Tail Tales

CARLA ABELLANA

“I’VE ALWAYS loved dogs. When I was growing up, we had lots of pets in the house of my grandmother (LVN star Delia Razon). We had eight dogs (including an English bulldog), a parrot and a rabbit. When we moved into our new house, we got a Jack Russell terrier. We called her Patches. She’s five months old now. She’s sweet and affectionate. She’s makulit (hyperactive), too. She’s always jumping around when she sees me. Everyone in the family loves her. We take turns caring for her.” Bayani San Diego Jr./Photo by Romy Homillada

YANI YUZON

“THIS dog’s name is Simone, from the movie featuring Al Pacino. It means simulation one. She’s a Belgian malinois. We also have a black Labrador named Santino. They’re both around 6 years old. We have two Chihuahuas— Monty, with a brown-and-white coat; and Oscar, with a black-and-tan coat. Oscar looks like a small Rottweiler.

“We didn’t send them to obedience school; we just watch ‘Dog Whisperer’ a lot. The program host (Cesar Millan) is easy to understand. A lot of what he says is very practical and he explains them well. A lot of Filipinos buy Pit bulls because they think that they are buying a weapon. I’m guilty of that. The reason I bought [the malinois] was that I wanted him to be a guard dog. In reality, mabait siya. I learned from ‘Dog Whisperer’ that a guy buys a Pit bull because he wants a fierce dog, because it’s an extension of his  macho personality. In truth, a lot of these dogs don’t know that they’re being trained to become vicious. Marinel R. Cruz/Photo by jim guiao punzalan