10 Things

10 Things I Like Most About My Princess:

10. She wakes me up every morning by licking my left foot as soon as my alarm goes off. Alarms are most of times no use to me, but a dog licking my foot is tickling enough to rouse me.

9. She always wants to go with me everytime I go out, so I bring her almost anywhere I go. I have this dog carrier (actually a bag with one side half open for the head to hang out) that I use everytime we go to the mall. When I first saw the bag at the vet clinic, I thought Princess wouldn't like it in there or she'd be so uncomfortable inside, but I bought it anyway. So far, she likes being inside the bag. She actually sniffs at the bag everytime she sees me in long pants. Long pants means going out, and sniffing the bag is a sign of wanting to go inside so I can bring her along.

Even when I just touch the bag, she'll wag her tail and look at me with such alertness. To her, the dog carrier really means going out.

And since I also like bringing her along, I was only able to go inside MOA once. They're so strict in not allowing pets inside the mall. We always end up at the sunset strip, waiting for the others to finish their shopping.

SM Bicutan is pet friendly, though (because they have a vet clinic inside). I can bring Princess inside ACE Hardware even, to CDR King, to Penshoppe and Oxygen, to Watsons, to Asianic, Silicon Valley, to the Business Center, to National Bookstore, to Jollibee... but not inside the SM Department Store, and not in Bench. I can understand why they don't want toy pets inside the department store, but really, I can't see any reason why I can't bring her inside Bench. But well, it's their rule. So since I began bringing Princess to (almost) anywhere I go, I haven't been able to shop at Bench.

8. She kisses (licks) me only. She only sniffs at others when they ask for a kiss.

7. She always wants to know where I am. She waits outside my bedroom door whenever I accidentally leave her outside. She waits outside the CR whenever I'm inside. And during those rare times when I have to leave her in the house, she waits just inside the main door until I come.

6. She knows who my friends are. And barks at the visitors I don't feel like entertaining. She feels it. Somehow.

5. She barks ahead of our two other dogs whenever someone's coming. She seems to have better sense of smell.

4. She's not disturbed by loud booming noises even during New Year's eve. But she can't seem to handle large noisy crowd.

During a Pacquiao fight, I invited some friends to watch it live at home, and when Hatton was knocked out on round 2, my visitors couldn't seem to handle the excitement and they shouted and jumped in unison. I also shouted, of course, but I could see Princess hysterically running to and fro like finding a place to hide. I immediately scooted her up and she licked my face all over. She hyperventilated for two days and would only eat so little. On the second day, she'd only lie on one side and her hyperventilation seemed to have doubled. She was also already limping on her left front paw that I decided to bring her to the vet. They gave her an anti-inflammatory shot (why? I have no idea) between her shoulders and she's breathing normally when we got home one hour after. I guess the hysteria during the Pacquiao fight caused some muscle weakness. Oh, I'm not sure about that.

3. People like taking her pictures in the dog bag/carrier. And of course, they also include me in the pics since I'm the one carrying her. LOL!

2. Sales people seem to be kinder to me when I have Princess along. A cute dog softens people's hearts, it seems. Also, they easily remember me as the-sir-with-the-shih-tzu so they seem to smile when they see me again and take a mental note that the-sir-with-the-shih-tzu is a regular customer. And regular customers get special treatment.

1. Princess satisfies my need to be a parent. And this one, no explanation needed.