Marife Ramos teared up as she looked at her 8-year-old son nestling his 2-month-old puppy, Conrad yesterday.
The puppy, she said, reminds her of her husband, Ulysses, who was killed in a vehicular collision along Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City, which spared Marife, their three children, and the dog.
A cement mixer toppled over and crushed the Ramos family’s sedan Tuesday, killing the 34-year-old Ulysses. Marife broke her right arm while the 3 children suffered minor scratches.
Rescuers meanwhile saw Conrad following one of the crash survivors who was walking away from the wreckage, according to a staffer of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), whose personnel were among the first to respond to the scene.
READ: Puppy found near cement truck wreckage in Quezon City
Jail officer Jenny Ramirez told ABS-CBN News that the puppy was brought to the crash survivors as they received first aid in an ambulance. The family asked rescuers to hold on to the puppy for safe keeping. A BJMP employee brought the dog to their office nearby.
“Of course, my colleagues attended to the dog. He was shivering at that time,” she said in Filipino
Ramirez, herself an animal lover, was among those who cared for Conrad. No stranger to caring for animals, she has 11 dogs at home, six of which she found abandoned on the streets. She said she understands the bond between a dog and its owners so she did not think twice about bringing Conrad back to his family
“I know how the mother must have felt,” she explained. “Actually, the puppy is already part of the family so I must bring him back to them.”
READ: Cement truckcrashes on family car killing 1 and injuring 4
Yesterday night, Ramirez and a workmate brought Conrad to Ulysses’ wake at a funeral home in Quezon City to personally hand him over to the family.
First to welcome the puppy was Ulysses’ 8-year-old son, whose eyes lit up at the sight of his friend. He could not stop petting the puppy, as Conrad rested benignly on Ramirez’s arms.
Ramirez hopes returning the puppy to the family will help them cope with their loss.
“I became emotional at the thought that they lost a family member,” she says of the experience. “But they will manage to get by with the help of their immediate relatives,” she said.
The Ramos family have so far refused to grant any media interviews but they told ABS-CBN News Ulysses bought the dog on Tuesday morning as a surprise gift for his kids. That afternoon, the entire family decided to dine out and get groceries together with the puppy when the fatal road accident occurred.
They may have lost a family member, but for them, Conrad’s return means a lot. The puppy’s presence will serve as a constant reminder of a loving father and husband they once had.
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