STUPID DOG Sipra Roy
Snowy was the most wanted and best birthday- gift in my daughter's life from her father; She wrote it in her diary. Her father sent this long- wished gift from Bolani .I was never willing to have any pet in my house as I knew that ultimately it will become an added responsibility for me,
It was July 17, of 1987, just one month after my mother's funeral ceremony was over . As I came back from the school my daughter opened the door with exuberantly smiling face; "can you see?" I looked around the room and saw my student who was not supposed to come for tuition that day.
"Oh"! Then the surprise came out from under the sofa like a rolling snow-white cotton ball! For a moment I was unmindful; my mother was also fond of pets :pigeon , parrot ,cat.
"Mom ,isn't a beautiful puppy?What will be its name?"My daughter asked enthusiastically.
"Snowy"! said I.
Snowy was only of one month . It was a German spitz .My husband came on the birthday of my daughter and disclosed the ancestral history, the royal pedigree of snowy elaborately to me , (perhaps to convince me that we were very lucky to own this cute creature ). Its (Snowy's) grand parents went back to London with his British owner while the parents and two other siblings were kept by some Indian dog-lovers .
Snowy was the pride of my daughter. In those days dog as pet was rare to witness. Dog- loving People were happy with stray dogs who demanded no responsibility.
There were also many stray cats who bothered me very much, almost every day by grabbing fish ,bread or milk .My husband declared proudly :henceforward no cats would dare to enter your house because cats are scared of dog !
Anyhow, my daughter kept snowy on bed first night and several nights onwards and tucked the mosquito net well under the heavy mattress .Moreover she shut all the windows .
I screamed, "are you crazy, what are you doing in this hot summer night of July ?"
She answered worriedly, "I just saw outside the window that huge grey cat outside the window of this room ;this monster cat can kill this soft cute baby"
I became soft with the new feeling of worries of this "little mother".
I agreed . Snowy was whimpering and wandering to and fro inside the mosquito and I felt its sharp nails to make me uncomfortable .
"It won't let me sleep whole night!"
"Perhaps he is missing his mom," my daughter said with sympathy.
Getting out of bed I tried to feed it baby lactose with a dropper several times But still it behaved same keeping us awake upto midnight.
"Let us keep the light on. May be it is afraid of darkness." said my daughter .So we spent one week following the same routine.
Next week a separate bed under the study table of my daughter was arranged for Snowy. With short period of time snowy adopt us as its own family. Snowy was so pampered that it din't take its milk until my daughter feed it with dropper.
One day I interrupted my daughter," let it be hungry to teach self-help. "
Leaving the dining space we came in the drawing room to watch TV, :obviously snowy followed us without touching breakfast milk. After sometime ,we both startled to hear a strange sound ;I muted the TV and my daughter jumped from the sofa and screamed nervously ," it's from Snowy!"
We heard the same queer sound for the second time .We saw the cute furry torso-body of snowy nearby, under the curtain of the door ,and the head on the other side of the curtain towards dining room ;Why it was giving such sound !
I lifted the curtain ;and it came to my notice that an ugly little kitten was licking the milk from the bowl of snowy while its eyes fixed on staring aggressively to Snowy. Poor snowy in anger and fear could only give that bizarre whimper in protest.
My daughter giggled; she was happy to see Snowy as fine.
"snowy, go, go ,(like encore, encore ),fight with the kitten !it is stealing your milk", said I.
But Snowy didn't bulge an inch.
The fearless kitten was busy to finish the lees from the bowl making sound like' chulk,chulk',with eyes still fixed aggressively on Snowy.
The kitten , instead of running like a thief, walked out from the opened garage door like a hero, leaving behind us stupefied!
I hopelessly uttered ,"you are afraid of kitten, Stupid dog !"
Another story of snowy's stupidity .
Snowy was then of four /five months. Enemity between dog and cat is a known fact. It seems to me that Snowy retained the childhood bitter memory of the cat's misbehavior. He used to be fanatically mad at the sight of any cat seen in our boundary and chased after it ,even jumping over the boundary wall like a monkey.
In his whole span of life (thirteen years) he killed seven to eight cats . The cats also caused injuries to snowy to defend themselves. We had to give him injection several times .
One day Snowy barked and flew away through the collapsible gate like a bullet .From its ferocious barking we (me and my daughter) jointly uttered, "must be cat !" We were afraid that if it crossed over the wall outside and might be a victim of gang of stray dogs !
That day Snowy was chasing after a giant sized goat ,instead of cat. Perhaps the greedy goat somehow slipped into our garden through the open gate when our part time maid left our house; It was as big as a calf.
My daughter and me began to shout as loud as we could do," stop Snowy ,Snowy,Snowy!"trying to stop him.
The neighbors came out side bewildered, trying to guess what happened between mother and daughter running and screaming because our wall was made too high ( for snowy ) to view the goat or snowy . The goat was chased surrounding the building at least five six round or more and it lost power to run any more. Then happened the climax of the heroic drama;
The giant goat stopped and turned facing to Snowy with a loud fearful bleating "Mhaaaeaaa--a-a--a-perhaps 'it was its 'last dance' .By the time my daughter and me also reached the spot from two opposite sides..I stunned waiting for some very inauspicious incident.
As the goat threw a prolonged bleating in fear in front of snowy, Snowy ,instead of jumping upon it to attack (As I apprehended) , knelt down before him and began to pee , non stop ,more than gallon, gallon after gallon with eyes fixed to the goat and vice versa .
My daughter opened the gate .The goat ran quickly. Snowy was still peeing with vacant look at me.
I burst into laughter to the ground . "shame ,shame , the stupid dog !"
My daughter pleaded on behalf of her pet ,"he is a brave dog, mom; dogs' auditory capability is ten times higher : so the bleat sounded to his ear like explosion of dynamite .
My snowy made the coward goat to bleat in fear louder than the syren..........
I couldn't stop laughing when I narrated it to my husband.
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