This was the big question of my youngest sister who visited our home in the barrio last week (that was the last Sunday of August this year 2009).

We were busy watching a noontime show in the television (my mom, two nieces, two sisters and me) when we all looked at her direction outside the main door. She's preparing to go and she's looking for left blue sport shoe.

I answered, "We have no pet dogs here in the house. Someone is doing a prank on you." As I was saying this, I quickly added, "Wait, maybe it's Maldita!" That was the name I christened to the white dog, a seven-year old (1 human year) who always play in our lawn. Maldita (Filipino word which means mischievous) is one of the dogs of our relative, just two blocks from our house along the road. Truly, one of my nieces found it at the vacant field just outside the fence of our house, undainted or without bite marks.

Dogs are normally playful. Maldita, the dog (of Japanese akita descent), is in her formative years. She can be taught a trick or two. When she lingered at our lawn again, I gave her some chicken bones and ate it with gusto. When she was finished, she tagged the hem of my shorts, which means 'she want to play'.

I threw a stick and surely, she ran for it and brought it to me for more play repitition. She never gets tired! Like a human being, I started petting her by stroking the fur at her lower jaw and in return she will give playful bite on my hands, lightly but not painfully. She's really a darling!

I cannot have a pet dog, right now, at home because I'm always out in the country (Philippines), working for a living in a commercial ship.

[Once, I had a white male wolf-like dog (of Alaskan hushkies descent). His life was shortlived because he was sideswept by a public utility jeepney (puj) in the barrio. (Sighs), he used to sleep beside me in my room.]

More and more improvement in having pet dogs in Asia are being noticed nowadays.

In the Philippine scene, posh stores for dog foods and parlors for pets are sprouting rapidly in the city area.

Breeding showdogs and the like are becoming a lifestyle. From chihuahua to great dane...whether a family is well-to-do or not, they really believe the old jargon "man's bestfriend". Well, raising dogs just like having children, only more expensive.

Dark sides of raising dogs in the country involve illegal pitbull races and other abuses that dogs suffer, even eating them! That's gruesome!

Enter the PETA's campaign. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are actively promoting fair treatment to all animals. Celebrities and ordinary people alike are joining hands to stop any kinds of violence against our pets and even among us, humans.

When I heard the bark of my relative's dogs who are always guarding our house outside ( I wonder), I always feel secured and continue my dreamy sleep.