God, nature, life has strange ways to prove you wrong, to unceremoniously remove those notions about yourself and to prove that we all are inconsequential beings, in plain words, only humans.
I had been proved wrong many times in my life but this time it was to be through a dog called Doggy. Doggy was a Pomeranian, a white one. I had this inherent dislikes for pets, not pets actually, but what comes along with them , the whole responsibility of looking after a pet. This , keeping a pet , was never a welcome thought in spite of my being in love in nature. And I used to think I would never adopt one , little did I know that one will adopt me someday.
When we moved to our house in Suranussi, Jalandhar, Punjab in 2003, very soon we had a visitor who intended to stay for quite some time. A white Pomeranian, with fluffy hair and beady eyes as Rocky ,my twenty year old son , puts it now; remembering him from deep recesses of his mind , would linger around our house, garage, lawn and backyard. He would bark a lot , irritate us and with Rocky, being just about one and half to two years old, we were quite apprehensive of this Dog around him. But he just wont go away. So I started giving him leftovers in the backyard and since it was winters he would sleep there itself .Later on we came to know that he belonged to our predecessors who on posting had left him behind. We all felt bad and before we could realize it , giving food to the Dog in the evening became a ritual with Rocky in tow, too eager to feed him.
Rocky called him Doggy and so we renamed him same .
Doggy would not bark at us, stay untied and bark at almost everybody else. Rocky was also quite comfortable with Doggy though I never used to get him inside the house as he generally stayed little dirty . Also initially I didn’t allow Rocky to touch him.
Doggy started surprising us every now and then and one day he got inside the car on the back seat just like a well bred trained pet that he knew he was, probably asking us to take him for a drive. He would lie on my feet , listen to us chatting , play with Rocky and me in the lawn. Playing in your own lawn , perks of Army life ,was fun and in turn Rocky and Doggy both used to get exercised. The intimacy level increased over next few weeks . He would accompany us to walks, he would see us off till the main gate of Officers Mess and he would wait for us to return whenever we would go out .
Everybody in the neighbourhood thought he was our pet. I remember one day he even accompanied us to our neighbour’s house for dinner and sat in centre of the lawn inviting all the attention, which he got and he simply loved it.
Since he would always be around Rocky, I took him once to a Vet for injection and got him injected with anti Rabies vaccine. He literally created a ruckus over there. He ran on the GT road, the main road , with peak hour traffic. I wonder now, how he survived that day and finally I had to get hold him to get him his injection. I was scared that he would bite me but he did nothing like that. The injection costed me Rs. 600/- in 2004 which I don’t think I would have readily spent for a injection on myself.
Doggy would accompany me, my wife and Rocky everywhere inside the Officers’ Colony and at times embarrass us by barking at all the Army personnel. One day he surprised me when he followed me till petrol pump, where I had gone for refilling my bike. The petrol pump was about 400-500 meters away from the main gate on main road with heavy traffic. I just kept my fingers crossed for him and his life on that day. I had grown attached to him .
Doggy became , over a period of time, part and parcel of our life. Rocky insisted that he should feed Doggy and at times was allowed to. He really used to get thrilled with that. Doggy could shake hand with me and Rocky. No matter how late or from where I came, I would find him waiting at the main gate from where he would escort me till our house .
One day, he tried to bite my wife when she was taking out his ticks . Many times I thought of giving him a bath , chain him and officially make him our pet, but my laid-back attitude and the busy life in Suranussi could not get me to do that.
We had spent a year with him, our backyard was his home , when I started expecting my posting. Since we were not very keen of keeping a pet and taking him with us we started looking for someone to adopt him.
I received my posting to Binaguri and my inquiries increased . Finally the Cook in the house showed interest to keep him and it was decided that he would go with him few days before we leave . I took long leave for preparation for Staff College Exams ,a prestigious course in the Army which is suppose to open your window to your career in the Army. Babu, my father was also with us for about a month and a half and he too became fond of Doggy. Babu would at times take Rocky for a walk where he would get Rocky Shahtut, mulberry fruit, with Doggy following them trying to protect Rocky.
It was a long leave and when the leave was about to come to an end, Wife started packing the house as we were to move to next station, Binnaguri.
The house had perhaps bore the same old devastating look for Doggy, with boxes moving in and out, being dusted and being packed. I am sure he would have smelt it too. Its difficult to say whether he was old enough or it was the thought of another family deserting him, leaving him. Doggy could take it no longer and one day morning he was found dead near the hedge in the back yard. I really felt bad and so wife and Rocky .Doggy was buried in the same spot, where he died in the back yard. Everybody’s guess was the same that it was not his age to die as he was quite healthy.
Like everything else, from that space and time, Doggy is no more and all that remains are memories getting fainter with time most vivid of them being Doggy, me and Rocky playing in our lawn, laughing running in circles and falling over each other.
WRITTEN :In memory of Doggy and our time with him
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