My Hannah

I just lost a very dear friend last week. We were together for 11 years and she helped me through a lot of ups and downs. She came into my life in 1999 just when I was dealing with the loss of another loved one, Spencer. He left in the prime of his youth, quite abruptly, and it was hard to get over. That's when Hannah entered our lives and we immediately fell in love with her. She was the last to be sold; probably the runt of the litter. She had a widow's peak on her rust-brown head and the most soulful eyes. And Angie and I ended up paying more than what she would have actually sold for. When Angie and I broke up, Hannah got to go with me while Flygirl stayed with Anj. That was another heartbreak she had to pull me out of. Living with my family in Kamias again, she slept in the room wherever I was. When I got my own room, she slept by the foot of my bed too. Hannah knew the land of tears very well. She instinctively knew when one was crying. She would rise up on her short hind legs, reach for your face and lick off your tears. Hannah was a quiet dog. A real house-pet who stayed out of your way most of the time. She never pressured you to play with her after a tough day at work, and would patiently wait to be fed. She loved her walks though and her favorite word was "walk". Say it out loud and she would immediately lunge for the door, happily jumping up and down. She was an English-speaking dog too, and responded to such instructions as "stay" and "behave". She can even understand "eat your vegetables" and obediently went back to her potatoes one time to the utter shock and amazement of my sister.Speaking of my sister, one time I asked her to babysit Hannah at her home and her stupid maids left the gates open so Hannah got out. Here's something Hannah and I had in common, we're both poor in navigation. For a hounddog like her, she gets lost and confused very easily and she wouldn't know how to get back home. I cried like hell at the thought of losing her..until tricycle drivers near Claret School took pity on us and pointed to a corner store where a brown dog was last seen. The store-owners were full of bad faith since they initially denied having Hannah, and deliberately tried to confuse our maid. They eventually let Hannah out of the bathroom where they were hiding her, but these people clearly wanted to dognap her. Hannah hated baths, but nevertheless endured the cold water and stood still until the whole dousing was all over for her. Even with her short fur, she stank up quite easily, so baths became a regular torture chamber for her. Another thing she hated were car rides. She gets car-sick you see, even for very short distances. We had to give her Bonamine for the travel from QC to Malate last year for the 2008 Pride March. This is something she and Jeni had in common..motion-sickness. There was another preference she shared with Jeni, her new mama - she absolutely loved chicken and daing na bangus. Hijo mio aka "destructo" and I loved our meat, on the other hand. She didnt care for dogfood much, and had a penchant for tablescraps. She never begged from the dinner table though, and was trained enough to wait for her own share.She was actually housetrained and had a routine - she needed to be let out every morning for her weewee and poopoo. At Tandang Sora, newspapers were readily available to her even with evening walks. At Kamias, she would asked to be let out to the garage. She clearly communicated this requirement to people by looking at you and heading for the door. if you were too stupid, she'd bark at you so you'd get it. But that was the limited barking you'd get from her. She rarely barked or howled but when she did, it was quite a racket. When she moved to Sta. Mesa with me, she hated being left alone the whole day. She scratched the door and spooked the neighbors with her howling. Fortunately, it wasn't long before Hijo Mio came to live with us too. For a while, she didn't mind the 3 floors of stairs to go walking. But I noticed that those regular walks took its toll on both of us, so we eventually stopped. Her exercise became limited to going up and down the stairs in our small apartment and running away from super-frenetic "destructo". So it was to her last days, she would greet us at the door when we get home from work, wait to be fed after we've eaten, quietly lie on her mat in her favorite corner while we watch DVD; even head up to the bedroom with us as soon as it was sleeping time."Be a good girl" translates to goodbyes to Hannah since that is what we always tell her when we leave to go to work everyday. I hope she is being good wherever she is now..