The rise of fur parenting

BY now, most of us have seen the tearjerker of a video that showed a three-year-old Golden Retriever named Killua, who died in the most unfortunate of circumstances. The virality and controversy of this news are testaments to the transforming relationship between fur parents and fur babies, and this evolution is presenting not only a myriad of opportunities but likewise challenges and calls to action.

My late dad grew up taking care of dogs in his ancestral home in Bacood, Sta. Mesa, as was the customary tradition back then to have dogs — if only to have an alarm system for the household — was a practical deterrent to avoiding robbery and the like. When he had a family of his own, he continued to take care of our Japanese spitz dogs but the practicality of doing so remained ever present.