Last week, this time, it was Peppu and me getting ready for our daily forest romp. Water and bowl and mobile in bag, we set off with Bruni, Kajal, Choti and Mystery. Fun at the cracked water pipe, fun in the pine-needle filled pit, fun with stone chasing and wind ruffling. That evening, I could feel Biskit around me—sniffing behind the pine trees, running past the next corner, barking in the distance. Three months have not diminished that lost feeling and the yearning to touch her soft fur, just once more.The phone rang at that precise moment of grief, and I was sharing my loss and pain with a dear friend at Chandigarh. Her empathy and concern even got me wondering if I should now think of bringing home a new girl, to help me deal with the loss of Biskit.
Today, this time, it is Luchi, Peppu and me getting through the third day of hurricane-and-hilarious-chaos. 49 days old, with evil/adoring eyes, craziness in every brown hair of her body, Luchi has opened up my heart to love and life in her very own special way.
It sure has taken a lot of activity to bring Luchi home from Chandigarh.
My dear friend, Sushma, just happened to find a golden cocker spaniel puppy who had just been weaned from the mother and was just ready to leave for her new home.
For me, bringing Luchi to Ranikhet became a case of “killing many birds with one stone”
Delhi for a day to meet Baba. I got a feel of the heat of the plains and picked up my daughter who flew in to bring the pup home.
Chandigarh for a day, via a broad, well engineered, boring highway. We met our little girl and the name, Luchi, just clicked with this Bengali foodie family. A quiet evening with my friend in her calm surroundings (Chandigarh does have a peaceful and clear feel about it), and we were ready to drive home.
11 hours of cross country driving through State highways and bye lanes. It turned out to be a comfortable experience, thanks to GoogleMaps and my excellent navigator-cum-puppy-handler-daughter. I am all praise for an App which makes redundant, that familiar highway driving question, “Bhaiya/Bhai Sahib, how do we reach place “x”?” and then wonder if the directions are close to reality.
We drove through small towns, crowded lanes, hot railway crossings, summer thunderstorms and deserted hilly roads to bring Luchi home. She knew, all along, that it was her home-coming drive, and was a model traveler all the way to Ranikhet.
3 days of Luchi….3 days of Barrcuda behavior….3 days of fragmented sleep/ total distraction/complete absorption in Luchi antics…and so much more! Pepper is growing to like her ( a trifle grudgingly) and I watch quietly while Luchi sidles up to snoring Pepper who continues to sleep as if there is no change in the doggy atmosphere of this house.
Luchi has opened up a different part of my heart and its expanding by the hour. It’s a joy to savor her affection and total love for me. I watch her every action, and knitting/writing/visiting others—its all taken a back-seat! I am so, so glad that I have got another chance to love and be loved by a canine cutie.
I still miss Biskit deeply…I can still feel her presence around me and she continues to occupy a major part of my heart.
“A good dog never dies, she always stays, she walks besides you on crisp autumn days when frost is on the fields and winter’s drawing near, her head within our hand in her old way.”
– Anonymous
But then, life goes on…and other good dogs walk into the heart and stay…for always!
Mala, she’s SO CUTE. Why are they so cute??!!
Oh… I would come there just to see her at this puppy stage. So glad you decided to get her.