I watched “Hotel for Dogs” (2009) as soon as my sister rented the DVD. Then and there, I knew what I wanted: to build a hotel caring for every Dog in the world. The blueprints began in my mind before the credits even rolled.
CHECK IN
Four Dogs will greet me when I get home today. SP will squeak her toy to alert everyone of my arrival. Then, there’s Tamtam who will jump off my bed and rush to the door to be the first to say hi. Meanwhile, Oreo will rouse Chocnut from sleep so that they can both greet me, too.
All four will then head over to my room before I do. Except SP – she’s too proper for that, preferring instead to be carried to the bed before clawing at the fabric to “make biscuits”. Tamtam, waiting for my signal, will curl up in his own space, and Chocnut and Oreo will lay on top of each other by the foot of my bed.
My mother will then say something like, “Aba! Para kayong ‘asa hotel diyan ah! (Well! It’s like you’re all in a hotel!)”
Expectedly, I will look around and nod in agreement. However, it will be hard for me to ignore the few empty spaces not occupied by these four Shih Tzus, empty spaces that remind me of every other animal companion who came into my life and changed me.
HOTEL GUEST #1: PRINCESS
Being a Dalmatian, Princess quickly grew to tower over me, and her height was all the more obvious whenever she walked past.
She made all of my siblings jealous as she regularly got the best seat beside our father in the family van. My father did everything to give her the treatment that befitted her name.
And, true to form, she also had a regal way of eating, never chowing down her food like other Dogs.
HOTEL GUEST #2: BALBASAR
Maybe that’s why Princess and Balbasar never got along. As little as this Shih Tzu was compared to Princess, Balbasar’s energy was thrice hers: Bark here, bark there, bark everywhere!
Being healthcare workers, our parents allowed us to handle Princess and Balbasar. It was their way of teaching us to nurse with diligence and quality. The two Dogs essentially had six helpers ready to feed, bathe, and walk them at their bark and call.
It truly was like a hotel.
Even though the Dogs had every toy at their paws, Balbasar’s favorite pastime was disturbing Princess’s peace on the swing. Aside from the occasional grunt, she often maintained her poise. He would then head over upstairs to delight us. Balbasar, as quickly as his voice once filled our home, went silent after he fell ill out of the blue. He started excreting blood, and it wasn’t long before Princess lost her brother.
We all lost our ball of energy.
In fear of another loss, my father brought Princess up the stairs when the waters began to rise during the Ondoy typhoon. As she endlessly shook from the cold, my mother attributed her restlessness to not being used to the third floor and how we were all cramped in one tiny room.
However, looking back, I believed that Princess was vigilantly waiting for our father to come back.
As the night passed, so did Ondoy, and so did our father. Grieving, our widowed mother immediately packed up and took us to live in a transient house, where no Dogs were allowed.
Though some of our far relatives remained to care for Princess, she still passed away a few months later.
HOTEL GUEST #3: ODIE
As we moved from house to house, this hotel-for-Dogs idea lived on only as a fantasy in my head. It was my way of never forgetting: to imagine them all in a hotel in the sky, where Princess and Balbasar would be playing with my father.
And on earth, I only found semblances of the same joy in giving stray Dogs, Cats, and every other animal in our area food, shade, and my being there beside them until I had to go home.
Finally, after many pleas, Mom agreed to adopt a new companion.
Odie was a speedy Japanese Spitz who resembled Princess’s black and white spots. He frequently zoomed around our small unit and barked louder than Balbasar ever had.
Each time it thundered, Odie would run to me, and we would hide under the blankets together. When my mother was assigned to Samar, Leyte, we brought him with us and watched as he ran around the grandstand near our abode. He frequently brought home his gang of Askals, whom my mother and her comrades happily fed.
He was everybody’s best friend there. Even my mother’s bosses, whom he jumped on during morning jogs, were fond of his wide smile. He had already started his own family by the time my mother was assigned back to Metro Manila a few years later, so we thought it was best for him to stay in the care of the other nurses.
In my heart, I never left Odie behind. We still shared calls, received photos of him and his new family, and regularly checked up on him each time it stormed.
CHECK OUT
Little did I know that more than ten years later, I will once again be serving four other Dogs: opening the doors that they scratch, walking them twice a day, and making space for them on my bed.
And while the idea of building a hotel for Dogs seems like a great idea, animal companions need more than a hotel. They need a home filled with stewards responsible and loving enough to be there, whatever the weather may be.
And so here I am, hoping I can one day join Princess, Balbasar, recently Odie, and every other Dog in that five-star hotel in the sky.
