Sadly Missed…..Poor Bones Departs

Bones sitting outside my apartment

Sad news. 

Tragedy struck this past week when on Thursday 22nd of March poor Bones was struck by a car on the road outside my apartment and killed instantly.   

My neighbour came to my door talking rapidly in an agitated manner.  Although my Visayan is poor I heard the words “iro” (dog) and “patay” (dead) featuring frequently in what she was saying as she pointed towards the road. 

I ran up to where she was pointing and poor Bones was lyiing at the side of the road, completely dead.  A small crowd of people had gathered. He must have been killed instantly as I had seen him just five or ten minutes earlier frolicking with a little brown dog.  At least he never suffered. 

.

Bones when he first arrived at my apartment. No hair, and just skin and bone.  He could barely stand up. He was so scared of people I couldn’t get near him.  It took several days of feeding to win his trust.

.

Longer term readers of my blog will remember that Bones was an askal (street dog) that arrived at my door on the point of starvation and with no hair on his body at all. 

That was not long after I moved into the apartment about 18 months ago.  I took pity on him and started to feed him and he went from strength to strength, taking a new lease on life.

He was a good companion, and I enjoyed having him around, even if he didn’t take his duties as a guard and pest controller very seriously. 

.

One day I arrived home to find him at outside my door, sitting happily on my porch side by side with a very large rat.  They looked like the best of friends.  He only decided that maybe he ought to be chasing the rat once I started to shoo it away. Even then, his efforts were more of a half-hearted bouncing along (in a Tigger-ish manner) than a serious chase. 

Similarly, he was inclined to carry on sleeping even when people came into the yard of my house – especially if it was a hot day.  It was, after all, much too much trouble to be bothered to wake up and bark at strangers in the midday tropical heat.

That is siesta time, after all !  Be reasonable !

Sadly he has now gone.  But at least for the last 18 months of his life he was happy, healthy and well fed.

I still keep looking for him when I get home.  He will be sadly missed.

Rest in peace my little friend.