There was no karmic connection when I first saw her. I saw her through my front door. She stood there, barely four months old, wagging her tail, sniffing around frantically, moving her body in jerks, trying to make sense of her new surroundings. When I approached her, she looked at me with her big black beetle eyes. I had expected her to be smaller and chubbier and I’d imagined I would just pick her up in my arms. But she was too hyperactive and active and would run away as soon as I’d try to even get close to her. There was much thrill and excitement. There was a new member in our family and we would always keep running after her, trying to make her do tricks, cuddling her, feeding her biscuits and taking her out for walks (truth be told, she is the one who takes us out for walks)
I felt like I didn’t get time to connect with her somehow. Until one cold winter night, when she was sprawled on the floor, I went and rubbed her belly. I wasn’t particularly in very high spirits. She came close to me, licked my knee, hopped on my lap and fell asleep. And then I knew. She would be there for me. The moment was so perfect, with her warm furry body against my thighs; I sat like that for a long time, stroking her behind her ears. Since then, we really bonded.
I would come home after college and she would jump, and lick and go crazy. After five minutes, when I would reappear again, she would jump and lick and go crazy all over again with the same amount of enthusiasm. My friends joke that she has short term memory loss. I say she just loves me too much! :P Umm, actually, she gives such a warm welcome to anybody and everybody, so meesa is no special one. Hmpf. The best thing about her? I’ve never heard her whine or cry. What a strong, happy little dog! She barks rarely too; especially since I destroyed her voice box by giving her ice cubes and she, after playing ice hockey with them, ate them all! Since that incident, her bark has become extremely high pitched and sharp. Um, okay what? I think it’s cute okay!
I am in love with her ears. They are the cutest things a dog could have. I play with them, fold them up, tie them together, make them jiggle, I even made her chew one of them. And when she comes running towards me, they bounce up and down in the cutest way possible, with her tongue sticking out and hanging out from one side of her mouth. Eeeeeee!! God, I hug her till she yelps! She probably feels I’m crazier than she is. She looks at me incredulously, when I dance and sing in front of her, or when I hold her front paws, and make her dance with me! She then wags her tail and tries to lick my face, all the time thinking her master-sister is crazy.
She loves water; she loves to drink it, to jump in it and to splash it all around. She even likes to stand under the rain with her mouth open to catch the rain drops and drink them up! Oh and my god, does she love food! She eats, well, everything. Apart from the food we give her, she eats wood, plastic, paper, leather, cloth, cow dung, her own dung, insects, carpet, shoes, socks, wires… In other words, pretty much anything she gets her paws on. Which brings me to tell you about the fateful day when she destroyed my mom’s 6000 rupees worth liquid clothes detergent. The bottle of detergent was just sitting on the table, minding its own business, when Miss Shirley stole it, chewed the entire bottle up and drank all the contents. Mom was furious and she beat the hell out of the stupid dog. And then began her puke sessions. She puked like ten times in two days until she was too weak to move. I guess she's learnt her lesson. Now, well, she won’t go anywhere near any kind of soap.
After episodes of her furniture eating, breaking her leash and running away with at least four people chasing after her, experimenting with weird species of organisms and throwing up, torpedo-ing up and down like crazy for no apparent reason, chewing up all her plastic bones and balls to bits and welcoming everyone with the same amount of excitement... it’s hard to believe it has been one whole year. She turns one today!
Happy Birthday my unbelievably perky, perpetually high and super awesome, super excited golden retriever!
I went up to her in the morning and molested her for a full five minutes. Even fed her a bread cutlet and a teeny piece of chocolate. Shhhh! I hope you stay with us and make us experience a new adventure everyday. Love you Shirleeeew, you stupid dog! :*
(Collage courtesy: Mom)
