Secretary’s note: From last year’s experience, I realized it would be best to navigate the community we’ve chosen, on foot. The narrow streets jammed with people, animals, and trikes make it foolhardy to bring a car for our particular activity. We fed some 60 dogs, some of these were stray dogs, some had owners, but there really was no big difference. Most people have very little concept of animal responsibility, probably because they are too busy coping with their own poverty. Please excuse the few snapshots I took from my cellphone camera.

Our annual dog feeding project is dedicated to all our friends from the Dogs With Blogs (DWB)network, friends we’ve met one way or another, and to each and everyone of you who inspire our animal welfare advocacy.

I wanted to sound upbeat because of our intentions, but images from the community have been gnawing at me mercilessly. What we’ve accomplished is nothing compared to what still needs to be done. There are many essential things that the dogs need- veterinary care, a safe place to run and play, for their owners to be educated of their responsibilities, particularly in intervening with animal overpopulation.

But for now, we will have to take comfort in the thought that even for one day, these dogs enjoyed not scraps, but nutritious meal especially and lovingly prepared for them.

Preparations are underway,

I made sure to sniff the assorted meats for freshness,

We would like to thank Fudgie of the Piappies World blog, Aki , Charlie J. Spitz , Super Dog Sweepy, and special guest star, Teddy ( who “flew all the way from Illinois”) for gamely participating in this very special Christmas dance video produced by yours truly.

The boys only had 5 minutes to practice, thanks to the superb direction of my brother Moymoy and the exquisite choreography of my sissie Trudis, the boys rendered a spectacular performance~ I won’t be surprised if they get invited by Ellen or Oprah. LOL

We would like to dedicate this to all our doggy , kitty, and hooman pals in the internet and their wonderful hoomans.

Your gift of friendship, love, and compassion are among the best gifts that I have ever received in my lifetime…I will treasure it always.

Thank you for making my Wheely Dreams come true! Eddie’s Wheels have already started making it, and the shipping concerns have been threshed out.

You are fantastic guys, I love you all.

For the male cats, the procedure is called neutering. It is relatively quicker and less complicated than spaying. The kitties are now up on their feet ten minutes after this photo was taken. Doc Jun, our assistant vet, did not even have to stitch the incision.

Pusit’s female kitten will be spayed next week. She’s never been outdoors since birth to prevent unwanted pregnancy. We can’t wait for the three kittens to start climbing roofs and playing with other cats in Mimosa Street.

Some donors to Scarlet’s wheelchair have sponsored two cats and two female cats for spay and neuter. I guess Pusit and her kitties don’t count because we adopted them. We will pick sponsored cats from one of the depressed areas here in our community.

~ The Secretary

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Mom thinks that my nanny should have seen the rashes developing and prevent it from turning into an ugly wound. Mom mentioned a famous American actor who was paralyzed just like me but died from a simple bed sore. Its a good thing that she manages to check each one of us doggies at night, no matter how dog tired she is.

Let’s go check my nails.

Since my nails hardly scratch the floor, they can grow really quick.

You think I could make a fortune auctioning these off at Ebay?

At the end of her inspection, Mom gives me scritches . Can you tell that I so totally love it?

Secretary’s Note:

“Gimme, gimme!”

Thank you, Manang! Please say hi to Poopie and Koykoy( Aki) for me, I smelled them in your clothes!

The Animal Doctor made it! He finished putting up our tree just at the stroke of midnight on December 1st. Ohhh, it definitely smells like Christmas in our house now.

Secretary’s note: I cannot believe how far we’ve gone with the fund raising. I am glad that I listened to Teri ( our LLL contact) not to give up. As of this posting, Scarlet’s Wheelchair Fund is almost complete. Eddie’s Wheels will likely begin constructing it as soon as we finalize Scarlet’s measurements.

Scarlet and I will now focus on raising a few more hundreds to cover the cost of shipping her wheelchair to the Philippines. Sad to say, shipping and insurance charges are expected to be higher due to our locations and the size and weight of the shipment.

To all our friends and supporters who are responsible for this on going miracle, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Some of our donors were able to sponsor 1 female dog, 2 female cats and 2 male cats for free spay and neuter. We have activities lined up to pay forward your kindness and we will be telling you about these in our future posts.

Of course, there was the usual introduction…

But it wasn’t long before Jao made himself at home. I watched from our kitchen door while he played- quite wildly- with my siblings.

Jao: Dog, don’t you get dizzy running after your tail like that??

While my sister Pussy wowed our guest with her musical ability using only a piece of wood.

Today, I was surprised when I saw Moy enter the kitchen with an envelope in his mouth. What is that, Moy? I asked because the Nanny had just given me a boxful of paper to shred. Moy laughed and told me that inside the envelope is the money they earned babysitting Jao. They wanted to donate it for my wheelchair.

I was teary eyed especially when I read their dedication, because I realized that my brothers and sisters love me after all.

We received three more donations this weekend, from a lady named Pam in the US and from two ladies in Mandaluyong ( Did you tell them about me, Charlie?). YAY!
(Secretary’s note:As of this posting, Scarlet has accumulated a net of $1041.06 as her Wheelchair Fund, including the 500$ pledge from LLL. This means that she is $158.94 away from fulfilling her Wheely Dream! With the funding for the wheelchair almost secured, the one last thing we have to worry about is the shipping charges because we know it will cost an arm and leg. But like we always say, when there’s “wheel”, there’s a way!)

It needed three pairs of hands to hoist me up in a standing position, where I will be measured. I was embarrassed when the hoomans told Mom to hurry up because I was kinda heavy.

Mom had to double and triple check my measurements. There are parts of the wheels which are non adjustable. It would be difficult, next to impossible, to send the wheelchair back to the US if it does not fit me.

But not so if your legs look as bad as mine. Mom will have to ask Eddie’s how to take measurements if my legs permanently splayed like this.

We don’t have a Thanksgiving Day in the Philippines, but I want to celebrate anyway because my heart is overflowing with thanks. Donations to my wheelchair are trickling in day by day, most of these came from people who did not even know me until they read my story in the blogs of my DWB friends.

I am thankful to these kind strangers-now my friends, and to my dog and kitty pals, to Labrador Life Line organization, Eddie’s Wheels- to ALL OF YOU – who believed that my Wheely Dreams could come true.

Our friend Lorenza in Mexico celebrated Thanksgiving by remembering the day she was adopted. I thought it was a very nice idea so I gathered all my doggy siblings so we could silently commemorate our own adoption and be thankful about it.

We have come along way since our long faces.