Beauty, He-Man, Itsy, and Co.: The Ladagas' Best Friends Part 1

My post yesterday reminded me how important dogs are in our lives. Before Raviv came along, our dogs were our babies. Randy and I walked them in the afternoon, brought them to family and company outings, campaigned them in dog shows, and did several other activities with them. Randy also met several of his friends because of dogs. Since they were (and still are) a big part of us, let me introduce you to our most beloved dogs. Some of them are still with us, and some of them are already in a better place.

Beauty the Pug

One of Randy’s first gifts to me is my pug, Beauty. It is just a pity that Beauty has incontinence and that she almost cannot move her hind legs–she used to be inside our house, playing with anyone. But because of her incontinence and the presence of babies, that’s no longer possible. The early onset of her not being able to use her hind legs properly was probably brought about by a nasty fall she had in her younger days (she is now almost 10 years old)–see, she kept on running to the roof on the second floor of our building, feeling omniscient. One time, it has just finished raining and the roof was slippery. Upon hearing dogs barking outside our gate, she ran to the roof and slid to the cemented ground below. Blag! Randy said Beauty was immobile (I was out-of-town that time), and he thought the worst had happened. He immediately brought Beauty to the vet and upon reaching the vet, Beauty was back to her usual malikot self. Talk about tragedy becoming a comedy.

With Beauty when she was still a puppy

Beauty brought us so much joy, even though we think she’s either very stubborn or just plain stupid. I remember a time when Beauty got lost. I really thought it would be impossible to see her again. While I was creating a missing dog ad, I was crying. The following day, I rose very early and put up signs all over Los Banos. And later that day, we were told that Beauty was just in our neighbor’s house. Sheesh.

Randy’s Pride: His Philippine Champion Doberman Pinschers

When I first met Randy, he was crazy about dobermanns. In fact, he was the proud owner of He-Man, the first Philippine Champion dog in Laguna. He-Man was so popular at that time that he sired almost all female dobes in Laguna, and Randy was known in the dog world as “‘yung may-ari kay He-Man”. Randy and He-Man were almost inseparable then. On our early days, Randy was enumerating the people who mean the world to him. After mentioning his mom, He-Man’s name quickly followed. He-Man was not just a trophy dog to Randy–he was a companion and friend. I remember a painful picture of an almost immobile He-Man crying when he saw Randy wearing a pan-dogwalk/dogrun outfit. He was crying because he knew Randy would walk/run, and Randy used to never run without He-Man. Randy pitied him and led him downstairs. Unfortunately, He-Man can no longer jump up into the cargo area of Randy’s pick-up truck (Randy is never without a pick-up truck because of dogs). Randy did not have the heart to continue his run/walk, with He-Man crying like that. And when died at nine years old, even I was deeply saddened. But his legacy still lives, for He-Man left us his progeny, Vanguard–another Philippine Champion dobermann.

With Ph. Champ. Vanguard (left) and Ph. Champ. He-Man (right; RIP)

Though He-Man and Vanguard were mag-ama, they had different temperaments. He-Man was serious while Vanguard was playful. When he and Beauty are walking, he used to run and pretend to accidentally sideswipe Beauty accidentally (obvious namang sinasadya!) And just like a very naughty boy, I remember Vanguard peeing on one of our pugs who at that time was very ugly and losing hair! As in Vanguard had a huge space to pee, but he peed ON the balding pug! Poor pug!

Baby Raviv playing with Vanguard

Anyway, just to share with you, almost all of our neighbors got robbed by kawatans except for us. And Randy thanks our diligent, strong, and fearsome dobermanns for it.

~~Part Deux coming up.~~

Update: Here’s Part Deux