The apple of my eye

Like most kids i always wanted a pet. While i was in Jeddah (Saudia Arabia) i had this fascination for turtles..courtesy the marketing brilliance of those who made Teenage Mutant Turtles...and so i wanted a turtle. To be fair i wasn't the only one who had this fascination. Friends who i grew up with also wanted to have their own Raphaels and Michelangelos and many of them were quite lucky to have their way with their folks. I wasn't one of them. In hindsight, I think my parents were right. Turtles are low maintenance as they stink up the bathroom (or where ever u put it) big time...and as far as i was concerned..they were pretty darn boring..all they did was swim around and eat..and swim around a little bit more..and sleep...which gives u heart ache cozur not sure whether they r dead or just in the peak of slumber...so a turtle was out of the question..

When i settled in Trivandrum, my search for a pet was reinvigorated, but this time i chose a more active species...a dog. Mom was dead against a pet as it was very high maintenance, it would dirty the house, someone (read: herself) had to be at home at all times and that would mean end of family vacations. Those arguments did procrastinate the eventuality as Mom ran the house and no one could question her and go to bed on a full stomach at the same time.

It was Dad came for good that i restarted my pitch for a dog. The fact that my friends by that time had pets of their own validated my pitch even further. And finally sometime around may-june 2000 we went to a pet shop ( i think 'lovely pets' was the name) and brought Impy home...my golden Labrador retriever....

Impy for a long time gave me the feeling that she is a cat in a dogs body. She keeps licking her feet, cozies herself to us expecting us to pet her all the time. But despite all that, it would be inhuman not to fall for her. Mom and dad have ...and how. Frankly i think i have been sidelined by her and i am not even complaining.

During the first few days we were not sure how much we should feed her. So dad and i would guess on how much milk would be adequate for her. We finally came to a consensus and gave her so much milk that her tummy bloated as one would see in cartoons and when she walked her legs would be on one side and her tummy the other....quite a scene that.

For quite a while we used to let her sleep on a folding cot...and sometimes i would share it with her..(now now don't get any funny ideas..)..until ofcourse she became so big that i had no place on the cot...and also coz of the fact that the cot would crumble under her weight..

I could go on and on about how cute she is ..but u really have to see it to believe it.Dad always wishes they had dog instead of us as she is so considerate and causes them so less heart ache as we do. also due to the fact that she has very few demands..namely to be petted, to be tken for a ride in our car, to have walk around the block and to give her bones.The fact is that we are so close to her that we can't imagine life without her. Ironically the only person who can come to terms with her eventual passing on..is me.