Don't go by that angelic face!
"Labradors are lousy watchdogs. They usually bark when there is a stranger about, but it is an expression of unmitigated joy at the chance to meet somebody new, not a warning." ~Norman Strung
One of the most common traits that endears a lab to people is the joy that they display when they see you headed in their direction. Dukie is no exception. The only problem we had that was he would show the same love towards everyone, even if they were someone we particularly did not like. Well, you may call us immature but I sure didn't like it when this idiot rushed over and immediately started asking to be pampered from this person who I did not quite get along with. Or the fact that here you are trying to throw attitude and play it cool with someone you have only just met and your dog is already lying on the floor (In some cases, the middle of the road) and wagging his tail top speed and begging the other person to rub his tummy... Well, but that is also a quality you fall in love with, from the first moment, so you can hardly complain.
There have been times when Duke is yelling at someone standing just outside the gate and while the person is terrified, we know from Dukie's tone, that it is actually because he cant wait for the person to step in and pet him. If you own a lab, you know just what I mean. If you don't own one, you now know...
A friend of mine, who was also my roommate then, had come back from college one day and couldn't stop laughing. The reason was quite simple really. Her two wheeler had broken down that day and while she was getting it fixed, she noticed a 'Beware of dog' sign at a big, solid gate of a house that stood next to the puncture shop. She would not have given it a second glance if she had not noticed the stout cream colored furry tail sticking out from under the gate. Just wanting to make sure that she had guessed correctly, she whistled and the cream tail wagged with a speed only a retriever could manage... She was in splits imagining what on earth had made the owner put a 'Beware of dog' sign for a happy jolly Labrador! I mean, the lab utterly and completely humiliated any meaning or warning that the sign is meant to convey!
Dukie was a typical lab and while slowly he developed certain individualistic characteristics, he was always happy, energetic, hungry (even just after a big meal), naughty and a sweet baby. But we also had our bad days with him. He is also one of the most stubborn dogs I have ever met. If he has decided on something, he will do it anyways, whether you like it or no, so you might as well resign yourself to his intentions. The only person for whom he considers changing his mind is mamma.
So while he has brought us a lot of joy, he has also brought on a lot of exasperation and exhaustion for us. Most of this involved food or an attractive girl doggy that this Romeo of ours lost his heart to...
Some of the incidents, punishment or no punishment, that made this fur-ball more 'human' and cuter to us are:
1. No punishment required- Well, I have titled it so because you will realize how he got what he deserved and Papa couldn't bring himself to discipline him after that... We were in Delhi at the time and he had fallen head over heels for a street doggie while on his evening walks. The doggie would walk a few steps behind us and Dukie was always upset about us making him walk in the wrong direction :) We tried chasing her away but she doggedly (pun intended!) trailed us. One day, he found an opportunity to escape from home and took it quite happily. He found the girl doggie in no time but she was quite a charmer and kept this guy on his toes as she trotted off on the road. Our hero kept following her, well past our home area and onto the other side of a park that lay a little further away from our home. We were chasing him, screaming for him to stop, and he religiously ignored us.
But unknown to him, two stray male dogs had crept up behind him and were getting into a menacing attack position. By then the girl doggie had given him the slip and while this idiot tried to figure out where she had vanished off to, the two strays attacked him, one butt each :) He got bitten on his fat butt and didnt quite know which dog to attack first, let alone, how to start attacking them. We were so scared and immediately rushed to help this pig.
Papa had followed in 'Dukie's car' and when he saw what was happening, we bundled Duke up and put him into the car and went straight to the vet's.
I have not seen Duke look so embarrassed ever :) He kept quiet like a good boy through out and refused to look at any of us :) An injection and a verbal-telling-down later, he quietly got back into the car and drove home meekly with us!
2. Maybe Mr. Bhanot could've helped here- This one was in Delhi too. We were on the first floor which had a big attached terrace garden which opened out from the kitchen. Dukie was very happy with this area that he had declared his own and would sit there for hours, looking out at the road and barking at everyone passing by on the street below. One such sunny day, he was sitting with his face out the grills when suddenly the branches of the tree that grew alongside our terrace started shaking very violently. It took this idiot a couple of minutes to pull free his head from the grill and then make his way towards the branches. He stood there looking up at the branches when suddenly a few langoors jumped onto the terrace wall and started screeching.
Dukie was wild with excitement! He kept barking like mad, and mamma, watching all this from the kitchen, froze as she knew that langoors can be rabid and vicious. She tried calling him in but he wouldn't budge. He just stood there barking. I guess after a while, the langoors just got plain bored and decided to do some time pass, they took turns in coming up from behind Duke, pulling his tail and running away screeching! Hee hee hee, this pig was actually being harassed by monkeys and had no clue of how to get them to stop! The monkeys made laughing sounds as they pulled his tail and then took refuge in the tree branches! It took ma and a long stick to drive them away before we could pull in our stupid dog. All Dukie did, when his tail was being pulled, was whine :)
After that incident, whenever we heard or saw monkeys approaching, one of us would run to the terrace to bring Dukie in :) So much for dogs protecting humans, what a joke...
3. Do you believe in God? Duke definitely does- Dukie was barely a few weeks old when he quickly realized that sitting in the pooja room with papa on Sundays was a good thing. It wasn't the idol, the peace or even papa's chanting that kept him rooted in his place. It was the discovery that if he sat still through the half an hour, he would be rewarded with a plate full of yummy sweets (Known as prasad to us lesser mortals) and if he were lucky, a piece of fresh coconut as well...
So they (Pa and Dukie) both could be found every Sunday morning in the pooja room, both praying, one chanting, one praying silently for food while he waited.
Dukie's love for all things coconut has always fascinated us. We never quite understood why our mad dog loves fresh coconut so much. But one thing we understood quite clearly was that we were never to leave Dukie alone in a room full of coconuts.
He was barely a year old when we had gone calling on on our neighbors, wishing them a happy Deepavali. We had finished our Lakshmi pooja, had our dinner and had burst all the cracker stock that we had. Dukie was left at home, quite obviously, and we when we returned, barely a couple of hours later, mister was nowhere to be found. He had simply vanished and not until we looked into the pooja room did we know where we would find him. The temptation of seeing four or five coconuts kept in the pooja room had proved too much for him. When we spotted the missing coconuts, we went straight to ma and pa's room and knelt down and there he was. The thief was hiding under their bed and spread out in front of him were cleanly eaten eight or ten coconut halves. The minute he saw us he knew he was in trouble, so he stuck around in his bunker a little longer. When he knew the storm had abated, he made a soundless appearance and pretended nothing had happened :)
Again he wasn't punished because he had major tummy upsets for a few days after that. But we sure learned to lock up the pooja room when we went out :)
People say one learns from one's own mistakes. But quite obviously it does not apply to the dog species! Dukie has fallen for many other 'not-suitable' girl doggies, tried to steal many a coconut again, tried attacking monkeys again (Of course, the coward just used to bark from behind the netted kitchen door, same bravery he shows with cattle...) and has done many more silly things...
But one thing, luckily, he hasn't done yet, is help a thief rob our house! You know the thing is, I don't think it is due to some 'watchdog' quality of his. It is perhaps only because he never quite found the chance to do that! Touchwood. I mean, all it would take is one lousy biscuit and he's all yours!
Talk of living to eat! He'll redefine everything you know about that!
Well, until later!
Megha
