Pet diaries

 Papa was a dog lover. So during the span of 3/4 decades we regularly had dogs. They are an integral part of my growing up memories and occupy a warm corner in my heart. Will share a few of them here.

Jeanie

Jeanie the Cocker Spaniel was a bit sloppy in her demeanour. She became completely blind due to glaucoma. During her last few years with us she used to feel her way around the house occasionally colliding with the furniture.

Rinki

Rinki was named by my Grandma and she lived up to the Dachshund reputation of intelligence. She suffered from cancer and the last week of her existence was very painful. We could not bear to listen to her constant moaning and requested our vet to euthanize her. He obliged by plunging a big syringe filled with some lethal concoction right into her heart!

Juhi 

Juhi a white Pomeranian was another character. She was a vegetable lover, vociferously demanding  her share of a kundru or a kakdi from our vegetable vendor everyday! She once became infected with a festering wound/boil on her abdomen. I had to assist our vet through  an operation wherein he cut open the infected area and removed numerous maggots one by one!

Moti a white Pomeranian was very finicky in his eating habits. Juhi and Moti were a couple who must  have produced a litter of up to 4-6 puppies, two or three times during their lifetime. During his later years Moti suffered from a weak heart and we had to feed him half a tablet of sorbitrate daily for his last few years.

Frisky

Frisky a jet black Pomeranian was the show stopper! People gathered around him all the time and some also mistook him to be a bear cub! When he became old and ill, Papa took him to the vet one day and returned with Frisky's body in his arms. That was perhaps the only time in my life that I saw him crying! 

Other than these, there was Billy the Lhasa Apso which Papa had brought from the Tibetan camp at Navegaon I think. She was with us only for a few months. We lost her to distemper - which is a terminal disease in puppies causing paralysis in the hind quarters at the onset and then it kills rapidly.

Another one was a mongrel called Bobby. He must have been with us for a year or two but he was an unruly one. He didn't like being confined and was forever eager to escape. He was given away to someone who perhaps was in a position to offer him wider spaces.

In between I also remember having a pair of cats - Pinky and Minky. Minky was unfortunately crushed under Papa's Bullet (motorcycle). She was sleeping bellow it when he inadvertently pulled it off the stand to go out. Pinky however survived with us for quite a few years. She was my Grandma's favourite and used to always sleep with her as well. Her end was a painful one - she had developed an intestinal twist and in her severe distress had also attacked Grandma in a rather ferocious manner when she tried to pet her.

Presently we feed a stray cat whom we have named Kuro. She was born around our premises and seems to be the only one to have survived out of a litter of four kittens.

This was the tale of our dogs and cats - a heartbeat near our feet!