MY BEST FRIEND

Bunso is a Filipino word which means the youngest in the family. In reality, I am the youngest in our family but we consider him as the youngest. And being the youngest, family attention is focused on that person.

Actually, Bunso was a dog. He was my best friend. He was given to us by a friend of my mother. He was still a puppy then. Bunso had no breed. He was only an ordinary dog which Filipinos call “askal” which stands for “asong kalye” or a stray dog. But he was distinct and loved in his own ways. He was placed in a small box when he was given to us. He was a cute puppy with white and brown mixture of hair. He had lovely and convincing eyes that were surely attractive to everyone.

At the start, he slept inside the house and whenever I woke up, he would lick my face as if telling me “good morning.” He never stayed in the house long enough. Like other dogs, he would do his things everywhere that kept me cleaning the house.

We made a dog house for him but he never used it. He slept in the balcony where he kept guarding our house against strangers. He was like a little child as he was growing up. He was afraid of lightning and thunder that made him knock on the door by scratching the screen-door to say that he wanted to enter the house.

Whenever meal time came, we always called him by name and he would come running. He was used to calling him by his name that even though he was far, Bunso would run and hug us. He even liked dancing. Of course, a simple dance. He would stand up and walk towards us to hold him and do cha-cha.

He accompanied me outside just to stare at the stars and sometimes I even talked to him and told him stories and he would look at me as if he understood what I was telling him.

He was really a special friend. When I entered the seminary, he did not forget me. Every time I went home, at first he would bark but as I called him, he would immediately run towards me and hug me like saying how he missed me.

I know that he was my friend for a friend is someone you trust to be with him when you are at your weakest and most vulnerable. You always get your strength from a friend. Friends are people who, no matter how painful it is to see, are willing to be with you when you are so helpless and weak. If you would trust your life to him, and vice versa, you are friends. It’s not about whether he is trustworthy, or whether he is friendly. It’s the actual act of trust that is the basis of friendship.

I miss my friend towards the end. I realized how grateful I am to have Bunso as my friend. He was the first dog that lasted in our family for years. Before him no dog lasted for months for they were either afflicted with diseases or met an accident. He actually lasted more than eight beautiful years in the family. He would always be my best friend until the end.

He saw me grow up and vice versa. He was my protector, my guide. The more than eight years that he spent his life with us were indeed memorable. When it was time for him to go due to old age, I felt a pinch in my heart. I lost a special friend but his memory will forever linger on my mind.