My buddy.....

It was November, 1997 when my wife was told by her parents in India that the dog that she grew up with had to be put to sleep as he had grown old and became deaf and blind and was in lot of ear pain. My wife was sad for a day and she did tell me about it. When I was thinking of getting a Christmas gift for my wife, some of my colleagues suggested that I get apuppy.

I wanted to make that a surprise gift and found a guy who was selling 6 weeks old Shelty puppies in Hobbs, NM which was about 45 miles away from us. I called and left a message for him and in those days we didn’t have cell phones so gave him my home number. You guessed it. He called when I was not at home and talked to my wife and the element of surprise was gone.

My wife liked the idea of getting a puppy for Christmas. So we went and she chose the male puppy. We brought him home and bathed him and gave him milk to drink. For me this is whole new experience as I had never been around pets. We named him ‘Chase’ as he was chasing everything and anything that he saw. We took him to the Vet and got whatever needed to be done.

There in the Vet’s office, we saw a notice that said “Obedient classes for puppies”. We signed him on. We wife took him for several weeks and when he graduated (with anything but obedience), he got a certificate which he tore up as soon as we came home. I simply fell in love with him. I began taking him out to run and to groomers etc.

Before my older one came home, lot of people told us to be careful with the dog as they can be jealous. We were kinda worried. But when my daughter came home he was anything but harmful. He used to sleep wherever Lydia was at. Lydia used to stretch her hands out from the crib and he would lick it as long as she wanted. Whenever she pulls her hand in, he asks for it. My second one liked him more than my first one. She wouldn’t stretch her hands like her sister but used to crawl to find him and sit in front of him to lick her face.

When we decided to relocate to India, selfishly we decided to give him up for adoption. We took him for a day to the home to get him used to them and what they told us broke our hearts. Lady told us that he was sitting at the door the whole time and looking for us. He didn’t eat nor drink. That’s it….we made our decision to take him to India with us. He flew in the same plane with us but in a pet compartment.

He just celebrated his 10 dog birthday. That means he is equal to 70 human years (old I guess). He has arthritis, grey hair around his eyes, cannot run as fast as he used to but he is the same old buddy to me. When he needs to go out, he promptly comes and scratches on my leg. If he is in a hurry, he barks with a shrill voice. Sleeps on my side of the bed and sometimes I feel like he almost tries to talk. He never liked strangers.

I know he may not have very many years left for him but he sure was the best buddy that I could have ever asked for. If having a pet is your cup of tea, try one and your kids might love it. Even if not a dog or a cat, try a fish tank so that your kids will enjoy taking care of them and learn the concept of responsibility.

RN