March 2008, PHISSUG (Philippine SQL Server Users Group) officers Vince, Mike and Dennis and yours truly trekked Taal Volcano for some landscape photography binge. We left Manila before 4am with this handsome puppy! The story was that, as I left home, I noticed this pup was following me as I walked from home to where the guys would fetch me. It was basically a couple hundred meters walk from the house. The pup would follow me as I noticed 2 cats were harassing the poor puppy. I dunno who the owner was as it was still around 4:00am and every house I passed by were still close and their lights off. Got pity on the pup and shoo’d away the cats and decided to let him follow me. Thought he would give up chasing me but he would to no end until I got to see the PHISSUG guys.
We all decided to bring him along. I took the responsibility of carrying him. And man, he was heavy for a little pup. Despite having a camera, a backpack and a tripod, I carried him. Once in the vehicle, the pup would cry and would only stop if I attend to him. Instant bonding!!! Me, now a surogate parent to this poor fella.
We reached the foot of the volcano just after daybreak and we decided to trek up to the crater. By this time, everybody we met took notice of this puppy like a celebrity and everytime they asked, we would tell them we only picked him up from nowhere.
As we had our ascend to the crater, I let the pup just walk and run with us. He would gamely follow us and would start to cry if he senses that I/we were gone (hahahha). Sometimes he would attempt to go back down. Sometimes he would chase and go with a horse that crossed our way. He did the walking and running until his tongue is almost on the ground (dont say animal cruelty, he seem to enjoy our company).
From this point onwards, I decided to carry this stocky little fella. I got him comfortable inside a Microsoft bag. All the way up to the crater, and he would just sleep inside the Microsoft bag. If he gets too heavy, I rest and he would just sleep beside me.
As soon as we reached the top, we let him loose. He would snoop around and he would sleep, watch the tourists around, eat, drink, etc. Seems he was happy with his life while my foot, my shoulder and my back were aching becuase of you know who.
We had our time photographing the beautiful volcano until it was time to go home. One thing wasn’t settled. I cannot bring him home. Pups were not allowed in my place. Dennis, Vince and Mike says … uh uh … negative!
Then we all decided to give him to a man who got to like him and found out he was assigned to provide security in the area.
Problem solved. But I felt sad to leave a new found friend behind. But the pup looks contented to be there and he looks happy and he seem to want to stay behind.
It was time to go, we bade goodbye and left.
I hope to go up there again with the PHISSUG guys and hopefully get to see how this pup had become. He must be a handsome dog now. The PHISSUG guys should reunite with an old friend someday!
This pup, the PHISSUG guys named him TAAL!
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Toto Gamboa is a consultant specializing on databases, Microsoft SQL Server and software development operating in the Philippines. He is currently a member and one of the leaders of Philippine SQL Server Users Group, a Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) chapter and is one of Microsoft’s MVP for SQL Server in the Philippines. You may reach him by sending an email to totogamboa@gmail.com
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