The Bonding

No symphony orchestra ever played music like a two-year-old girl laughing with a puppy.

                                                                                             Bern Williams

 

So Eesha is now 8 months old and Alice is 3 years and they have started reacting to each other. We keep reading about these articles where Dog's aggressive behavior lead to child's death and honestly speaking statistics show that most of the dogs who behave this way are either medium or large breed dogs and the kids are generally 5 or under. So we are not very confortable leaving Eesha anywhere around Alice unsupervised unless we have locked child gates though it hurts to think that way and it hurtthe most on that beautiful day when Alice showed her concern for Eesha,

The other day we were all upstairs with Alice. Eesha had fallen asleep on her hi-chair in kitchen so we left her there. Oh by the way this is the same day when our painter was in and Alice accompanied us upstairs with him.  So, on our way down, she was behind me and my husband when suddenly Eesha started making some sounds as if she was about to cry, guess she suddenly realized that no one was around. We knew she was doing this because she realized she was alone so we didn't hurry to reach her as we were already on our way but what was surprising was Alice pushed us hard on the stairs and ran towards Eesha . The child gate didn't let her get inside the kitchen but she at least made it to the kitchen where Eesha could see her. Obviously that didn't mean anything to Eesha but it meant a lot to Alice. So when I appeared she gave me the look as if trying to say "I have made sure nothing is wrong".

It's very important that they have bonding with each other and we try to do that every time they are together. We are eagerly waiting for the winters to be over so that Eesha can have some fun with Alice and also Alice can have some fun with herself. Meanwhile you guys can have some fun watching how my lovely dog searches for me when she know knows I am still somewhere around but not visible.

Man's Best Friends

If you don't own dogs, not even one, then there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.

                                                                                                                                         Roger Caras

So I am back with "my" dog news

So let me start this post with a new name Fyisty; she is Alice's biological sister.  We met her in October 2007, when we went to see Alice for the very first time. She is a nice dog and very protective. How we knew, so here is the story. 

She was playing with her owner when we reached there. As soon as we reached, she realized someone has come to meet them and became alert but did not bark at us. She was sticking like a tail with her owner whole time, while we were talking to him. We asked him why is she not barking at us? Is she trained not to bark or is she not barking because you are with us, becasue the kind of German Shepherd I was used to (Laika) barks at everyone who is not "blood related". Well things are different here I knew. So the owner explained "She is not barking because she doesn't find you harmful. At this moment you are having a friendly conversation with me. The moment you raise your voice or show any signs of harming me like raising your hands or touching me, she can read my discomfort and will show her true colors then!!" Pretty scary to stand beside a dog with that type of feelings...though we were not upto something like that :)

Now coming back to present, over the weekend we requested our interior painter to give us a visit/quote etc as we wanted to get our house painted this year. He came to our home around 8:00PM on Friday. He was pretty friendly because he is actually someone from our community and Alice knows him very well. She sees him all the time around like when we go out for walks or when he comes around our cul-de-sac. To tell you how much she knows him, let me tell you another story in short. Once we were at office and she was playing with the neighbor's dog in their fenced backyard, the gate was not locked properly which opened with wind and these dogs were obviously on a "Dogs day out" or who knows might have been "Dogs DAYS out". Fred saw them suddenly near the other end of the community while he was returning from somewhere. He recognized them and brought them back in his pick up truck and left them in our neighbor's backyard. I must tell that was pretty close to losing her or who knows she might have come back by herself. But anyway so she knows him very well and welcomes him in the cul-de-sac always. But this was the first time he was coming inside our home while she was there. And I have to tell you how efficiently she made sure that she was there ALL THE TIME BETWEEN HIM AND US for our protection even though she was so friendly with him. She didn't leave us for one second. She is generally not allowed upstairs but that day she just followed us where ever we went with him. But what was funny was she probably didn't want him to feel bad (in case he doesn't turn out to be "bad guy") about what she is thinking so she was playing with him in between a couple of times.

Unfortunately I was just too engrossed with the painter and the painting and failed to notice this beautiful moment until my husband pointed it out after the painter left. 

Now, THAT was a lovely feeling to know that someone is there for me even if no one is there.

There forever...

With eye upraised his master's look to scan, The joy, the solace, and the aid of man: The rich man's guardian and the poor man's friend, The only creature faithful to the end

                                                                                                                               -George Crabbe

Last night I was watching this movie "Marley and Me" for the 100th time and it filled my eyes with tears as we approached towards the climax. I felt like murdering the director of this movie. For some reason he had to show that Marley died in the end but he could have as well shown that he ended up in heaven thus bringing him to life in another world because that's where all dogs end up . Love that movie still.

It reminds me of Laika, my childhood German shepherd. She died on September 24th 1996. She had been a very healthy dog till she was 10 but as she approached her old age things started changing. I remember  days when she was unable to climb the stairs, we used to carry her to the second floor once she was done with her business. She used to cooperate so well in troubles also. When she was 9 she was suffering from Pneumonia and Doctor gave her an injection but told us the truth He had absolutely no hopes that she will make it through the night. We couldn't sleep that night with the thought of not being able to see her alive next day. But she survived and went on for another one year. We thought the problem is solved but actually the problems had just begun. She started catching cold cough very frequently, her body was not supporting her.

In general she always preferred to be around us (My sister and I). She would come to our study room in the night and sit beside our chairs while we were studying. We were scared of being alone in night but when she was around we had no fear. She will stay with us till we are not done with what we are doing and will walk out with us when we are done. Nobody taught her to do all this, she just had it in her. She would never leave us and go away. She was very brave and would leave no stone unturned if she sees any danger around us.

So that night we were preparing for our exam for the next day and she came and lied down in our study room as usual. We noticed her and continued to study. Soon it was time to sleep, so we bid her goodnight and she did too with wet eyes. We came to the bedroom to sleep, not knowing that was her last night with us....she passed away that night. We came to know early morning when we came to see her. It was again me and my sister who saw in the morning that she didn't move from there after we bid her goodnight. We touched her and her body was stiff like a rock. Probably she expired immediately after she bid us goodnight...

She didn't realize she took 11 years of our life with her and now we are just left with memories as we buried her in our hearts....

Coming back to present, today morning when i got up and saw Alice, I was so glad that she is a part of our lives and helps me to keep alive the memories of Laika. I played with her a little in the morning before I left for office and I must say everyday she becomes more adorable than the previous day...

Look how she tries to hide from me

As they are growing...

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.

Our daughter Eesha is now 8 months old and Alice is 3 yrs. It's so much fun to watch them grow together. Alice plays quite safe when Eesha comes in front of her and in fact Eesha is the one whom we have to control all the time to avoid any accidents. Having a dog is such a nice feeling and I realized it when I was a kid. I had my first German shepherd, Laika when I was a kid and it was then I realized that there are so many good things to learn from a dog and that's when I decided that when my baby is growing up I must have a dog.

Laika was a very sweet dog. She was aggressive with anyone who was not "blood" related to us, at least that is what we concluded because she used to bark for closest of our friends but will wag her tail for farthest of our relatives (family related ones) I am still not sure how she understood who is relative and who is friend. Even if the relative is visiting us for the first time in life she would wag her tail. Guess she smells our blood in them :) She was loyal sweet protective a doll and a monster at times. She would not allow any one to cross the road in front of our house. Thank goodness we lived in second floor.

We were simple middle class people with a small one bedroom house, so we didn't have any place for her inside so she used to stay outside and guard whole night. Temperatures in that part of the world would never go down below 60, so she was always safe outside. But one day we realized the fear of having her outside when she saved us from a snake. We were not at home and she was tied outside in the balcony. While we were approaching towards the home after parking our two wheeler in front of the house that night, she started barking suddenly. She would never do that normally. She will always jump and welcome us from far itself. But her bark was aggressive this time and it became worse every second. We were confused and didn't understand. My dad got some hint and asked us to stay far and we went far from there but could still see her aggressive behavior. It was night time around 11:00PM and nothing was visible on the grass. Finally we saw something blue glittering in the dark and that's when we realized that there is a snake and Laika was trying to warn us. My dad managed to kill that snake with a stick with the help of our neighbor and we could see the happiness on Laika's face. We were so proud of her.

No doubt, Alice reminds me of her. I would love to spend my life with dogs, and I look forward to learning many of their traits, especially being patient and being there when you need.

Happy Friday!

The Healing Power of dogs

Dogs have always had special standing in the medical world. Trained to see for the blind, hear for the deaf and move for the immobilized, dogs have become indispensable companions for people with disabilities.-NY Times

Yesterday our daughter started crying suddenly for no reason, at least that's what we thought. We tried to make her quite, gave her toys to play, shifted her from dad's hand to grandma's hands to mom's hand. But it seemed like she was troubled with something that none of us could figure out.She was thinking about the same thing constantly and was crying again and again after a pause of couple of seconds.

My last option to try with her was my sweet female dog Alice who can put a smile on any crying baby's face unless he or she is scared of dogs. Then Alice was sleeping in her room. She had just come back from the neighbor's backyard after a long hectic day of fun but as soon as we went to her, she saw my daughter and started responding with happiness and acknowledged that we came to meet her. And to my surprise my daughter got diverted and started laughing once I brought her in front of Alice and Alice started jumping as we played with her. As usual she was always ready to entertain. 

Sometimes we don't understand what kind of healing power these animals might have for the most serious things that upset us in our life that too especially dogs. For the umpteenth time in my life I have agreed to the fact that dogs are much more than just four legged animals. Research tells that dog owners pay 40% less doctor visits than non dog owners. I am not sure how true this is but one thing I can say for sure is that after a lifetime of regard for dogs and many years of attachment, I have reached to the conclusion that dogs definitely feel more, feel more intensely and feel more purely than I do (I am not going to speak for other people). I know that she will be always there when we need her but unfortunately we don't understand every time when she needs us...

Journey from little to huge

One reason a dog can be such a comfort when you're feeling blue is that he/she doesn't try to find out why...

I am a dog lover, and had always wanted one after we lost the one I had grown up with.It was very difficult to convince my husband to get a dog.Finally he got convinced. Thanks to my excellent marketing skills!!

Finally Alice came home in November 2007.

She was our first German Shepherd. It took her some time to get adjusted with the place and us of course but that happened quickly and pretty soon we all were in track. The first few months while we were struggling to potty train her were tough but it was all worth it. Now that she was growing up, she needed a friend to play with her all the time. German shepherds by nature are very high energy dogs, irrespective of that everyone needs friends.She needed one too. We were very happy to play with her for 4-5 months but as soon as she grew up BIG, she had so much energy that we had to figure out something to have all that energy spent everyday. Luckily our neighbors too had a female dog, a lab mix. Our dog became friends with her. Did I tell mention they had a fenced backyard too? Oh Thank Goodness they did, so the problem was solved. Days passed by and she turned ONE. We invited all our close friends for her first birthday. I baked a cake, decorated the place for a party and we celebrated her birthday just like we would have done for our baby.She was a baby, she still is one though she turned 3 this October. 

We didn't realize how much we got used to her. I remember times when I was sad and she sat by me just like a good friend who would listen and understand my troubles. I remember the chilly morning of January we spent with her outside in the front yard because we got locked outside the home and she was just 2 months old. I remember getting sweater for her for her first winter. She has taught me the meaning of devotion. With her I know a secret comfort and a private peace. She is hurt when I leave her alone. The later I come home, the happier she is. She promises to stand by me in prosperity, poverty, good health and sickness. She promises to wait and watch for me until I am safe. Her presence by my side protects my fears against dark and unknown things. She searches for me when she knows I am there but not in front of her eyes. I am glad to have her and fear to loose her.

She has set the bar of loyalty for me. Her love for us is unconditional and beyond our imagination.

She is more affectionate than anything else in this world, even more than our own baby. I promised to myself today that she is always going to be my eldest daughter in every sense.

Looking forward to play with her over the weekend. Must be fun.