I grew up in a family of dog lovers, well except for my mom. There was always a dog in our household.

For years, I was happy being the doggie ninang who visits once in a while, takes the dogs out for occasional walk, and then I’d leave and go back to my dogless life.

Until I met Jose Cuervo Quiogue.

When I moved into my own place, my sister suggested I get a dog. I thought why not? So after months of research, I decided on a Bichon Frise. I was doing the next phase of my research—where to get one. So far I had found breeders online, but wasn’t really sure how to go about checking if these were legit etc.

Then one night in September 2015, while we were at my place for a late night work session, my friend Aimee asked me, “What kind of dog did you want again?” Turns out someone she knew had puppies for sale, and they were Bichons!! She actually had one puppy left! And the next day we were on our way to pick-up the dog.

It was love at first sight.

From the moment I carried him and he burrowed into my neck, I was a goner. This little guy had won my heart. From the breeder’s house we went to buy supplies including a doggie bed. I told myself that I would have him sleep on his bed and not on mine. Ha! I didn’t even last the night.

And then it begins…

We noticed that he would always be shaking his head, as if saying no. It almost looked like he had the head tremors of Parkinson’s. At first I thought it was just a twitch or something, but I figured, better safe than sorry. So I brought him to the vet who said that his nerves were underdeveloped and he was given a supplement. After a couple of months, the head shaking subsided and now it only happens when he was experiencing heightened emotion-anger, excitement etc.

But that wasn’t all.

One night I found him with a piece of cotton in his mouth. When I checked, it was cotton with dried nail polish remover. I, of course, freaked out and brought him to the ER, yes there is a Pet Emergency Room that charges you P2,500 just for walking in the door. They took an X-ray and though they saw that he had not ingested the cotton, they also saw that his heart was abnormally shaped. Instead of the usual mango-like shape, Cuervo’s was round. I decided to get a second opinion and he was diagnosed with Arrythmia and given heart supplements. His diet was also changed from packaged snacks to fruits and vegetables.   And so began another round of research–finding out what he can and cannot eat.

It doesn’t end there.

I would first order from Whole Pet Kitchen, who developed a recipe especially for him that took into consideration all of Cuervo’s medical issues. Due to some incidents (I will not go into detail hehe), Cuervo was also found to have a tendency for hyperacidity. So we were told to give him smaller and more frequent meals instead of just the twice daily.   The vet also told us to feed him chicken broth and rice during his attacks.  And that’s when I discovered my dog loves soup or any liquid with flavor.  So now we do soup and rice meals or fruit shakes (yes fruit shakes) for his snacks.

In short, I have a dog with arrythmia, hyperacidity, a nerve disorder who’s a spoiled brat, loves yellow watermelon, likes soup and fruit shakes.   He loves to go on car rides (tho I think it’s more cause he has separation anxiety and doesn’t want to be left at home).

He loves it when I sing to him (his favorite songs are Adele’s All I Ask and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas). When he’s stressed, I dance with him (parang baby lang).   We have our nightly hair brushing sessions.

He gets really mad if you take off his leash and he feels he hasn’t had enough pasyal yet.

And, I video chat with I’m away and he seems to listen (hahaha).

As you can see, I can go on and on and on and on about Cuervo. (which I’ve done) but I can’t help it. We are the perfect fit.  The defective dog and the dysfunctional doggie mom.

As I said, it was love at first sight.

That’s all for now…bow.

 

P.S. Check out his instagram page @josecuervoq