About this book
I grew up in the suburbs of Manila during the 1970s and 1980s before moving to the U.S. when I was in my teens after a People Power revolution toppled our dictator president. Those events are told in my first book, an illustrated memoir called “Duran Duran, Imelda Marcos, and Me” (published by Conundrum Press in 2017). In my second book, I once more recall stories of my childhood, and this time I focus on the menagerie of pets that my family, for better or worse, kept over the years.
For many children, pets are their first experiences in dealing with death and loss. For me it was no different, and in these eight tales I reflect on how our behaviour with animals, while well-intentioned, can be thoughtless, at times even harmful. With great love comes great responsibility, and sadly we are not always up to the task. I have written these stories in a humorous, tongue-in-cheek tone, but underneath the surface there are some darker elements. My aim is for a younger person to read them and be slightly unsettled as they meditate on the impermanence of life and the power we hold in our relationship with nature.
My childhood experiences with animals helped me learn to process feelings of guilt and sadness, to live with discomfort, and to confront my own imperfections. Hopefully my book shows the lessons animals have taught me as I grew up. it is a reflection on how the bonds we form with them remain with us long after they are gone. From hapless frogs to a dog that kept trying to run away to a duck named Duke who at times seemed almost human, these animals and more are featured in “Eight Animal Tails Tales”.
Chapter 3: Learning to Ride
Chapter 4: The Strangely Ungrateful Dog
Chapter 5: Chicken Tinola
Chapter 6: Fritz
Chapter 7: The Duck Who Thought He Was Human
Chapter 8: And So, Goodbye