barkada

how serendipitous..

I’ve made it yet again the nick of time. I hope ya’ll had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving or Turkey Day. Mine was fun yet exhausting. I had four days off and still managed to be sleep deprived. Go figure lol

So most of ya’ll know know me well so you’ve probably already met my best friend. If not, you’ve seen me post dozens of photos and videos of my wonderful furry best friend all over social media. He is my favorite being in this entire world. Back when he was a baby (he still is, but we’re talking baby baby Kuma), I was his main best friend out of circumstance. These days, my best friend has three other best friends he actively plays with about 2-3 times a week. They play, hike, swim and cause trouble together.

One day, we were out without our little doggy friends and some dude mentioned to me that he feels weird that there are cliques at the dog park. I asked him what he meant by that and he began to tell me how he always sees a crew of people always laughing and pointing at their dogs as they terrorize other dogs. I giggled and he said something along the lines of “well I guess dogs will be dogs”.

Yes, he was talking about me and Kuma’s best friend’s humans. The dogs get along as well as their humans do. Our dogs play rough with each other all the time and they love it, but sometimes humans don’t understand that dogs are not humans. Their rough housing is play and yes we do laugh at our dogs when the biggest dog (Kuma) is being punked by the smallest dog (Lexi) of the dog pack. So this week, in light of the funny comment from the mysterious man at the doggy park, i’d like to introduce you to the Pawsadena Menaces.

Kuma is the largest baby of the pack. His half german shepherd and half husky mix make him a gorgeous good boy. The Vet never fails to mention that he could be on the cover of dog GQ if they ever made one. This gentle giant may just have a modeling career, maybe one day so he can pay for his own medical insurance and dog food.

Lexi is notorious for picking on puppies and letting every dog know who runs the dog park. She is the smallest (and oldest) of the gang so we like to make up stories that she has a Napoleon complex. Then again- she is a husky and if you’ve ever met a husky, you already know. They are super high energy and often vocal. Most husky owners I know compare taking care of a husky to taking care of a two year old that sheds. Lexi also has no eyebrows and i didn’t realize it until I was drawing a picture using references of the photos I’ve taken of her.

Henry is the sweetest gentleman to humans and most dogs. Only when he sees Kuma, does he act like he’s lost his mind. He gets jealous when Kuma plays with other dogs and proceeds to gnaw the hell out of his neck when Kuma doesn’t pay attention to him. I’m sure it’s because Kuma is his favorite. Henry is the golden retriever known for his evening sermons. Usually around 6pm, you’ll find Henry giving his evening lectures at the dog park. He will bark, yell and tell the whole world of his life for about 15-20 minutes. Some on-lookers look at us with dismay and probably wonder why his human doesn’t try to shut him up, but he’s really not disturbing anyone. It’s his world and we’re just living in it.

You know, this is the worst drawing of a dog on this planet lol I do not know what happened here, but it was already late and well, I must show James my drawing skills one day. So, Roxie is a mix of what her human believes is Rottweiler and possibly German Shepherd. She loves chasing dogs and double teaming puppies with Kuma. Her signature move at the dog park is preying on dogs and then tackling the shit out of them. She may have been a linebacker in a past life because she tackles in one fell swoop, just all full center gravity mass collision. This football player of a dog also takes a lot of shits. When I first carpooled with her and her human to the dog beach, she took a mean dump in my car. All is forgiven because she’ll lay on me to snuggle some evenings and since Kuma hates cuddling, it is the best.

That’s the gang or as they say in tagalog, that’s the BARKADA. BARK-ADA. Barkada means crew, gang, friends in tagalog and what an insanely wonderful pun for such a diverse and loveable group of doggos. Though it has only been a few months that Kuma has formed cute bonds with his doggy friends, it feels like they’ve been friends forever. The photo above was from Henry’s 2nd birthday party and it was our first time at a dog’s birthday party. We had so much fun and I only wish for more years of their bonds to grow. Their human’s aren’t so bad either :P

Until next time, my friends. I’m going to see Drake and Kanye with my boys tomorrow and i’m so damn stoked to sing along to every damn Kanye song with them 🤍

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week and the weekend with your very own barkada.