And its a dog's life, Chapter III

It all started a few years back. I have always been inclined towards animals, may it be a pet or a homeless one wandering in the streets or even a runaway from the wild. I have always had some or other animal dropping into my house injured or famished and I’ve never let it leave without being attended to or properly cared for. I’ve had parrots, a crow (its wing was injured, and after getting it cured, I released it, which was best for it), a homeless kitten (who ran away later), a whole family of cats, rabbits, white mice (which I still have, not the same ones though), and a few more.

So, there was this whole gang of dogs opposite my house, 4 puppies, their parents, and another female pup. One fine day, one of the puppies came over to my side of the street. It was an adorable female. She was frightened of me at first, but after a little interaction, we got along just fine and she sort of trusted me from that moment on. I fed her and took more food for the others.

Feeding the dogs, watching them play made me amazingly happy and started doing this every day. And soon, it became a habit. A few months passed, the family increased in numbers. I didn’t have the heart to get them neutered or spayed but they used to get their vaccinations on time. One of my friends who owned a shop across the street and I made sure of that. We had the weirdest but cutest names for all the dogs.

Sadly, only two of the 4 pups had survived, the female pup was all grown up now and the parents were still there. They had the most adorable pups one could imagine. Soon, the members of my little street gang increased to 8 full grown dogs. And we had grown an attached towards each other.

Every day, as soon as I used to get up, my first job was to go out and call the dogs. For that, a whistle a day always did the trick. My gang used to line up at my gate, to be fed, and watered.

But like all good things, this phase also had an end. We had to shift from our 550 square yards house in Punjabi Bagh to a 360 sq. yards house in Gurgaon.

My grandparents are really concerned about hygiene so I was forced to spend lesser time with my four-legged friends and only go out to check on them, feed them and make sure that they have clean water. But my grandparents care about my happiness too so though they weren’t too keen about having a dog in the house, they agreed to let me have one.

I checked in on pet shops and breeders to see which dog suited me best. Of course I know better now, I know every dog is awesome unlike every human. So, I settled in for a Labrador for the breed’s nature and friendliness as I had kids coming over pretty often at home.

There was a pet shop about 15kms from my house where I used to go to get fishes from. So I went and got a male Labrador puppy one afternoon, paid and settled everything… He was beautiful and cream-coloured. Right! He wasn’t Baghira. He was sweet, playful, and instantly bonded with me and followed me around the house. The next day, our maid who’d working our house for the last 20 years came at her usual time. I introduced her to my little baby. She instantly spotted something that I absolutely had no knowledge of… She said “This isn’t a boy, it’s a girl!”

And I was dumb-struck! I didn’t know how to go about it. I had been cheated. I knew that very moment that she’d have to go. My family would never let me keep a female because of stupid misconceptions. But she was so cute, so pretty and tame, understanding and intelligent. Of course my mom told me what I already knew and didn’t look forward to. She said I had to return my little baby and get a male one, all because of the misconception people had in mind for female dogs, about them running away or simply being a nuisance in the house when it came to cleanliness and hygiene issues. I tried to reason with mom, told her I’d get her spayed when she’ll be ready but of course I lost the battle.