Ara and Celi: the beach dogs

When we arrived at JCAH Beach Resort, known for kiteboarding in Araceli, Palawan, we noticed many dogs running around.  One that particularly caught our attention was a small long-haired mocha dog.  She was extra giddy in welcoming us, as if we had already been friends, which is why we quickly opened our hearts and felt affection for her.

During our first meal at the resort, the mocha dog reached out to us and gave me puppy eyes. Who could resist those small brown eyes?  So I cave in.  The next thing I knew, I asked the owner what the dog’s name was, and after that, we started calling the mocha dog Ara.

News of free food spread quickly, and another brown dog started following Ara around.  She was more composed, which gave us the impression that she was older than Ara.  We asked the owner for her name and learned it is Celi. A guest also called her Peks (a wordplay on peklat), describing her distinctive wound marks.  No wonder they always seem to go around together, since their combined names are just the island name split in two. 

Our days at the resort quickly changed from a place where we simply rested after a day’s work into a home where Ara and Celi always hung around us, wherever we went, even to the beach.  They even slept outside our room for the whole duration of our stay and made themselves comfortable.  It’s as if they have been waiting for us, and we have finally come, which made them glad.

Because my friend Mae and I have a fondness for dogs, with Mae having 9 at home, we kept leaving them water outside our room before we went to fieldwork.  The first time, we were surprised by how thirsty they seemed, so we got another tabo filled with water. And every day, when we return, the tabo always gets empty.  Mae and I can’t help but wonder where they get their water from every day. 

Waking up every day also became extra special because I knew that when I opened the door, Ara and Celi would always be waiting outside, still curled up or lying down, awake and sitting up, or out by the beach guarding their turf and chasing away dogs not from the resort. 

One afternoon, while I was by the beach, soaking in its beauty, Ara kept digging in the sand near me.  She kept digging and digging, and I thought she was looking for something.  But after some observation, which also amused me, it seemed that digging was just her way of having fun.  My friend Mae also noted that Ara might just be bored, which might be right.  Because when we started to walk away from the beach and back to our room, Ara was quick to move away from the already deep pit she had made, and galloped with joy ahead of us.

It became a routine to have Ara and Celi during our stay in JCAH beach resort, so leaving them felt like leaving a family member behind.

I never thought that it would still break my heart as much as it did, even though I already knew that goodbyes were inevitable.  I thought that I could casually go out of the resort the way I came, but Ara and Celi have already changed that.  On our last day, having our luggage in tow, Ara must have understood what was happening, so she kept leaping up to me and tugging my pants back to where I came. She really tried to stop me from leaving with her little teeth digging through the hem of my pants.

Perhaps, in resignation, she stopped after I tried to gently push her away, and she started to walk with me to the van instead.  Then she sat, looked around, maybe with reality dawning on her: we are leaving, and there is no stopping us.  She looked at everybody in the team, walked with me as I entered the van, and ran around the vehicle as we closed the door.

While all these were happening, Celi kept her distance, sitting and watching.  Maybe goodbyes are hard for her, too?

As our van drove away from the resort and back to the main road, while I tried to hold back my tears by gnashing my teeth together—by the way, the tears still kept coming—I looked back one last time only to find Ara and Celi by the resort gate, watching our van drive away.  I cried in silence while allowing the space between us to carry away the pain.

And that’s the last memory of Ara and Celi.

I want to preserve as much as I can, so I wrote this blog post in memory of Ara and Celi, the beach dogs.

If you visit JCAH Beach Resort in Araceli, Palawan, please be kind to them—offer them water and feed them.  They will surely make your stay memorable as they did for us.