This year, July started in rain washed Kolkata. Inside a charming, spacious and cool penthouse on the 16th floor, while rain lashed the city and humid heat made pedestrians melt, I was catching up with the world of a dear friend and her family. Her niece had bunked her accountancy classes to spend the evening with me. She didn’t want to know about me, she just wanted to listen to dog stories and their new antics.
Such devotion made me promise her a regular doggy update, and in return she promised to read the other musings and descriptions which emerge on this blog page when I sit down to share them. The possible win-win potential of this promise won me over, and so here goes, for that lovely dog lover in my life!
Exactly a year ago, Cheetah had arrived home. She had been abandoned in Delhi..I had written a heartfelt application for adopting her..driven up through the rain and mists to bring her home..and finally, christened her Cheetah, which made many a person realise that a female cheetah is also termed “cheetah”..a minor gender bias issue!! In the past year, she has grown into a gentle, gorgeous and hungry dog…wants constant petting and feeding and playing.
I could take care of the petting and feeding, but play mates had to be supplied. Chutki walked in, a black and brown hill dog with soulful eyes, a bushy tail and mad mischief in every part of her body. She munched and mutilated three good shoes, the sofa corners and six table legs. She also presented chunks of decomposing animal pieces on the stairs, and earned the angst and ire of every other resident in our apartments.
While I was travelling and imbibing Vipassna, Chutki was taken to the market and left near a bakery. I was informed that her rotten meat presents had not helped her case, and some neighbours decided to get rid of her while her champion (me) was not around. It broke my heart. Guilt and remorse and sorrow swirled all around me, but I did try and put myself in the shoes of those neighbours. I concluded that if I had not been able to provide a secure home for Chutki, I needed to be prepared for this event. She was a free soul, and was not ready to live indoors.I was not in the position to keep her indoors in my absence.
It had been a long trip of three weeks and I was waiting to come home to cuddle Cheetah and Mili. They must have been missing me, they must have fretted over their meals, they must have looked longingly at the village road to spot the car. When I brought them back from Hema’s home, amidst all the licking and wagging and squealing, I noticed that both the dogs were looking good and healthy and shiny and happy..in fact they were looking gorgeous! Random people stopped me to remark on how good the dogs were looking, and I started wondering if I was the foster home for them!!
Hema and her family just adore the dogs completely. The children play with them all the time, there are fields of grain and potatoes to run around in, there are sunny spots and kitchen chairs to loll around in, and love surrounded them. These lucky doggy souls have two homes. Both homes are full of love and comfort and food, but the Hema home has doggy friends and kids to prance around with. Regular, monthly “pyjama parties” are being planned for Mili and Cheetah, when they will spend a happy weekend with the kids and I will spend a weekend without an early morning walk!
Till then, Mili is supervising photo shoots for our new range of children jackets, Cheetah is chomping raw beans instead of dog biscuits, Bruni is sitting at my feet and dreaming about chasing bulls and bikes, and SherSingh is staring at the dog brush and hoping I will leave this laptop and brush him into handsomeness again..
All is well in our doggy land and doggy home. Here’s hoping that all is well in your land and home too!