Choco, the stray dog

Meet Choco the stray dog! We've had him for more than a year now. The first time we saw him was outside our gates, he was just going from one house to another along our street. The neighborhood didn't took pity on him because he kinda looked viscous because of his protruding lower incisors, and they look pretty sharp too! That's why it really took as a few days to make an attempt to feed him. We would just leave food outside of the gate hoping that he would drop by. It's quite obvious where he got his name, and that's because of his brownish color. My Mum has a knack for giving corny names! But I'd have to admit that we all share this weirdness :) I have a tabby orange cat who sleeps with me ever since he was a kitten, just like most of our pets, Bulelat a.k.a Moja is an orphan. Now, he's called such because: 1. he' tiny (bulilit) and he's the smallest one in the litter and 2. he likes sticking-out his tongue (belat). So it's actually a combination of two Tagalog words. But since he's also tubby and of orange hue, we also fondly call him Moja! Now that would be from the Japanese manga "Mojacko".

Going back to Choco, he was gone for a week and we all thought that the City Pound had caught him, but to our surprise we found him outside the gate again waiting for food and water. He looked terrified because a bunch of street kids bullied him and had hit him with plastic bottles, he was limping after that, obviously it had hurted him. Good thing my Mum saw this and started yelling at these bullies. There was a typhoon then as well, we would feel really guilty as we watch him scrambling for cover during the heavy rain. He looked so traumatized, we didn't know what to do! Finally, we've mustered enough courage to open our gates and let him in. He immediately went in and had that grateful look on his face, believe it or not. The following day, he managed to sneak out on us and started running off, I have just arrived from work that morning, coming from the night shift. We followed him up to the end of the street, I tried calling out to him using his "new" name. By golly, when he heard my voice, Choco immediately turned around wearing a huge grin on his face and started running towards us! He gave me an affectionate leap and followed us back home.

Our decision to keep Choco may not be a popular one among our neighbors, they find him repulsive, ugly and probably worthless. But we really don't care what they think! Because when the time comes when all of us will be judged, we only answer to God. Compassion. Not only between us human beings but to all creatures. Because one day, we will be answerable for all of the choices that we made on this earth. And in my heart of hearts, I know that we did the right thing in letting Choco, the stray dog, enter our humble home.