Ivan Fernandez

One sunny morning, I noticed from the window that our dogs were looking in front of our house, waiting for us to come out. Spending most hours of their day sleeping and often a few hours away from us. Their joy and eyes filled with lovingness by simply just seeing us the next day can always be felt.

Regarded as man’s best friend, they never seem to be discouraged if sometimes we can’t pet them all the time. As a measure to reduce the spread of Covid-19 most of us are home. Somehow the home-based learning and working gave us more time with our pets. Due to our busy time schedule, at times we could only just look at them through the window. By looking we could see, their smile, loyalty, and love for us. Their wagging tail of excitement never seems to fade away even we could not spend most of our time with each other.

Being pampered and domesticated, our dogs tend to rely on us. So our parents biggest fear is for them to break of their chains and roam the streets.  Where accidents could occur, or we would never see them again. They are not allowed by our parents to let them off the hook and roam without supervision from any of the family members. Our dogs would often spend most of their time being chained near their individual houses. From there, they would either sleep and/or bark when its time to eat.

Often we would look to the window and see them looking or sensing something. Though they could do nothing else but sleep and look whoever comes out of our door. Most of the time they do what they are known for, stand guard. Being gifted with strong hearing, they would often bark to whatever may come within their visual and hearing range. Having many dogs can be quite a headache, but it has its rewards. We are safe and protected by our extended family with fur members.

They always stand guard for any unwanted visitors, loud noises from neighboring dogs they will hear. Most of the times, they would just wait for the noisy cats to appear. As a pass time for them, they would always bark at cats from far away.  They would just look each other in the eyes and will soon bark at those unfriendly cats nearby.

The tiring day of home-based work and school made me and my sister to tired. Yet, those exhaustions seem to be gone as we are reunited with our pets once again. We get a chance to pet them as office hours end and the sunset is at hand. We make use of the free time given to us to enjoy each other’s company. 

As each day comes to a close and sunset is seen , there the dogs are once again free to walk and wander. As my sisters and myself are free to watch over them for at least a few hours. There they would do natural things that a dog do. Except that we would often pet them and carry them as they are too cute to handle.

Few minutes enough for them to enjoy the stroll around our vicinity. To let them enjoy the walk around the grassy neighborhood. To let them freely smell the fresh grass, chase some butterflies, and follow wherever we want or they want to head. They would often run at full speed and would often look for those unfriendly cats. They would often mark their territory around our vicinity as a way to assert dominance over the cats.

The smiles from each of our dogs never seem to falter as we spend our afternoon together.  We would always look at them at the end of each walk only for us to see a smile. The afternoon walk, after all, is what makes our day more enjoyable. Thus they would eat again, sleep, stand guard, protect us, and love us at the end of time.

A series of pictures showing only hands and/or close-ups of hands and faces. (three to five pictures) 

I’m a big fan of Star Wars, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and Lord of the Rings. It is the reason why also love talking about mythology, stories, legends, and pretty much all the nerdy stuff. I also stan and listen to different kinds of music, especially BigBang, Red Velvet, Ikon, and Blackpink.