Guard puppies in a cathedral

On Thursday, the class I just taught took a field trip to visit various historic sites and museums in Cebu City:  the Yap San Diego, the Casa Gorordo, the museum of the Cathedral, and the Fort San Pedro down at the harbor. 

The cathedral museum has a guard dog:  a large, beautiful animal who had had puppies within the past several weeks.  These puppies seem to have the run of the ground floor of the museum.  They followed up as we looked at some of the Cathedral's treasures, including an altar (10' x 4' x 4'?) that is encased in silver, cast in high relief with scenes of the life of Christ.  Here, too, was a wheel about 2 feet in diameter, fixed in a frame, which you spin by turning a handle.  Twelve bronze bells are affixed to the outside of the wheel's rim, with the open mouths of the bells facing outward.  As you turn the wheel, the bells ring.  It's a lovely sound. 

One of the guard puppies even tried to climb the stairs with us to the second floor. He made it only part way, stopped and yapped for a bit, and then went to sleep under the stair until we went down, at which he tumbled back down the stairs after us.