Companion

Out of the driveway and into the street, she scoured the bend like the bitch is trailing a lost fellow. Twice I called her name, but she refused to even come close.

"Tootsie!" I shouted. "Uwi ng bahay!!" She didn't look at my direction.

The dog usually goes out to pee or take a dump near the neighborhood bakery. She does so at night when no one's looking. So to see her at 5 in the afternoon, when most people turn the bangketa into communal space, she must have a good reason to be out in the open.

"Tootsie!!!" My patience wears thin. 

Different maybe our species, but she sense the growing frustration. The way she fold her ears, and clip her tail between her hind legs are already signs of obeisance.

But for some reasons she refuse to follow commands. Maybe because of a duty she had taken to carry on; an instinct that made all canines a human companion.

Soon, I'd learn the reason.

"Oi! Andito ka pala." It was our maid, emerging from the corner store. She smiled to acknowledge my presence.

"Kaya pala ayaw ako sundin ng aso." Tootsie left her hiding place under the parked Fierra. 

"Ganyan talaga yan." 

I then remembered the same behavior, a pattern told by my sister. The dog almost got lost when she followed her and my nephew to the street market a few blocks from our house. Had she not called her to follow them back, the dog might have gone missing.

"Much loyalty." I thought to myself in Dogespeak.

"Very wow!"

With the maid and the dog disappearing from my sight, I resumed walking towards the train station.