The Story of
a Dog Lover Untold
Meghna 'Phoenix' Ghatak
I have always been an unpopular girl.
I have grown up in a small town full of people who had backward mentality.
Hence being a girl with a cityscape mentality was a much ostracized
opinion. But when life gives you all the
wrong people in a bunch, God gives you a creature that has a name spelled just
the reverse of God. Dog and the plurality of them waltzed through my life. They
didn’t exactly make my life a fairy tale that ended with a happily ever
after. They were my fairy godmothers who
single handedly lit every grim corner of my life.
Kuttush was a tiny white ball of fur
playfully hurling along with his siblings in my college. It was a common sight
where a bevy of girls would giggle and exhale over them. The mother dog was a
malnutrition-ed saggy breasted bag of bones. She was a so exhausted of
nutrition that she couldn’t feed her pups. I saw the hungry pups rush to her
nimbly many a times but every time she would retreat meekly. I now had a
history of bringing home pups only to be kicked out along with them. I had
until now, only had the luxury of their camaraderie on the streets. I was
craving the love of one in my home. I seized one of them one day and took that
bundle of joy home. As expected, I was shouted at, kicked out of the house but
ultimately, when the night fell in and it began to get cold, I was allowed in
with the pup. It was to be just for a night, I was warned. I was to return him
to his mother. As fate would have it, his mother passed away in the night. She
was run over I was told. Slowly the siblings also disappeared. They were also
run over, I was told.
Kuttush meant small in many regional
dialects and was the name given to Hedge’s Tintin’s clever dog in one of the
translations. My Kuttush was so minuscule; he could easily sit on the palm of
my hand. He became the darling of the neighborhood children. Everyone gathered
in the evening to play chase with him. I let him be a sociable dog as I wanted
to share the gift of his infectious happiness with everyone. Soon he showed
keenness in learning tricks and could sit high five, jump, fetch and hug anyone
with a treat at ready. He could frolic endlessly without tiring and absolutely
loved going on long walks. Nibbling the ears of the streets canines I had
befriended was an another favorite of his.
My parents hadn’t exactly warmed up
to him in the 9 months he has been with us. He was very young when I took him
in, which was wrong of me and hence he has a slight behavioral problem. We also
let him be the alpha dog by not making him submissive by the rule of the rod.
All this, topped with his hyperactive playing and destruction of fragile
household items has made him very unpopular within the four walls of my house.
But for me, he is my guardian who warns me of intruders in my life, an alarm
clock that vigilantly wakes me up every morning sharp at 7. He has been my
exercise instructor as he insists on long walks every day, curbing my laziness
quota. He has given me countless stomach aches resulting from mad peals of
laughter on his pranks and tricks to get food.
Life has not just been a zigzag
affair but a labyrinthine one. I have grown up to be an independent girl. Yes,
I have found myself alone at major junctures of my life, I have been the lone
crusader during tumultuous times and I have wished numerously in these whiles
to have a companion. I had many as I saw sunshine but they were all bees
trailing my good times. I was told that I hadn’t met good people in my
existence of twenty and five years. But when I see my dog snoring by my feet or
tugging at my clothes playfully
beckoning me to give him chase or tugging at the end of my towel, I know that I
don’t need good people to color my days. I need dogs to lick my suffering clean
like their balls and surround me with raised hackles to protect me from a
stranger. I need dogs to remind that all that is important is to eat your full,
play till you drop asleep, excrete and then eat again. I need dogs to remind me
that you sometimes mark your possession or territory and growl to let others
know your significance. That you have to perform a few tricks to earn treats
and please the one above you and earn your food the right way. The rest simply falls in pace.
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