Hairy Porter and the rise of the grumpy hubby!

Hello All!

My sister's status usually reads 'Happy things happen all the time' and while it seems excessively simple and optimistic, they do!

I had just started a serious health campaign, walking almost 8 miles a day, come rain or shine, when a certain incident occurred. It was a nice sunny Sunday and while Arvind was at the tennis court with his friend, I was out on my morning walk. Half way through the walk I saw this chocolate colored tail attached to a fat butt disappearing around the next bend. Curious, I picked up speed (As I always do when I want to glimpse a rare breed of dog or a Labrador being walked...) and just around the next bend I saw the fat rear end again, only, it didn't seem that the front end (Read neck) was on a leash... The fat butt was walking in a very relaxed and nonsensical pattern, stopping whenever it wanted and then suddenly sprinting forward again... It is against the rules here to not have a dog on a leash and this one definitely wasn't on a leash...

The trail became wider after a few yards and suddenly I saw the dog attached to the happy tail and big butt. It was a massive (seriously!) chocolate Labrador and while he had a collar on, he seemed to be running free with no owner in sight. The lab suddenly spotted a teeny tiny dog being walked ahead of him and ran over and started sniffing, ahem, the dog... The owners of the little dog freaked out and immediately picked him up and as I came up behind the lab, I got a rather admonishing look and after a second's delay I blurted out 'He's not my dog!' and the look softened immediately. While the guy held up his little dog in his arms, the lady accompanying him bent down and checked the lab's neck for a tag. He was wearing a leather collar but no tags which was not very encouraging. And as I helped them get the lab to stop trying to jump up at the little dog, the couple wished me luck in finding his owners and sped along their way! Seriously, it was that easy for them! While I did not mind helping look for its owners, what do I do with him until I find them? A one bedroom apartment is hardly a place for such a big guy and it being Sunday wasn't likely to help much either...

It didn't make sense to stand there and debate, I decided to bring him home and then decide what to do. It was almost 37 degree Celsius and the humidity wasn't helping either. The dog was starting to foam at the mouth and needed cooling down. So I walked home and kept calling to him so he was close by my side, a few steps here or there and we soon reached the tennis court. Arvind didn't give us even a glance as we walked straight to the court as he doesn't know anyone with a chocolate lab (For a second I was proud of the fact that he didn't look back to check out the girl with the lab and then a second later I was mad that he wouldn't consider checking me out, ok, I was sweaty and stuff but still... Being a girl is no easy job, particularly when your mind works like that!).

I had to call out to Arvind and even then he did a double take and on successfully recognizing me, he ran out to meet us. I gave him the whole story about how I found this big guy and we decided that I would take him home, let him cool off a bit and then decide what to do with him...

Back home, after almost two bowls of water and lying down under the A/C duct, Coco (I had to call him something, right? His real name is Porter but I wasn't to know that until later...) seemed ok and had stopped panting like mad... I then tied a not-so-favorite scarf of mine around his collar and took him on a small walk around to see if we could find someone who was out looking for him. No luck... The one good thing was that my super sweet next door neighbor saw us and went in and brought a leash that she had. That made things so much easier to walk around with Coco.

It was almost one in the afternoon by then and when we got home Arvind was back from his game. As Coco settled himself in a cool spot and turned to look at us, we were looking back at him with absolutely no idea of what to do with him! Well, first things first, he needed to eat. I had a fresh loaf of wheat bread and in all went straight into hi tummy along with a couple of glasses of milk... Arvind was amazed at his capacity for food and his rate of gobbling it all up. The husband was still curious and fascinated until then. The grumpy husband starts surfacing a little while later... It was almost 2 PM by the time Coco was fed and the Grumpy husband had started waking up. Usually the husband gets lemonade as soon as he returns from his game, and if its late, he also gets all the lunch raw materials processed (chopped and ground and etc) so all he has to do is lend his food expertise in preparing the dish (For everyone who is wondering about why the husband cooks, its because the said husband is an idiot with a stubborn mind and the only person's food he likes is his own! I'm not complaining, I get to eat tasty food too, only I get the menial and often not so coveted job of being the pappu cleaner!). So once the lemonade is gone and the lunch is ready, the husband gets to freshen up while I get back to my role of pappu cleaner and get the kitchen all tidy (For while the husband is an amazing cook, he also happens to be a downright slob...). After a nice bath, the husband and the pappu cleaner have lunch and then watch a movie on the laptop and laze around until evening. So after being used to such a routine for almost a year, the husband is now being placed after a dog and it certainly doesn't go down too well. Hence, the rise of the grumpy husband! After I finish feeding Coco, I start to notice the grumpy husband symptoms. He has started giving out crabby and irritated comments about what I plan to do with the dog. How I plan to find his owner and until when we have to keep him etc etc. By the time I say I will take Coco down for a pee walk, grumpy husband is all awakened and is asking me if I ever plan to get the ingredients ready for the egg biryani that we had planed to make that day. I had already walked almost six miles by then, had run down to the leasing office to take print outs of the flyers I had made for Coco, gone around a half mile radius pinning the flyers everywhere and was exhausted. When I suggested that he help me prepare the ingredients, grumpy hubby reached his best and the sulking started. I finally gathered enough courage and chopped veggies, crushed the masalas and boiled the eggs and then handed over the kitchen to grumpy. By the time grumpy got the biryani ready, Coco was hopefully sniffing at the air and while I found this extremely cute, grumpy hubby seemed to get more grumpy.

After a bath, grumpy hubby came out for lunch and ate a quiet meal while ignoring me resolutely. By the time evening came, grumpy hubby had washed off his hands regarding Coco and kept throwing nasty comments and questions at me about how I planned to find his owner. He then suggested that I take Coco along for a walk on the same route that I found him on and see if he leads me back to his place. Seemed like a good idea and though I was exhausted, Coco and I were off on the walking trail by 5:30 PM.

Coco seemed content to walk beside me and that worried me a little as he was showing no inclination of finding his home. Then suddenly at a certain street, he turned left very decisively and my hopes were raised again. After walking five minutes, he suddenly grew very energetic and bound forward with renewed vigour! Hallelujah! He seemed to know where he was going, yay!

False alarm :/ He had spotted a tiny cat and that was what he was chasing, not 'bounding forward with renewed vigour'... I brought him back to the spot where we had turned into the street and again let him decide where he wanted to head to. Another decisive turn and he looked like he was finally onto something!

False alarm :/ He crashed a barbecue party... Stupid piggy.

After five more miles, we returned home and I now had only two options in front of me-

1. Hope that his owners see my flyers and call

2. He has been microchipped

I learnt about the microchip when asking one of the walker if Coco looked familiar to them... Most pet owners here get their vets to insert a microchip between their shoulder blades and when they register the microchip online, the record goes into a database. So if a dog were lost, you take him to a vet who would scan the microchip for you and the number will help determine the owner's address. The only problem was that if Coco was not microchipped, I would be forced to call the animal shelter and have them come get him. We are not allowed to have pets in our apartment and I couldn't keep him there (yeah right, like grumpy hubby would even let that happen...).

We got home just after sun down and as grumpy hubby and I realized that Coco was going to stay with us overnight, we went shopping for a feeding and water bowl for him and some mats for him to sleep on. After a meal of 8 hamburger buns and milk, Coco sat watching us eat a cold and silent meal as grumpy hubby was still sulking. After dinner, when confronted with what was bothering him, grumpy hubby started yelling about how the whole routine for the day was disrupted, how I was doing nothing but take care of the dog and how the dog was dirty and still kept trying to snuggle in with grumpy hubby as he lazed around on the air bed in the living room.

I decided that it was just not worth the effort and having walked almost or maybe even over ten miles, I couldn't wait for a good night's sleep. I was hoping and praying that Coco was exhausted enough to sleep through the night.

I took Coco out for a pee walk at eleven so he wouldn't bother me again until the morning. Eleven ten or so- I was fast asleep. I was suddenly awakened by Coco barking. I knew he wanted to go for another pee walk and I just could not believe that the night had passed so soon! I mean I had just fallen asleep and it felt like Coco had woken me up after just ten minutes. I looked at the watch and the time was eleven thirty. Coco HAD woken me up in just ten minutes :/ I took him down again and prayed that he would fall asleep...

Grumpy hubby was up through the night, observing what Coco was doing. While one may ask- If grumpy hubby was up anyways, why couldn't he take Coco for his walks? One has to really not know grumpy hubby. So I woke up twice through the night to take Coco out and in between those walks, I was up petting Coco as he was very restless and the only way he quietened down was when I was rubbing his ears.

Grumpy hubby spent half his time shooing Coco away whenever he attempted to crawl in between the sheets onto the bed, and he attempted fairly often- Every ten minutes...

So by the time I fell asleep again, it was almost five thirty AM and then as the dawn approached, Coco barked again and this time with a wagging tail :/ It was time for his morning walk. I took him to the doggie park near our place and as a super energetic (How is that possible after all that distance he walked with me yesterday?!?) Coco played fetch with me, I was sure grumpy hubby was getting his beauty sleep. So I played with Coco longer than I intended to and we both got home around seven thirty.

Grumpy hubby got up when Coco tried sneaking into bed with him again and as he started to get ready, he kept telling me to make sure I went to the vet in the morning and found his owner. We said a very cold bye as grumpy hubby left for work.

I took an appointment for nine thirty and by ten thirty, we (The vet and I) had found Coco's (Now Porter) owner. She came down to the vet's to collect him and as he happily jumped into the car and looked so adorably out of place (He was sooooo big for the little two seater car) and I couldn't resist asking his owner if I could possibly walk him in the evenings. She was super sweet about it and said yes!

I got home and pinged grumpy hubby. And voila! Grumpy hubby vanished the minute I said Coco was out of our house! Arvind was back again and he was so sweet and asked me to catch up on some sleep and not strain myself... It took me a while but when I figured out that Arvind was now himself only because he now had my undivided attention, I don't know if I was more amused or angry.

I know I have been spoiling Arvind, but I never realized the extent of the damage I have caused until Porter came along...

The happy thing about all this is that I now get to meet and walk Porter almost everyday and it feels great to hold and pet him and I don't long for my own pet. This way I get to enjoy all the benefits of having a pet without worrying about the rest of it all! Happy things do happen all the time!

Duke Havaldar- The end of a journey is just the beginning of another...

"Death ends a life, not a relationship"

There is nothing called 'prepared for the worst'. You can never imagine or feel a loss until you actually go through it. No amount of 'mental preparation' helps you deal with the loss of someone who has been a part of your life for as long as you care to remember.

An eleven year old journey came to an end yesterday, 05 April 2011, and what a journey it was. Full of love and adventures and giving. Duke Havaldar (Dukie, Daddu, Gannu, Thabli) passed away onto a higher universe and took with him more than just his clean, pure soul. He took a little of each of us with him, at the same time, leaving a bit of himself in each of us. No life once touched can be brought back to its original state and as we mourn for his loss, which is not even very real yet, we cannot help but laugh and cry at the same time. Amidst tears that dont stop, a memory about a certain cat chase or gluttony over food brings laughter bubbling through the same throat that is constricted with these tears.

Baby, we love you more than you can imagine and even as we cry, we can imagine you sitting on a cloud, chewing on a fat bone and bullying other dogs around you. You are such a darling that words alone cannot express how we feel towards you. What you have given us is priceless, love. You bound our family together and taught us so very many things that we would otherwise have taken for granted. Baby, you will always be in our prayers and thoughts. I could never again eat bread omelette at home without thinking of your nose sniffing at the air hopefully. I could never look at another cow without laughing and thinking of the kick you received by a calf when you were younger. I could never think of coming home without getting a pack of chew sticks for you. I could never take the car out again without thinking of how it still is and always will be 'your' car, and not ours.

We love you baby. Rest in peace.

Dukie Bulletin Board- 5

"Envy is the most stupid of vices, for there is no single advantage to be gained from it." ~ Honore De Balzac

Think again Mr. De Balzac because a certain family in Chennai has found that statement to be not only false but also that jealousy does a lot of good, to a certain canine, at least...

The canine in question, a certain Duke Havaldar, has been getting grumpier and sulkier with age as he nears his 12th birthday and he has had his adoptive mom and dad worry a lot about him. Typical worrisome habits include- Not eating his meals, not walking around, just lying wherever he is and not making any effort to socialize much. But then something happened. A small, mousy, gray, striped, hyper baby squirrel named Gattu happened!

Gattu was found when he fell off his house located on the base of an exhaust fan of the Officers Mess at a Chennai Air Force base. He was a tiny little skinny baby and the person who found him decided to adopt him and take him home. However as he was a bachelor he wasn't sure of how well he would be able to care for the helpless little squirrel. Solution? He gave it to Dukie's mom as a Woman's day gift!

Dukie, of course, was unaware of this transaction and remained his sulky self for a little while as he saw his mamma hold something cupped in her hands and put in down in a shoe box lined with papa's soft old kurta placed in their bedroom. Well, whatever. And then suddenly, he realized there was something amiss. His mamma actually seemed to be bringing some milk for whatever was in the box. And Dukie knows that food is made/ processed only in the kitchen so this action of his mamma didn't quite seem ok to him. What was mamma doing with a bowl of milk outside of the kitchen and she wasn't even bringing it to him! Mr. Grumpy then stood up and made his way slowly to the box to investigate. Oh my my, look what he found! A skinny, silly squirrel baby. Hmmpf. What was it doing in his home? He was about to find out. He looked up questioningly at his mom and she smiled and seemed to say this puny thing was going to stay. At least he figured that out by the way she kept pulling him backwards so he couldn't hurt it. Well, he anyway wasn't going to hurt it, I mean Dukie is a civilized doggie. He doesn't eat live animals, please! He would never. But he could definitely stamp on it 'accidently' right? I mean, he has never hurt anything that hasn't bothered him. So if this squirrel doesnt bother him, its ok. But if does, he'll sure teach it a lesson of who is the master of this house. The squirrel better be a fast learner. Hmmm. Dukie made his way back to his spot and decided to take another nap.

Things were their normal self for a few days. The only change in routine being this new ritual of mamma bringing milk for the squirrel. They named the silly thing 'Gattu' after speaking to Dukie's elder sister, Meghu di. It was her husband's idea. Its lucky they don't stay in Chennai because Dukie would certainly have had something to say to the two of them. I mean, what were they thinking? Gattu sounds so much like Daddu, which Meghu and Nammu di call Dukie most of the time. Anyways, Dukie is resolutely ignoring Gattu as he is now making small trips outside of his kurta- lined box- home.

Dukie usually would sit in the corner looking at Gattu play around. Then one day mamma decided to break the ice between them. Only problem is Dukie's mamma is a human, which means she uses techniques only humans can think of! She held Gattu to Dukie's nose so he could sniff him and get used to his scent. Ok, this looked fine. Only then she did the most annoying thing ever! She placed Gattu on Dukie's back! Ewwww. The stupid thing was now sitting snuggly on Dukie's back. How he hated it! But it was so small Dukie didn't feel like hurting him or telling him off. After all they were being introduced for the first time and whatever else he may be, Dukie is a gentleman! So he let Gattu stay on his back for a while. Only, things got beyond control shortly after that. Gattu quietly slipped down and tried to snuggle against Dukie's chest! Ha, ok, mister, back off! Too much bonding happening! Duke quickly got up and scrambled to get away from Gattu and as he ran out of the room, he couldn't understand why ma was laughing so hard!

As Gattu started growing up and getting about the house, Dukie decided to keep a watch on him. He is tiny, alright, but he still can steal stuff, right? I mean, it is Dukie's house and he'll be damned before he lets a teensy weensy squirrel get away with family fortunes! And also, it is important to teach Gattu early on who the Alpha- male in the family is. Dukie lets papa think it is him but he cant let Gattu get away with that misconception too. So Dukie makes it a point to run to mamma when she calls Gattu to come have food and before Gattu can take so much as a sip of the milk, Dukie licks it all up and gives Gattu a long hard look so he knows who's the boss!

And whenever ma and pa are outside in the lawn and call Gattu to take a walk with them, Dukie beats them to it and makes them take him for a walk so they don't have time to play with Gattu. the plan is working! Dukie is now eating three times a day and goes for a morning and an evening walk. Dukie is on top of things, to hell with the squirrel! He is a super smart, dominating, strong, macho, intelligent, handsome, well balanced doggie. Woof woof!

Post Script- Dukie's parents's notes- Duke is such an idiot! The stupid guy is now eating well and exercising well again. Well, if we had known it would only take some competition for him to get back to normal we would've brought home other animals way before this! Well, if jealousy is all it takes to get the guy on track, he's got it alright! Mr. Honore De Balzac, think again :)