My Furry First-Born !

Intrigued by the title? Exactly my intentions when phrasing it like that.I am dedicating this post to one naughty little brat of a pup whom i cherish,as my first born.And indeed,he is one big ball of fur.So,i guess the title coudnt be more apt!

Being a dog person [yeah! lately,i even tell my friends to 'SIT' and 'STAY'!An effect of being around my pup so often],i have always dreamt of having a never-extinguishing-energy-ball-of-fur of my own[in case you are wondering,yes i was hinting at having dogs].But, with the frequent shifting between houses and my father's constant refusal to have anything living,with more than 2 legs in the house,i never got a chance to realise my dream of owning a four legged friend.After my persistant nagging,he reluctantly told me that as long as i am living with them under the same roof, i am not allowed to have any dogs around, but when i get to move out, then i am free to live life with my rules.I guess, by this complex statement, he must have meant a very different context, but since i was not very keen on getting the loopholes in that statement clarified, i just picked up the very obvious meaning and finally when i did move in to a seperate house in Bangalore, the very first thing i did was to hunt around for a mutt! Thankfully, Nichu also turned out to be as much a dog lover as i am.So by the end of the first month in Bangalore, we had both decided to get a four legged friend home. I had always wanted a sand colored labrador.But after many consistant refusals from Nichu as to why we shouldn't be getting a big dog home, i finally agreed to settle for any smaller breed [as long as its not a pomeranian..i just cant stand the shrill barks!].

Much googling later,we decided on a cocker spaniel, that too a chocolate brown coloured one. And i never mentioned a word of this to my parents [:)],decided to spare them from the shock untill i got the pet home.So finally on the D-day, February 17'th 2008 [this was a V-day gift me and nichu were gifting ourselves!], we head off to a pet shop and believe me...i never thought i would see heaven before i die, but i am sure that i was stepping into heaven when i first set foot in that pet shop [though yes, a very bad smelling heaven or probably heaven when it has run out of air fresheners!].The place was full of puppies, all breeds and colors and sizes and with their tiny whining voices and crawling all over the place, they were the most adorable pups in this whole world.The first thing to catch my eyes was a sand coloured flat ball on the floor trying to crawl.It was love at first sight! The tiny ball looked up with the most innocent round eyes and when i bent down to pick him up, he gave the tiniest whine at being disturbed from his comfortable position and snuggled back to sleep in my arms.I knew at that moment, that this was the Lab i had waited all my life for! [My parents were hoping that i would be saying this statement referring a human and they kinda totally gave up on me when they realised i was talking about a puppy!].

Very gleefully,with a mission accomplished look i turn towards nichu and aks.Both of them have this 'will-kill-you' look on their faces and at that precise moment,out walks the owner with a dark chocolaty ball of fur in his hands.I was still standing in the corner with the lab in my arms while the other 2 were examining the spaniel puppy and trying to get him to attempt to crawl.Very reluctantly, i was made to hand back the lab pup and i went over to check on the lazy puppy who went off to sleep the minute he had been put down to crawl!

Yeah,lazy! That's how he had looked to me. The small fellah hardly opened his eyes. All he did was keep flopping around and go to sleep. He wasn’t even whining.I give one look at Nichu.I can see that she has decided this is the pup. I hesistatingly kept saying 'He isnt whining, he looks droopy, he looks doped'. All my persistant remarks went unheeded by the two of them.Finally, giving one last heartbreaking look at the still whining lab pup, we walk out from the pet shop, the brown furry ball still sleeping away in my arms!

By the end of the auto journey back home, i must say, the warm furry little thing had managed to creep his way into my heart and the lab puppy was just a faint reminder.

For the next few days,it was a confused frenzy of two new "mom's" trying very desperately to take care of a one month old baby (that's how old he was when we got him home).There was cerelac and milk and biscuits and water strewn all over the place. The puny little fellah managed to creep under every possible nook and corner in the house.Getting him to eat,in the initial days,was a task by itself.We had made the mistake of keeping cerelac mixed in a huge bowl (compared to his size) and we have nearly had to pry him away from the edge of the bowl before he himself fell headlong into the 'cerelac pond'!

The first one month saw me walking around cribbing -the puppy isnt active,the puppy isnt running around,he isnt barking, he isnt whining,he still looked doped and he dint have a tail !!! And oh yes,we named him Hobbes [From Calvin and Hobbes fame! Was hoping that the influence of the name would instill the naughtiness in him and make him active].

And oh lord !! Was i mistaken or what!By the end of second month, what had been a sleepy little doped thing turned out be a 'Vociferous Carnivore' [As Sounak refers to Hobbes!].The transition from a harmless pup to a running-barking-demanding monster was almost instantaneous.

a.What had been a quiet house earlier, now sounded like a raging mad house!
b.His favourite timepass was to scrape off the paint from the wall. So the living room in our house looked like a miniature bull dozer had tried demolishing it off!
c.There is no count to the number of sandals we have sacrificed for his teething days!
d.Every evening, i walked in home, to either see the entire house covered up in shreds and shreds of newspaper and a tiny little brown pup hiding somewhere in the midst of the mess, giving me his most innocent look. Or he would have pulled off every possible thing from the kitchen counter and sitting on top of the water can. One day, he had even dragged the entire garbage bag all over the house and had the house stink like a corporation dump!
e.Barking incessantly, he believed was his birth right!
f.What was termed as 'Taking Hobbes for a walk' turned out to be 'Hobbes taking us for a run'!
g.The families in our lane are so very used to seeing either of us running in the lane screaming out 'Hobbie' at the top of our voices.This is on days, he decides to go off on a run on his own!Some people even pitch in to chase him down shouting out anything which remotely sounds like 'Hobbie'.So most evenings and weekends, see people running around in the lane shouting 'Bobby, Bhaabhi, Habbie' and what not!

He turned out be the world's most naughtiest dog and the most unruly one too! But the little gestures of unconditional love from the puppy heart is enough to melt our hearts and to put up with all his nonsensical deeds! Waking up in mornings and feeling a cold wet nose rubbing against your feet, or getting back from office and seeing an excited puppy prancing all around the house and barking in his doggy language to welcome you home, these are what i call the little joys of life!

Watching the movie 'Marley and me' was like living our life ! We are the proud owners of a dog who has humbled every dog trainer and who still manages to be the same unmanagable irritable mutt...my furry first born !
PS: The photo is of Hobbes taken on day 2 at our house!