thanks bart

it's been 4 years since i had a post about a pet. that was when i wrote about bwit, my pet hamster. i had her when i was in 3rd year college and she died the summer after. now i'm writing about bart. some of you may have known him, he's the pitbull that scared the hell out of some of our visitors at home, especially when he makes this rattling noise whenever he jumps on top of his dog house.

last night i got a text from my mom telling me that bart had already died. that morning, my mom called me with that worried tone that makes me palpitate. she told me that johan, my 1-month-old nephew, had been confined. he choked on his milk and couldn't breathe for a while. he's now on dextrose and had been diagnosed with pneumonia as some milk got into his lungs. if antibiotics couldn't get it out, they'd have to punch a hole in his lungs to drain it. i was in tears. then my mom also informed me that bart fell sick suddenly. he couldn't stand and wouldn't eat. she said that while she doesn't want to lose either of them, she hoped that bart would 'redeem' johan instead. johan's condition is stable now, thank goodness. but bart had already left us.

raymund, who took care of bart for a while, asked me to take a picture of him when i went home for a vacation 2 weeks ago. i wasn't able to, cos i really couldn't get near him. i just usually checked on him from our window. now i regret not going out to see him up close.

i really have this slight cynophobia, even with our dogs (and we usually have at least 4 dogs at home). i wasn't like that when i was 7, i used to snuggle with our semi-dachshund dog fida and even helped her deliver her puppies, and you know how fierce pregnant dogs are. but then there was this incident when i tripped and accidentally fell on top of doggie, my grandaunt's - you guessed it! - dog and he bit my ankle. back then whenever i described him to others, i'd tell them that he's like a cow, cos he seemed huge to a grade-schooler like me. in retrospect, he might just be your typical labrador-sized mongrel. :D then it also happened twice that my mom got bitten by our neighbor's dog and i was worried sick because of rabies. luckily the nasty dog didn't have one. and of course there were those few occasions when a dog was running after me. those must have taken a few years off my life. watching quarantine early this year just relived my fear of rabies, and i had a hard time sleeping for at least a few nights because of it. :S

bart was one dog i'm scared of. one obvious reason was his breed. he's our second pitbull, and also our second dog named bart. when my friends and i hang out at our front yard, they'd ask me what if bart got off his leash, and i'd tell them to run for their lives. my greatest fear when coming home alone was seeing our dogs, especially bart, running around the house without a leash. i don't think i could get myself to go in. sometimes, when i feel that the coast is clear, i'd still make a dash from our gate to our front door while frantically searching for the right key. but i guess this fear was all in my head. bart was really a gentle dog, he hadn't bitten or attacked anybody. raymund who loves dogs, used to walk bart on the streets. he told me that bart was only mad at other dogs, but not at people. i've only heard of two people he didn't 'like'. i took a peek at him when i was home last time. of all our dogs, he's the only one who seems like a human trapped inside an animal's body. that's how i feel whenever i see his gentle eyes.

my parents told me that maybe bart did give up his life for johan, because other people say that our pets sometimes take our burdens for us. and i'd like to believe that he did. i'm still crying about it (as in right now, haha), but i'm thankful for whatever bart may have done for my nephew. we'll miss you dearly, bart. :'(

ps: kindly include johan in your prayers for his speedy recovery. thank you.