‘Enjoy being in the lap of Luxuri, Apollo; loyalty has its rewards. Oh, but once I retire, we will just shower together!’
SATURDAY was a slow day for me. Part of it was spent quietly at home, one eye fixated on YouTube videos streaming on my smart TV, the other directed at Hayden and Apollo.
Sometimes, the videos were about caring for older dogs, and sometimes they were about the best exercises for people over 40, but whatever the videos playing I was able to take the information with one eye while the other kept watch over my fellow senior housemates, Hayden (16 years and 6 months) and Apollo (8 years and 5 months).
Does that give you an image of my eyeballs moving independently of each other like that of a chameleon? It’s not exactly like that, but close.
Hayden has shown much more energy recently after I left him with Makati Dog and Cat Hospital for two days while I was out of town. A blood test showed most numbers normal, except the ones indicating kidney health; he has been prescribed vitamins and a pill for appetite and it’s done wonders. He remains poor in eyesight and in his sense of smell, yes, but now he prances around the living room more frequently than he was doing a week ago.
That’s when I espied Apollo and noticed he needed better grooming. Apollo is a Maltese. He was the only male and youngest of four born in late 2016, and when my first dog Cleopatra (also a Maltese) died in November of 2016 a good friend, Dr. Gary Battung, contacted me to let me know he was happy to give me Apollo to assuage my quadruple grief. Quadruple, because that year my candidate for President of the Philippines lost in the May polls, my father died in September and then Hillary lost to Trump in early November. To cap off my horrible year, Cleo died.
Apollo was then like her reincarnation, albeit in the male form. But in almost all other respects – color, temperament and size – you could mistake Apollo for Cleo.
If Hayden is the sweetest house pet I’ve ever owned, then Apollo seems to be the “smartest” and the most “sensitive” fur baby I’ve ever had. Those two black round eyes see everything and he senses everything: every evening, whenever I bid them both goodnight as I leave to sleep elsewhere, he would walk over to his bed and completely ignore me, while in the morning whenever I emerge from the bedroom dressed and reach for my cologne (in the living room) he will again do the same and completely ignore me. As if he knew it was time he was going to be left behind again.
So Saturday I made up my mind – for all that he has been to me (the irreverent middle child mirror image of me!) and to Hayden (the long-serving deferential younger dog), I would give him a treat and bring him to Luxuri Pets, a grooming center at the Forbestown Center in BGC for some well-deserved grooming.
When we arrived at 10 a.m. Apollo was shivering – he wasn’t used to traveling without Hayden and I knew he was in a strange environment since the last time I brought him there was before the pandemic. (Or maybe he sensed it was too swanky a place for both of us!) He reminded me too of myself and how I cried on the day of our Kindergarten exams when my father dropped me off. But I had to do what fathers do and left him in the care of the groomer before walking out and not looking back.
A little over an hour later they were done – and a much whiter, better smelling and calmer Apollo happily jumped into my arms, his grooming costing me exactly ₱1,999, a few I could still afford while I remained employed.
Enjoy being in the lap of Luxuri, Apollo; loyalty has its rewards. Oh, but once I retire, we will just shower together!