“Kulit xpired around 9pm today. Burial erly am tomorrow.”Despite the crack at humor, the message still managed to elicit a lump in my throat. Kulit is, or was, our pet dog. And to my father, Kulit was his daily housemate along with Ming-ming, our now-here, now-gone white cat. So, I’m sure that it’s with a heavy heart that my father buried Kulit at 5:30 am this morning in one of the corners in the backyard at our home in San Pedro, Laguna.
Kulit died fairly young. He was a young pup, barely a few days old when he was given to us by the kapitbahay in 2004 to initially become a companion to our then older dog Patchy (who is also deceased) and later on, when the old female dog died, the replacement guardian.
The young dog was initially named Pogi (handsome in Filipino) but because of his incessant behavior – he liked to annoyingly tag around, clambered on you when he sees you, barked non-stop while wagging his tail, among other annoying yet endearing actions – he was immediately renamed Kulit by my sisters.
And Kulit lived up to his name.
When my wife and I arrive for our periodic visits in Laguna, the minute you lift the rusty handle that opens the gate, you are sure to see the young pup running at full throttle to greet you. When you open the gate, he begins to bark as if saying, “Hi! You’ve been gone a long time. Can I play with you?”
When you go out of the house, Kulit is sure to be around. He will follow you and just look at you and bark at times. When you do give him your attention, he will jump at you and loll his tongue. You know it’s your day when Kulit jumps at you just after he has played in the mud at the back of the house.
Come feeding time, Kulit will start eating literally out of your hand as he can’t wait until his food is placed in his feeding bowl. My father has lost count of the number of times he had to snatch his hand away as Kulit made a grab for the food he was about to give.
And it’s not just people that Kulit kulits. Kulit likes to play with our cat, Ming-ming. Now, Ming-ming is quite a mature cat. She tolerates no nonsense and prefers to keep her own company. I can only imagine the annoyance it brings her when Kulit decides to play. The young pup likes to bully Ming-ming – deliberately blocking the cat’s way, snapping and barking at the cat and happily jumping all around her, bumping the cat as she walks – that the cat, obviously pissed off with the young dog’s antics at her expense, transforms to Wolverine (claws go snkkt) and proceeds to make a pin cushion of Kulit. Expect yelps of the young dog to follow.
So, it’s quite saddening to know that the young Kulit has died. Not that we didn’t see it coming. My father had strong inclinations that the end was near for Kulit since he noticed a change in the dog’s behavior in the past few weeks.
The main change in Kulit was that the dog was no longer makulit. No more antics, no more teasings, no more tail-wagging. When my wife and I went home last weekend, no Kulit greeted us at the gate. The young dog was curiously quiet, curled up by the back door. Kulit also looked malnourished which was odd because the young dog was known to eat Ming-ming’s portion after devouring his own.
My father told me that the young dog hasn’t been eating much the past few weeks and at times looked ill. He has already given the dog some medicine and has resorted to letting the dog eat sugar but nothing has changed. Kulit, Papa added, suffered some sort of convulsions lately – mala-epilepsy – but this spell
wore off a few minutes later. And the dog was subject to vomit spells as well.But last weekend while we were there, Papa noted that the dog was more active than usual. My mother, who is currently in the US until next week, heard the news and suggested to Papa to bring the dog to the vet when he gets some money from my sister. But it’s too late already.
I received the money yesterday, late afternoon. Kulit expired hours later.
So, to Kulit, wherever you are, you dog … it’s been fun. Good luck on your next journey.
