A Mother's Love
Cynthia decided to stay in Cavite to help look after the house with Cheryl while Lorenzo raised a family back in Antipolo. She saw the big dog that left red paw prints the same as her former daughter Sopia. Every time when Cynthia goes out the big dog will jump on her and lick her fingers. She would fondle its ears and play fetch with it. But she also had to look out for it when it goes on hunting. Having experienced a monkey getting killed by the dogs, she made sure that all the other animals didn't suffer the same fate. The big dog also had a habit of licking blood from people's wounds. This was something Cynthia was disgusted with and would do anything to hide it from plain view as well as teaching it not to bite and muzzling it when necessary.
But lately the big dog went missing. Cynthia was out of the house tracking down its red paw prints on the sidewalks. She went around looking for it until she went to some wooded area and found lots of truly stray dogs. Some of them were running away from her while one was going to charge her. Cynthia had to get out before any of these dogs attacked her. Then she saw more paw prints, leading her to a site where she saw the big dog with its puppies. Cynthia also sees another dog but it was barking a lot at her. The big dog joined in and she had to go back home as quickly as possible.
Cynthia went back home to see that Cheryl is applying ointment to one of the puppies' eyes. Then she fed the puppies and their mother with leftovers. Cynthia smiled when she saw them, because they reminded her of the big dog's own litter. But she asked Cheryl about what happened to the big dog.
"So what happened to Sopia? I went out looking for her." She drinks a cup of soy milk.
"Madam Cynthia I did the same thing too. I remember finding her in the forest where she was with another dog for several weeks. She didn't return." Then she feeds one of the puppies a piece of pig lard.
"How did she get out?"
"I often went out so Sopia escaped and ran to somewhere else where she found another pack to join. That's also where she found her mate."
Both Cynthia and Cheryl took turns feeding and bathing the dogs. They also took time to clean up their waste and make sure they are safe and sound. Since the two didn't want one of their dogs to get lost like what happened to the big one, they had to make the fences high enough for them to not jump over it. They also added gates around the trees so that the dogs wouldn't kill other animals like what happened to the poor monkey.
At night, Cynthia prayed to God that Sopia would be safe and sound. In her dream, Sopia was no longer human but a happy dog who would visit her from time to time. The big dog went inside and brought her to a nice garden full of exotic flowers. It also played with the children who all called it "Mother". From then on, Cynthia would go outside to visit the big dog because she knew it was her daughter all along.
