Chewing was for sissies. I was growing up and growing up like a real dog. I loved to bite, the harder something was to bite the better it was. From blue pen caps to slippers, from soft toys to the little girl's clothes, I just loved to chew. My food didn't give me a lot of opportunity to exercise my carnivorous desires and everyone quickly sensed it (or should I give myself credit for dropping the hint?). Soon they started giving me a long roll - crispy and tasty. So good that I voraciously devoured it in a matter of seconds even if it sometime choked me.
Though I loved eating my food, I used to always insist that the little girl should sit with me when I ate. She was the only one who used to completely concentrate on me eating my food, however long I took, and I loved the attention. One fine day, when I was demanding more attention, the girl stood up and left. The effrontery shocked me, but I was more worried that I overdid it and she won't come back. My doubts lasted only a few seconds when she came back with a long roll in her hand. My eyes lit up and I smacked my tongue in delight as she put it near me. Before I could snap at it, she took it near the milk. I still aimed for the roll, but she tightly clutched on it with a finger pointing at the milk. Hrrrrrmmmph... The negotiation was on. I quickly gobbled up a few mouthfuls of milk and confronted her for my reward. Grudgingly, she held out the tail end of the roll for me. I snatched as much of a bite as I could and hurriedly ate it. Once again she repeated the exercise and I was growing tired of the negotiation. So the next time she held out my milestone achievement reward, I seized the opportunity and tugged the whole roll with all my might. I could feel it slip from her hand and quickly grabbed the rest of it. I let out a menacing cry of victory as she tried to snatch my prized possession away from me and ate it up fast. She let out a huge sigh and held out one more roll and did not give it up until I finished eating. Though I won the clash of the titans, she had more patience than I always did. She could sit there by my side for hours if I were willing to fuss, so if I could not run away from her clutching grip, I usually ate my food for fear of boredom. Our negotiation patterns always changed. Sometimes, I could get away easy but invariably not. One day, she broke up the roll into small pieces and mixed it in my food giving me little scope for negotiation until I cleverly ate up only part of my food which had a substantial quantity of the roll. Score. She then had to mix more roll into my food. As long as I got my attention and my roll, I was a content little puppy.
I was running around in the house one day, when suddenly the whole family started taking out things - a mat, a bag of clothes, a bottle of water and hey, they took my water cup. They then scooped me in their hands and put me into a big vehicle. The man in the house turned something and I heard a rumbling sound (the same one I heard everyday when the man went out). Then suddenly we all started moving even though my legs were not. I was getting dizzy with excitement as I saw the vehicle moving out of the gate - After I had entered the house, I had not gone out of the gate. There were so many things to do in the house and the garden, that barring my occasional curiosity when I put my nose out the main gate grills, I had no idea of the world outside. I jumped on to the boy's lap and cautiously put my head out as a gale of wind blew my ears. And the cool wind was brushing across my face as long as the vehicle was moving. I was so excited, that not even for a moment I took my head out of the window of freedom. I could see other such vehicles, some which were open and with people sitting outside. I could see more people walking on the road and even spot a few dogs like me. The vehicle moved up sometimes, went down some other times, but it always seemed to be going somewhere. Then we finally reached a place where I could smell something strong. I started sniffing the air trying to register it and we were moving closer to the smell. The wind was different now because it was blowing even when the car stopped. Everybody opened the door and the man took me in his hands and let me down. I went berserk looking around me.
I have never seen such a big place. Ever! There was sand all around me, as far as my eyes could see. And the breeze was so good. I started running around everywhere as the boy held on to my chain and ran with me. I went left and then thought I might miss something to my right and then wanted to find out what was ahead of me. It was bliss. The boy now tugged me in a different direction and I was more than happy to explore anything. I ran to see everybody else had sat down on the mat and were chatting. What did they want me to do? I can sit at home not here. But with no one to run with me and a little parched from all the activity I sat down to drink water. Suddenly, I don't know what possessed me, but I started digging. What was I expecting to find? I have no idea but I started digging ferociously with my front paws pushing the sand behind. When the sand obstructed my hind legs, I moved forwards and pushed it with my hind legs. I was learning a lot - the sand was wet and it was not as loose as the top surface though it was less coarse. I continued digging my trench all around the mat till the sun went down.
When I got tired I sat down on the wet sand. To my annoyance, every once in a while, some person came with a box or basket towards my territory. Didn't I just mark my territory? I got so annoyed that I pounced, barked and chased them away. My family quickly patted me and they probably liked me protecting them from strangers. After a while, the man took me in his arms and everybody started walking somewhere. I could hear something rumble - rumble louder than my stomach. Probably there was a big dog I was going to see. We walked on more and more sand before I could see rolling water, splashing back and forth. The family put me down and took me near the water. The sand was soaked wet here and suddenly something was coming towards me. It would not stop even if I moved backwards and suddenly the cold water engulfed me. Startled I ran back and I guess even the water got startled as it receded back. Once again I was cajoled to move closer and suddenly the water started attacking me. I hated getting wet and hated getting wet with cold water. I ran back again but the water chased my guts out. Ok, it was time to make peace. I decided to let the water have its territory and not go near it as long as I had all the dry sand to me. Mentally making my pact, I ran back to the sand.
Soon after Ceiloo got accustomed to our house, he started teething. We had to adapt quickly to his growing desire to bite everything. No more could we carelessly throw pens around on the couch, leave toothrushes in the lower shelves, or leave hawaii slippers outside the show rack. Every morning we learnt a lesson of what other thing had to be hidden and how we could puppy proof the house. The ordeal was more pronounced for me, as he loved to tug my Salwar bottom as I got ready for school in the morning. In my hurry to catch the bus, I used to often drag a rapidly growing stronger puppy pulling my leg. I used to fondly think he wanted me to be home with him even when my pants snapped under the canine force.
To enable his teething process, we found some beef rolls in Nilgiris and some chew bones at the vet. The rolls were an instant success. Ceiloo loved them so much that we decided to use it for positive reinforcement. However, our astute pet repeatedly taught us that there was only limited scope for us to enforce anything on him.
Since Ceiloo was still a young puppy, we did not take him out for walks. our large garden gave him ample space to exercise though he felt a compelling need to pee and poop inside the house. Toilet training was a more arduous task than just leaving him in the garden and needs a chapter of mention by itself.
Our family loved to go to the beach and enjoy the cool breeze that gave us some respite from the scorching afternoons in Chennai. Our newest family member had to a part of this docile party. Ceiloo's first beach party got us as excited as he did - from enjoying the drive in the car to running wild the vastness of the beach, we could swear he was the happiest in this place. Much to our astonishment his German instincts of chasing badgers kicked in as he dug the sands of Marina all evening, taking his breaks only to chase away the urchins who sold snacks in the beach. Having seen animals naturally swimming the rivers on National Geographic and Animal Planet, we thought Ceiloo would love the water too. However the tempest of the Bay of Bengal did not match that of Ceiloo and he quickly seeked the comfort of the dryness of the sand. After his first exciting adventure, we came home in another eventful car ride for Ceiloo with a memorable chapter in our lives. After drinking water in plenty, Ceiloo realized his fatigue and retired almost immediately to more dreams about the sand and his next visit to the beach.
1 comment:
Nice written, brings a smile to my face :)
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