MANILA, Philippines — Many families or individuals keep a pet or pets for either companionship or even for security purposes. In our case, we have had a succession of dogs of different breeds – from extremely huge ones, including a prehensile wolf, to itty-bitty ones – that have given us different degrees of friendship and happiness.

Some 30 years ago, we got our first Pug and then had about 7 others.

It was our first love affair with small dogs that had that puckered face look that only mothers or dog lovers could love.

For the past 5 years, we have had this wonderful Boston Terrier named Hondo who has endeared himself to us and to many of our neighbors and friends.

Imagine, therefore, the sadness that one will feel at the loss of a special pet friend. When I was a kid growing up, we noticed that our prized German Shepherd – that had a wonderful and rare fawn coat – went missing.

It was only a few days later that some neighbors told us they saw a suspicious vehicle circling the front gate of our garage that was open and where our dog was sunning himself.

In short, our dog was probably stolen.

One day, our Hondo went missing, and I got frantic texts from the wife and sons to come home and help look for him. I could actually visualize them crying and feeling very sad because of this event.

Well, before I got home, I got a text telling me that our dog had been found inside a cabinet. Apparently, our dog has this habit of insinuating himself wherever any of his masters or his favorite mistress, the woman of the home, go.

Thus, when the cabinet was opened he stepped in and then got locked in when it was closed. He has this habit of keeping quiet, but apparently started barking when he heard his name being called by all the people at home!

Thus, I am now looking at the possibility of getting a GPS system that can be placed in Hondo’s collar. At the very least, as long as his collar maintains its integrity, he can and will be found.

Of course, if some SOB decides to turn him into pulutan there will be nothing we can do.

No system is foolproof anyway, even in cases where sophisticated tracking systems are imbedded into wildlife species by scientists intent on tracking migratory patterns.

I checked the internet and found that any number of systems are available, mostly in the West where tracking systems are the norm.

Most of these have small devices that can be attached to a dog collar and keyed to one’s cellphone for tracking purposes.

It was a bit more difficult finding a stand alone system because these have to somehow still be plugged into a telephone or satellite system.

Unfortunately, since I have not had the time or the wherewithal to test any of these systems, I will have to be content to troll the net for a while until I find one such GPS system available locally and useful for pet-tracking.

Meanwhile, I just have to be hopeful that our precious pet will never go missing