The kids adopted him from my cousins in Tarlac when we visited. They have a house full of cats and there was a new litter of 5 kittens. Penguin was the only one who came right up to us so we snatched him without hesitation.
He fell right at home when it came to it. Roaming the yard, playing with dry leaves on the ground and basically purring all over the place to get his ears scratched and looking so cute so we would give him crumbs from our plates.
And then he goes and tries to run inside the house before the screen door closes, so he would end up like this a few times a day!
Sometimes he just likes to stare out the front gate, watching the kids playing around and the cars driving past.
But this is favourite thing in the world – sleeping! Preferably on someone’s lap, and the kids are just too eager to accommodate him.
My parents’ house is home to a few other critters, including Barack. So called because they brought him home when Barack Obama won the American Presidency. Look at those eyes!
She likes to lick things, including the wall esp after the rain! And she eats like a maniac – grabs the bowl with her paw and doesn’t even stop to breathe while she hogs the food. Then she whines and whimpers when the others are still trying to enjoy their supper so we would give her more.
Another new addition to the kennel (!) is 4-month old Panda, a Japanese Spitz. He’s actually smiling in this photo but you can’t tell because of those ferocious-looking fangs! he is a cutie though and loves to run around in the morning and terrify the other dogs in the neighbourhood. he still sleeps in a cage until he gets used to being around the house, in case he wanders near Spy’s cage and gets strangled to death! 
Speaking of Spy, here he is. A pitbull terrier who replaced dear old Rocky. He looks almost identical to Rocky except Spy is a little kid and still not quite house-trained. He loves playing with the water hose, barking until you splash the water on him and he tries to chase it. he is a gentle soul though and is very good in alerting us when anyone suspicious comes around the house.
There are two other dogs who stand guard acrosds the road at our house but I didn’t get a chance to take photos of them. I did take a photo of Toti, a Dalmatian owned by my father-in-law. He’s got pale blue eyes which look quite menacing actually, but he just loves to be pet!
One fine Sunday, we had a visitor outside the house. he caused quite a racket as all the other dogs felt threatened. Who wouldn’t be with this thing?!
His owner was taking him out for a walk and the guy had the chain warped around his body, and he is quite bulky mind you, so that the dog won’t drag him. he is a fighting pitbull and has a few scars to prove it. Really scary dog.When we went up to the Manaoag Shrine, we came across this cutie pie just outside the back of the main altar. he was so cute that I had to take a photo. He smelled a bit though, must be the heat.
One day in my mother’s garden, I was taking photographs of her prized orchids. Well., they’re not exotic or anything but she said it was the first time in 10 years that the flowers actually came out. So I had to record it for Pete’s sake! On the ledge with some plants were these bugs! I got so scared I almost fell off the chair I was standing on! As it turned out, they were not bugs but the exoskeleton of bugs after they have shed their old skin!
Seriously, don’t they look alive to you? Bernie had the bright idea of taking one with a stick and using it to scare the kids. It worked on Eileen who squealed like a little girl when the bug was thurst in front of her.
On Eileen’s birthday lunch, the kids took over the camera. More on those photos later. Joseph found these 3 houseflies having a conference and decided to take photos for the company records. I wonder what they were talking about?
I got to use my macro lenses too! This pretty but scary jumping green spider showed up near the kitchen and scared the heck out of us. My mom grabbed an empty jar with a lid and stuck the poor guy in there so that I could take photos. How sweet of my Mom right? As soon as I opened the jar, this guy jumped up to who-knows-where and I almost dropped the camera!
Back to Manaoag. When we were queueing up to the back of the alter, this dragonfly landed on this lady’s arm and hitched a ride. The little fellow stayed there for a good 10 minutes so I was able to take this photo.
I hope you enjoyed this post. I had a great time taking these photos, and more! No animals were hurt at any time when taking these photographs. 
Ten Thousand Dancing Stars 