Doggone!

I am a nut for dogs. All my friends know I am canine-crazy. It's no surprise if you look at family. In fact, I was showing pictures from my India visit to a friend and she remarked that all of my relatives have dogs. And it's true. Every 'family' picture I took with my nearest extended family had a tail in it :) (And sometimes more than one).

My first 'pet' was called Dafli. I was about 2 years old when my family expanded to include her. She was barely a couple of weeks old and her chances of survival were pretty grim then. (It's family tradition to refer to our canine additions with gender-specific terms) But I guess she had something going really strong for her, in fact, it kept her going for the next 14 years. She was a healthy, sensible and beautiful white pom. Except that she probably never respected me too much. Not that I blame her. I was too little to not pull her tail or tweak her ears, and she was too 'bitchy' to forgive me. So she chose my sister to be her first love. But she did love me although I wasnt allowed comparison to her bond with my sibling.

We were shattered when she passed away (of old age). My sister was living in Pune for her education then. And I was very upset at the loss for a long time. Both my parents were too. And we wouldnt have got another dog had we not found it unbearable to not have a wagging tail greeting each of us everyday. We were just addicted to having someone who showed unconditional joy and rewarded us with affection for only just entering the house. That was hard to let go off. So in just a few weeks, kulfi came in.

This time I had no competition. Kulfi was also a white pom, but how different. Larger, more defiant, very stubborn and stupidly loving. She had the most compassionate large round eyes. And there was no question about whose companion she was. I dont believe I have loved anyone or anything beyond my first family as much as I have loved her. In fact, I have also never been as forgiving of anybody else. I would have probably murdered someone else for having eaten up my Engineering textbook, not once, but twice. So kulfi slept in my bed, hid her biscuit in my blanket and thought it was her birthright to treat me like I was her pet. And considering we were all mellowed down from Dafli's passing, we were slightly less eager to discipline kulfi too strongly.

Her passing remains in my mind as one of the worst things that could happen to me. For months I did not forgive her for leaving me that way. Only when my mother talked to me about it did I consciously let her go in my mind. My best fantasy is to be running around, playing with her in an open ground in some life.

My parents had got a little pup, a boy this time, some months after kulfi left us. But he didnt survive for too long. I had already moved out of my home for work, so I didnt really know 'Phulka' that well. But my parents had grown quite fond of him in his tiny lifespan.

We havent had any housepets since. We are too jittery about the pain of losing a pet now. But all of us foster pets in other ways. My parents have about 6 stray dogs who they feed and treat. 2 of them are actually blatantly flaunting their right to enter the house these days. Laalu, one of the strays, has been outside the house for the past 11 years actually. (He just followed kulfi home one day and they made a case for him to make our place his home... kinda :) ). He has expanded his gene pool and ably propogated his genes further, thus resulting in the 6 dogs we currently take care of.

In Pune, I adopted two stray puppies. I got them vaccinated and took good care of them, sometimes at the expense of my neighbours' affections. But unfortunate things happened to them. After having moved to the US, I currently just dream of one day having a house of my own, if only to have and care for a dog of my own.