Daily TribuneThe greatest joy of sharing your life and home with a doggy friend is that dogs give you “feel-good vibes” almost instantly. It is really difficult not to cheer up, even after a hard day’s work, when you are greeted with — often vocal — enthusiasm by a friendly dog.
Lap dog: Tweetie de Leon- Gonzalez offers her lap to Whiskey, the Giant Poodle.
Tweetie and Whiskey.
“I guess my love for dogs must have rubbed off on my kids,” laughs Tweetie De Leon-Gonzalez, who grew up caring for dogs.
Tweetie, who is married to Jose Ramon “Mon” Gonzalez, president of Conmech Construction, has four kids: Sabina, Lorenzo, Nicolas and Alfonso; and five fur kids: Tson (Boxer), Rocket (Husky), Lucho (Mini Golden-Doodle), Bowie (Husky) and Whiskey (Giant Poodle).
Tweetie’s down-to-earth personality and unassuming nature make her such a delight to share pet love stories with. “Not too many people know that I love dogs,” she says. “And that I have had a dog almost all my life — at every stage of my life.” “Of course, when Simba passed at 11 years, two years ago, I said ayaw ko na (I don’t want another dog),” begins Tweetie. “I didn’t want to have another dog. It is so painful when they go.”
Her mother-in-law, who saw Tweetie was grieving, asked, “What is the lesson?”
At the time, she said, “Never to get a dog again. The loss is too painful.”
Fast forward to two months later, she got a Mini Golden Doodle, Lucho. “He is our first small dog,” she says. “He took to my daughter, so he stays with her. He is two years old now.” Whiskey arrives As she talks about her fur family, Whiskey, a 10-month-old Giant Poodle, enters the room and takes his place beside his fur mom. “This dog was given to me,” she smiles. “He’s my dog. I feel he was meant for me.”
A friend of her husband who was interested in getting a giant poodle learned that Tweetie liked dogs — and was learning more about the breed through IG — asked Tweetie if she was interested in seeing one. “I told my husband I wasn’t free that day,” Tweetie says. “So, that was that.”
And then one day, Tweetie got a call from a friend who told her that her sister was looking to rehome her Giant Poodle.
Serendipity: A fateful twist.
It so happened that this friend, who bred a litter of Giant Poodles for her family, was in touch with the same breeder as her husband’s friend. Tweetie was told that her name came up when they were considering a family to rehome the Giant Poodle.
“So, if I had been available the day my husband asked if I wanted to see a dog, it would have been Whiskey,” Tweetie shares. “I said ‘yes’ even if I hadn’t asked my family. I said ‘yes,’” she laughs. And then in a matter of days Whiskey arrived. “It has been a honeymoon ever since.”
Whiskey is Tweetie’s first poodle ever— and she has only good words about him, so far.
“Whiskey is playful and intelligent, but he can be naughty, too,” she shares. “He knows his place in the family. He’s the youngest of all the dogs, so he knows he is not the alpha. He is a happy dog.” In a previous conversation I had with Tweetie a few years back, I asked her, “Is there a perfect dog breed for a model?”
“I really don’t know, but if we stereotyped it, I think it would be a Poodle,” she laughed. “Because Poodles are usually fashioned, groomed and dressed. They are known to be aristocratic and have a lot of elan.”
I ask Tweetie about dog breeds.
“It wasn’t really a matter of choosing a breed of dog to have,” she begins. “We are just so lucky that we have been chosen to take care of such good-looking and good-natured doggies. And four of our dogs have been rehomed to us, Whiskey included.”
It is getting late, so I ask one more question. If you could have another pet, what would it be?
“I’d like to have birds, but they are just more beautiful when they are free,” she quips.
Perhaps, the greatest joy of sharing your life and home with a doggy friend is that dogs give you “feel-good vibes” almost instantly. It is really difficult not to cheer up, even after a hard day’s work, when you are greeted with — often vocal — enthusiasm by a friendly dog.
