FUN WITH MY FOUR LEGGED BABIES!!! PART ONE

I never had any pets when I was growing up….woe betide anyone even thinking of getting a dog….my mother was much too houseproud to even think of any animal dirtying her threshold!!! The nearest I got to a dog was our next door neighbour Aunty Riley who had a poodle, named Paddy, that was her pride and joy. There used to be a gate in the fence between our houses so we could pop over very easily straight to each others kitchen doors. Now if Aunty left the house from the kitchen door Paddy knew she was coming to us so he would immediately jump over the fence and keep knocking on our kitchen door. So Aunty had to make a big drama of putting on her coat, her hat, getting her handbag and leave the house from her front door shouting “Bye Paddy…I’ll be home in a bit!”  She would then walk out of her drive and then walk down our drive and come in through the front door! What a palaver! After Paddy passed away she kind of adopted 2 stray cats who she used to feed three times a day but never allowed them in the house and they used to wander around the neighbourhood but always turned up at feeding time. When Aunty went away on holiday I was entrusted to feed these cats and although I was a bit scared of them as I didn’t like the feel of them touching my legs so I figured out a system of flicking some of their food a little distance away and whilst they devoured that I would quickly fill their feeding bowls and water bowls. Job done!

Rashi was always a great animal lover and could always be found feeding the stray dogs all over the neighbourhood. When Vivek and Rashi were small we managed to make them happy with goldfish, a parrot and 4 rabbits at various stages in their growing years. However Rashi was obsessed with dogs and would go on and on about them so much so that she used to go to a friend of mine Chanda’s house every Sunday to play with their Golden Retriever called Lex. My mother in law finally got so fed up of her taking the car every Sunday for 4-5 hours that she relented and agreed to Rashi’s request of getting a puppy. We finally found a Cocker Spaniel and when Vinay phoned from the office and asked what colour the puppy was Rashi said black and white and Vinay christened the dog Scotch. That name just stuck and he became the love of our lives. Even my mother in law loved him to bits and despite our imploring her not to feed him sweets she would feed him everything from ladoos to rasgullas. He also knew where she kept the mithai so he would go there and look at her until she got up and fed him a big piece. When Maa and Bauji used to have their breakfast he would stand right in front of them and they would feed him papaya…but he only ate the disco papita as he didn’t like the normal one. Maa always made sure there was disco papita in the house just for him. 

Then of course Vivek and Rashi went away to university and school and Vinay and I became the main caregivers which was something we hadn’t bargained for.. Rashi seemed to have a telepathic sense as far as Scotch was concerned….if he fell ill she always rang up before I even told her that he was not well. Unfortunately Scotch had a stroke when he was quite young and it was a harrowing experience as he couldn’t walk and was in great pain. That was when we decided we just didn’t want another pet as it was heartbreaking seeing this bouncy playful dog in this condition. Again Rashi phoned that morning itself to ask how Scotch was as she’d had a bad dream but I didn’t tell her as otherwise she would have been on the next flight home. With a great deal of TLC Scotch recovered and started walking again though he did drag one of his legs a bit. 

When the children came home in their holidays they were heartbroken to see him like this but then when I explained how much he had improved it was some consolation. 

Anyway, Scotch lived a long life after that though we certainly stopped all his mithai!! We had moved to Alipore during this time and whenever my mother in law would come he would literally not leave her side hoping that she would slip him some sweets….he never forgot her. He was always extremely loving and caring and instantly knew when someone who didn’t like dogs came to the house. He would take one look at them with disdain and just walk away as if to say if you don’t like me even I don’t have time for you!

When Vivek got married Neha’s mother was very keen on getting him a gold collar which I very gracefully declined so she settled on a letter S in Swarovski diamonds for his collar!!! 

He hated so many people coming to the house prior to and during the wedding….he just liked to sit quietly in the hall and here were people all crowding him and patting him. One day he had had enough and a friend of ours from England tried to pet him and he snapped and lightly bit her. She of course got very worried and immediately rang our doctor on call who happens to be a very good friend of ours and when she told him he said

“ Oh Mr Scotch….no problem!”  but she still had her injections and all was well. Dogs are very territorial and hate it when anything upsets their routine so the best way of showing it is to literally bite back!

When Scotch passed we decided we would never get another dog…..but then fate intervened!!! 

More about that later.