We do a pack walk every Sunday at Ayala's car-free Sundays

We brought our chocolate Labrador from Sweden. We live in the Dumaguete area and Buddy gets a lot of attention. Many people have never seen a (mostly) well-behaved dog of that kind. We had a problem when we stayed in Manila for a couple of days. Buddy always wants to pee on grass, and that was somewhat hard to find. We don't have that problem where we live now.

They keep dogs in cages under the sun all day long here

People here regularly point out just how expensive it is to bring in animals. Thousands of US dollars.

People love dogs here. There's an anti-animal-cruelty law from the '90s. It's much better than Vietnam, for example. Dogs are allowed in malls, on domestic flights and in many hotels. There's also a Grab Pet service.

Yes. I live in a province where almost every house has at least two dogs. Keep the shots up to date, because your pet can easily catch distemper or parvo just by sniffing another dog through the fence.