Artist Reply: Update, March 7, 2007: Oh well! I am now the proud owner of Shoubi! Lucky or what - this dog?!! Her (now previous) owners had Shoubi back off me today and in true Filipino style, soon had her couped-up again in the cage - about the size of a rabbit hutch - that I had rescued her from one year ago. It turned out that yes, they did want the dog back, afterall. They neaded the money and were planning to sell Shoubi. Well Shoubi is one dog that I will NOT allow to be kept in a cage or on an 18 inch length of chain for the rest of her life... (Theat's how about 98% of the dogs in this country are kept.) So, to cut a long storey short, I bought Shoubi for the princely sum of 10.000 pesos - more than a month's salary here for a nurse, teacher or hotel receptionist. And the reason I say Shoubi is so lucky? Until 24 hours ago, there was NO WAY I'd have been able to afford the 10,000 pesos her owners were asking. But I'd only just managed to sell some paintings (the works of a local artist friend of mine) and the money came in just in the nick of time!!!

Artist Reply: Update on Shoubi... When I got back from work a few weeks ago, Shoubi had a terrible swelling and infection on her snout. She had been in a fight with a BIG rat, while I was away. (She won! ...One wounded dog and one very big, very dead rat!) The wound has healed nicely and she has got over the infection - although she still needs to regain some weight... Had a big shock today... My Tagalog is not that good and I misunderstood Shoubi's owners. I thought they wanted her back! Turns out it was only her cage that they wanted. (I rescued Shoubi from a cage and they simply replaced her with some other poor dog...) Anyway, they were welcome to the cage. Shoubi sleeps inside the house now anyway - although I will have to provide her with some shelter from the upcoming typhoons before I go away again in April