The Bravery of Shadow

Shadow was an askal. Askal is short term for "asong kalye"  aso in Filipino's name for dog while kalye means street,  so askal is shortened name for As( aso) Kal (kalye) meaning a street dog or stray dog. It was a colloquial  name for a breed of dog whose origin came from a mongrel that litters the streets in the Philippines. An askal can be combination of street dog to street dog or street dog with a purebred. Askal is a kind of canine breed  treated if not considered the lowest of its Canidae(dog) family, not entirely my opinion. Its origin can be never be ascertained. 

It was my sister who brought him home one night. He was given to her by her co-worker  whose dog bore lots of pups since we need a guard dog, my sister  took the mutt in. My sister, like the snap of a finger, named him Shadow for he will be our shadow in the house  guarding it from thieves and burglars. Shadow was certainly a great addition to our family that upon his arrival a banner was made for him that says "Welcome home Shadow, May your life with us be bark-full, bite-full and  alert!" Just kidding, If I  remember correctly, we were happy to welcome the cute mutt  however, his first nights with us were a nightmare for his incessant yelps,  whimpering  and crying irritated us so much that we all ended up not having enough sleep for days. I think when he was brought to us, he was still 3 weeks old , basically still a baby,  who still needs his mother's nips and milk. We were pessimistic for we were predicting that he would not live a week considering  his cries were getting weaker and weaker since we has brought home. Baby Shadow cries were fading like a dust giving into night and death was already waiting with great anticipation.  But we never  stopped serving him milk to his plate for him to lick off.  Thankfully, he survived that plateau stage, a physiological stage of no development,  which was crucial for he either die or live.  He pulled through that stage and upon our nursing  he got stronger, ready to take on the world with kennel fierceness.

I don't know but dog has this protective instinct to their master and territory. Shadow was no exception  for he was protective to us and when a another askal from our neighbor  will go sniffing  their way to our property or human comes  for a visit would bark angrily and his eyes  will go glassy  with a kill.  I guess it was loudly telling them that  our property is his, no one messes with it or he would bite off 2 kilos of meat off  your back. His growing from baby to adulthood was without grave incidents. One time, when Shadow,  MaiMai came to visit Aring, our adopted child, she was bitten when she just went  prancing inside  our fence. Thank God, Shadow after observing him 5 days, if gets weak or gone crazy ,  he  acted normal so meaning he had no rabies. Well, MaiMai wasn't the only victim of his biting, Aloy, Aring's brother was also one of the statistics.  I guess Shadow  had a hots for Aloy for he would always irritate the dog by throwing stones at him, tease him and scare him. As a means of retaliation, Shadow settled the score by driving his sharp teeth into his legs. Another, is our neighbor, who would stone and bat him with a tree stick that resulted to his limping for days matched with an open wound from being stoned. No matter , how much we would like to bring our neighbor to  the barangay court we can't for we  don't have a indicting evidence against him. Again, Shadow, like a shadow with a vengeance, had bitten him in the arm.  The incident was  later called "quits" for he treated our dog with cruelty, I guess he knows what he had done to the hapless dog and he brought it upon himself. If we can only read Shadow's expression, we are sure that there is this smug look upon his face. 

Although, I pictured Shadow as a fierce and insane dog. We was actually, very gentle and thoughtful. Why? Like any other dog, when we came home from somewhere, he would get so excited. We would bark with zestful excitement upon seeing us, wag his tail and he would turn circles like crazy which very cute at times annoying for he would jump on us and soil our clothes. A simple "chee!" and he would stop and go meek.  As always, we never pampered him like some people but we were never cruel to him. What we eat is what he eats. Sometimes, we bathed him which would drive him crazy that we eventually stopped it. As he was not on a leash, he is free to roam around the place, getting into fights with other dogs in the neighborhood, eating dead frogs, scavenging the trash or garbage and breeding other females dogs. One time, when our neighbor's Japanese Spitz got out of the their gated property, Shadow wasted no time humping her. If they had an offspring? I guess none.     

Shadow

Shadow's intense nature had eventually earned him the refutation of being the leader among the askals. His refutation even grown like an urban legend in our place, people  were wary to pass by our house for a barbaric dog will bite them. Parents would warn their children to tread carefully with Shadow. No drunkards would attempt to snare him for their pulutan( a food served with a alcoholic drink) for his menacing stature. Our house or the place within our property's vicinity was treated with dread with police cordon around it.  Shadow definitely live to our expectation and purpose and more.      

One of the behavior of dogs, Shadow was no exception, was to tail their master. He would excitedly, accompany us when we walk to the highway for a commute. There are times when he would cross the highway, see us hop into a jeep and that's the time he would go running home. Sometimes, a simple "uli!" meaning go home was enough for him go prancing back home but sometimes not. Until one night, that was Sunday, my sister, the one who brought him home, went out to go to a Mass celebration, when Shadow tailed her to the highway. She frighteningly, shooed him away, she was fearing that a vehicle will ran him down. After a few attempts, she managed to shoo him which gave her a sigh of relief. She recounted that, she saw Shadow, when crossing the highway seems to  have a know how. on how to do it. Unfortunately, accidents do happen, when Shadow  was not fast enough to run for safety to a speeding taxi which hit him on the head. She said that she heard a loud bang and a unforgettable whimper from a dog who was obviously in great pain. The taxi just went on speeding and the next time she saw was Shadow running, from what she can guess, home.  She thought that Shadow will be okay and she went her way to church. But she was wrong for we just found Shadow lifeless in our backyard. It was  my mother who found her first and the next thing scene was commotion that woke my sister who told us that the dog was hit by a taxi. 

Shadow died of internal hemorrhage of March 2006. If I can  fit in my foot in his shoes it  really must had been painful and a slow death. I can just imagine the excruciating pain and  can't do anything to alleviate it. It must be very very hard to be a dog, when the means of communication is bark or growl, humans cannot acutely guess for what  they means. For Shadow to  go come running to  a  distant home and die must have been a painful ordeal. It was amazing how  brave he was in his pain that he can still go home to the house where he was loyal with.  From what  my mother and my siblings story, they never heard him cry. They just wondered  why there was no familiar bark. Upon seeing his dead body, we immediately, dug a grave for him. 

I never really bothered Shadow. I mean, I always tell people in the house to feed him. never to forget to feed him or he might go loony with starvation but to touch him or cuddle him? Nary. The longest conversation I had with him was "stop" when he goes carting off the other pair of the slipper or chew on plastics in our garbage or  yell at  out" of the house when he is smelling like death when he feasted on frogs. But when he died I cried! As in cry an honest cry of sadness and pity to a dog who had served us greatly and the way he died was a true tearjerker. A brave dog indeed he was. He is surely missed.