I havent written anything much here since Graba’s death in may 2010. Not in wordpress, not in facebook nor elsewhere. I guess i havent recovered from it all along.

graba at 2 months

He was the 2nd pomeranian to live in katipunan and was a complete opposite of Nuk. Where Nuk was reserved and preferred to be alone, Graba was a ball of energy and was excited to greet everybody that enters the house. He was smart, emphatic and super cute. It was a no-brainer he’d be friendly to the new dog in the house, pogi, when we brought him in december of 2009.

Theyve become inseparable ever since. Of course they had their spats and petty squabbles but Graba would be the reason why a shar-pei, bred to be an aggresive guard dog, would grow up to be playful and loving. Pogi, always surround by this small breed of dogs, grew larger but thinks he’s as small and lightweight as Graba and Nuk.

Being new converts to Cesar Millan’s way of dog handling, we tried to find ways for Nuk to be more friendly to Pogi and not run away. In the last few days before Graba’s death we tried connecting a leash on all three dogs and observed a general calm come between them (see previous post). Pogi and Graba were behaved, Nuk was quiet and had no choice but to stay with the group. We were ecstatic by the result. We thought it would be the start of a new relationship between all dogs.

Imagine our dismay when days after this we’d see the horrifying death of Graba. Pogi and Graba were fighting over a piece of dog treat and the latter got thrown off. Graba hit his head against a piece of appliance only a feet away but the impact shattered his fragile skull. His eyes popped and blood started to ooze out of his ear. This all happened so fast we’re still reeling from the horrible way he died.

I was actually attending to a colleague outside the house and was only gone for 5 minutes. When i returned it was like walking into a murder scene with all this blood on the floor. Tatems was with Carlo at the back of the house. Pogi was quiet and not moving under the dining table, Nuk was with tatems. Carlo had Graba in his arms and he was crying, while trying to see if he could be saved. Of course there was nothing else we could do.

being owners of pogi, we couldnt help but feel remorse on account that we were responsible for any of pogi’s actions. on the other hand, i felt graba was linked more to me, in the manner that titatems preferred nuk and carlo would be looking after pogi. More than anything i only realized now how affected i was of his death. i closed up and stop writing about my personal reflections on things. it took me awhile to write this but i felt i couldnt ponder on anything until i am able to talk about graba. this would hopefully be a catalyst for healing and change.

i do believe all dogs go to heaven. so then, i hope to see you soon, graba. mwah!