Mommy Dog

My wife had started building a house in her Barangay (Neighborhood) in the Philipines, and in May of 2017, I went there for a few weeks to start building a room addition so that she and I could move there later in the Fall. When I arrived one of the "stray" dogs had birthed 3 puppies and she was nursing them even though she was skin and bones, so I'd throw her bits of my food when I was eating, she was a better mom than I'd had. She was starving to death, but providing for her pups.

In the Fall when we moved to our house and resumed having it worked on, she was still around and down to 2 puppies as one had been hit by a motorcycle and died. Mommy dog was still nursing the now-too-old-to-nurse puppies. She was even more skin and bones than she'd been the last time, and I resumed throwing her tidbits from my food. As time passed both her two remaining puppies also died.

I'd progressed her trust in me in that she would let me pat her head, albeit with a suspicious glance when I coaxed her with a bit of food. This was now around Christmas time. I had to ride a hobble hobble (Motorcycle ride) down from the Bukid (Mountains) to town, then catch a Jeepney or Bus for a ride to the city where I could buy decent ground beef and sliced bread. This whole trip would take a few hours each way and I'd get home around lunchtime.

So Mommy Dog went into heat, and while I was away on one of my trips for food, my wife's son, cousins, and assorted other friends had eaten Mommy Dog, NOT because a need for food, but their way of keeping the dog population down. I was pissed, but what could I do? The Philippines people are very clannish, and ALL my neighbors were relatives and I'd made friends. So they had eaten the dog, and that was the last straw, I moved the wife and myself to another Island, no longer providing for my wife's lazy son and the 3-4 other assorted people that dropped in at mealtimes.

In the Philippines, it is against the law to eat dogs, but at that time the fine if caught and prosecuted was just a small fine, and dogs occasionally got eaten, especially the females. Now the fine has been increased to a more substantial amount, so fewer dogs are eaten, now it's more about not letting meat go to waste. PETA is Bullshit, just a make you feel good about helping ripoff.

In the Bukid, dogs are more camp followers rather than pets for many of the poor people, and they don't get the dogs rabies shots because that would denote ownership, and they don't want to be held liable if their dog bites someone Rabies or not. The Municipality will give the shots for free...

Dogs aren't the only animal in danger of being eaten, you see very little wildlife roaming around anywhere people live. There are no squirrels, raccoons, armadillos, possums, snakes, or anything else. The poor people have eaten all. While most people aren't practicing Voo Doo in the poor countries, animals of any type are considered viable food.