puppy.
(Keeper said she has a picture of it
and will try to post it here soon!)

Anyway, Gold probably got fed up
with all the noisy, clumsy hounds
and started staying on the roof!

Keeper would send Gold
his food and water on the roof
and clean his bed afterwards.
It was quite an effort.

And like Pica, Gold must be 100yo.
But unlike Pica, Gold died and got buried
in Chicky's comfy embrace . . .

A great tribute to the ghost of heaven
on Oh-Ghost month . . .

My mumsy Pica!

It's raining . . .
It's pouring . . .
My lovelife is boring me to tears
. . . after all these years . . .
No sunlight
no moonlight
no sudden romance
you don't stand the chance . . .

Well, as you can see I'm off on a tribute series.
When I told keeper I want to blah about my mumsy
Keeper's face light up and said she has the perfect
soundtrack for it. And this is it!
From my keeper's 80s disco music collection
Donna Summer and Barbara Streisand's
"Enough is enough" (can you believe this?)

Pica was born sometime between 1991 to 1992.
Keeper can not remember exactly when.
Keeper estimate Pica's age to be around 16 years
or around 112 in human years! Yes, Pica is amazing!
Keeper tells us that their St. Bernard dog Vincent
lived that long and died eating in his sleep!

OMG, keeper! Am I going to live that long?

No, not with your clumsy bulk, sweetie!

Ah, what a relief!
I don't think I want to live that long.
Pica spends her days pining for my papa Sumo
Since the war@houndsinheaven
Pica and Sumo has stopped mating
and the two restless lovers
has resorted to stealing kisses and longing looks


Ah, love!
as boring and wanting
like the moody weather
and unlike keeper's soundtrack
is never enough . . .

Oh, my Papa!

I can not blah shamelessly about Bogart
and not talk about my Papa Sumo. . .

My keeper told us last weekend
that she heard somebody say
that Sumo means superior.

Sumo was born in the year 2000
when the world was just reeling
from the Y2K scare.

When Sumo was brought to heaven
as a gift from keeper's uncle
he was a cute, little black thing
who was scared stiff of the trip
and hid in the keeper's garden.
The keeper immediately went to work.
Keeper hugged the cute thing and before you know it
the cute thing became a huge thing in a few weeks!

The keeper who adores black was ecstatic.
She likes Sumo's big, black, wild, scary look.
People would scamper like mad
when Sumo pokes his head at heaven's gate
and start growling at innocent passers-by
just for the heck of it . . .

I have a love-hate relationship with my Popsy.
Sumo hates my whining and playful mood.
He is also pissed when I cuddle my furry self
inside my momsy Pica's small kennel.

Sumo's face says it all:
I am the king of this place.
I rule this space of the universe.
I must be the first in everything
hugs, bowls, play, whatever!
I rule and don't you forget it!

Of course we all say yes to that.
Who wants to rule a freaking world anyway?

Duh?

I must warn you this is going to be a dark post.
Nope, nothing evil. Just dark.
As in BLACK.

Well, what can I say
I'm going to rave about my Big Brother
And that means it will not only be big
it will also be all black
and beautiful . . .

see, I told you. . .
and yeah, this is another of those
I love Bogart tribute
I can't help it
He is simply adorable!
If you ask him though
he just goes: "duh?"
Yeah, a one-liner dude.
The perfect companion for a yakity-yak-yak
like me and keeper. . .

Bogart came from the first batch of puppies
of my Papa Sumo and Mumsy Pica . . .
Below is an old family photo
when heaven was still inhabited by cats
and the dogs were just getting their act together

no, I am not the other cute thing beside Bogart
That could be Fudge who died a few weeks
after this photo was taken.
There were four other puppies
who were given to keeper's friends.
Keeper decided to keep Bogart and Fudge
against her better judgement.

I was told keeper wailed while holding the dying Fudge.
She also wailed while all the puppies started leaving heaven.
She wanted to keep all the puppies
but knew she couldn't afford to keep them
so she cried her heart out . . .

But if you ask Bogart, he goes "duh?"

I suspect that behind that clueless face
of my big, black, brother Bogart
lies a grieving heart.
Like keeper, his eyes carry the sadness
and the memory of hounds
who brought joy and love and left . . .


I may not fully understand that pain
but when Bogart plays and licks my face
I know deep in my heart
that he will be OK
as I will be OK

even if he constantly just say
"duh?"

A Tribute to Bogart

You are the
apple of my eye
mango of my pie
palaman sa tinapay
keso of my monay
teeth of my suklay
fingers of my kamay
blood in my atay
bubbles of my laway
sala of my bahay
seeds of my palay
clothes in my ukay2
calcium in my kalansay
calamansi on my siomai
vitamins in my gulay
tungkod wen i'm pilay
feeling when i'm high
shoulders when i cry
cure to my aray
in short,
ur my frend
habang buhay . . .

-from keeper's sms inbox
read: as yucky as u cn get
but expresses my fondnez
for bigB real well . . .

for my friends abroad:
palaman = bread filling
tinapay = bread
keso = cheese
monay = bread bun
suklay = comb
kamay = hand
atay = liver
laway = drool
sala = living room
bahay = house
palay = rice
ukay-ukay = second-hand sales
kalansay = skeleton
siomai = meat balls
gulay = veggies
tungkod = sling
pilay = limp
aray = pain
habang buhay = forever