M y memories before I got adopted are very vague, and, I would say, best forgotten. Actually, I have forgotten most of what happened. I do recall, I was on the street where most Indies (as we are called) live and scrounge around. On one beautiful day a miracle happened: a beautiful lady, whom I thought was an angel, rescued me in a small town in Kerala, and brought me to Humane Animal Society in Coimbatore.
My memory is very blurred, and what I think are facts may not be true. Take it with a pinch of salt, as my human would say.
It was difficult at Human Animal Society, initially, as I was having a lot of pain. I really don’t know why? It was a new place, and even though the humans spoke a different language, it was familiar to the language I heard earlier on the streets.
The humans in Humane Animal Society were very good, patient and nice. I was happy. Maybe this is the reason most of my past has been forgotten. Maybe I don’t really want to remember?
They treated me for my injuries, and even did surgery. Post operation was very painful, but as I regained my strength, I slowly regained my sprightly self.
When I felt much better, I was shifted to Humane Animal Society Sanctuary, from the hospital, which was really, really nice. The staff were so patient and assuring that my trust towards humans started to regain. The Sanctuary had many dogs from different parts of South India, and it was a learning experience learning different dog cultures, and making friends. We were in enclosures with about 6-8 dogs. And we formed an inclusive pack even though it was difficult as we had grown up in different cultures. The humans helped us by feeding us well, and by teaching us how to live in a pack. Even though small in stature, I was a sort of the leader of the pack (that’s what I thought).
One fine day three humans came to the sanctuary, they looked like prospective humans for adoption.
Our in-charge human took them around. They picked up a small black and brown dog whom the father of the group said they will take as their dog. I saw this from the corner of my eyes, and felt a little pang of jealousy, they looked like good humans, and I would have loved to adopt them.
Luckily, the daughter said, ‘let us look at other dogs, too!’. There were more than 50 dogs in the Sanctuary on that day! They were almost past my enclosure, the father human turned back and said that he wanted the small white dog in the middle. All the dogs looked behind to see who this human wanted, none of them suspecting that I could adopt such a good family. My excitement grew when he pointed at me. Initially I was scared, unbelieving that I was going to live with this family, and that we selected each other. There were mixed feelings. I was to leave the Sanctuary, which was so good. The humans were so nice and loved us. But on the other hand, animal instinct told me I was entering a glorious and joyous phase in life.
We were in this car, and travelled quite far. I loved the breeze in my face. I sat on my human's lap, looking out. It was a new experience, and I was worried and anxious. My human, with a gentle voice, kept assuring that everything will be alright.
My new house was good. It had stairs inside leading to a balcony, and the children’s rooms. My room was on the ground floor. My Human shared it with me. His area was the cot, in the middle, and a small computer table in the corner. The whole floor area was mine, even under the bed and table. I found it quite comfortable. If I felt like a change, the dining room and sitting room were mine too! The Sofa was quite comfortable too on cold nights. My anxiety and fear kept me awake in the night and I woke up my human by licking his face or scratching his back. He never showed signs of irritation. It looked like he didn’t mind. He thought I wanted to go out, and we went out through the night. Poor human.
The humans named me Bambi because of my beautiful eyes. Later my second name was added, and they named me Bambi Naal Mani as I have the habit of waking my human at 4.00 am! Every morning, I wake up my human either by licking his face or by scratching his back. I draw his upper limb towards me, and make him scratch my upper chest. It feels so good I doze and sometimes even sleep next to him.
At about 4.45, my human gets off the bed and we go to the kitchen. I doze off again. Human needs coffee! Yeeech! (I need to make him reduce his coffee intake). And we are out of the house.
I have my duties every morning! You need to work for the lovely accommodation and refreshments. First, I have to feed those birds, the peacocks. Human likes them and feeds them with wheat (imagine liking those huge frightening birds with sharp beaks and claws). Unfortunately I have to act like I don’t mind them. My animal instinct says jump on them, kill them, before they do this to you.
It’s still dark with shadows, screeching of the owls, and the loud calls of the peacocks, scare me. The calming voice of my Human and his presence gets me courage and to venture out.
Slowly I regain my courage and run around the campus, when my Human aimlessly walks up and down a road, many times. I still have to learn a lot about humans! Especially this aimless walk. I am so busy smelling all around us and re-marking my territory.
I do get tired running around, but I do enjoy this freedom. My Human is worried that those big bad dogs will come attack me. I’m also cautious, and when I see them, or the black cat, or anything that moves, I run as fast as I can to my human or towards my house.
Even though my human is tired and keeps telling me that he is 62 years old and I am only 4 years old, I like to play and we play football on the balcony. I have learnt the best way to get the ball is to gently bite my human’s ankle and sure enough you get the ball. We run around for few minutes. When I take a breather and look out from the balcony my Human is on the treadmill, another aimless activity.
We come downstairs, and I go straight to the water bowl. I want to continue to play, I keep telling my human by making different barks, growls etc., and he replies by stating he is busy making breakfast. When he says this, I keep quiet and go off to sleep as I know he makes breakfast for me, too (my favourite being Bombay toast and pancakes).
Next thing I have to do after breakfast is to take the scooter out. It is a tough job for a small dog. Thank God, my Human helps me! He makes me sit on the scooter. It is quite a secure space between the handlebar and the seat. My Humans legs are on either side so we don’t fall out.
After this, I like to be out and say bye to the sweet girls getting into their school bus. I do get scared when the bus comes in and hide behind my Humans legs. Then I start barking and run towards the bus when it leaves. I’m still the boss, and the bus runs away, frightened. I guess.
One of my jobs throughout the day is to drive away the newspaper man, the post woman, the garbage collecting women, and all the couriers and delivery persons. I sometimes bark at the people who intrude my park in the front of our house. How dare they play in my park! My barking and growling do work. My Human allows me to bark and states: 'she gets so tired barking that she will go to sleep'. If my Human is with me I get more courage and my barking increases.
I love our maid servant who loves talking to me. A highlight is she brings two glucose biscuits every day to show she loves me. Sometimes I wish my human learns from her.
The annoying thing about her is she accuses me of dirtying up the house. All I do is: I open up all the boxes and wrapping material my human throws into the garbage can. All I am doing is to check them to see whether my Human has accidently left any valuables in these packaging materials. She even gets annoyed with me if I tear up the newspaper. I do it so that my human gives me more time. All the PET bottles state: 'crush after use'. So I bite till the bottle is fully crushed. Only thing is this process is very noisy.
The maid is so arrogant she even dares to enter our room and cleans it! And dump the dirty clothes into the laundry bag! I try to prevent her by barking, and at times snapping at her. I guess she has never heard the statement, 'this room is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy!'
I usually go to sleep after all these activities, which start from 4.00 am. Only time my human grumbles, he says: 'she wakes me up at an unearthly hour and look at the way she sleeps.'
My Human goes to his factory most of the days. If he is at home he sits in front of the computer!!! Or TV. So, I go back to sleep.
My human has taught me how to indicate what I want. It’s difficult as he understands only two or three of my commands:
a) If I sit it means I want to go out.
b) If I jump around it means I want to play.
c) If I sound like I’m complaining, it means give me attention, and turn the phone, TV or computer off.
Thank God he is smart enough to understand this much at least. It is frustrating at times.
Scout is a Golden Retriever whose human allows us to play in the park. It’s fun running at great speeds. He is huge, but I push him down when we wrestle. The humans encourage us a lot. Only problem is we have to stick to the park. Only then will the humans be comfortable and not anxious as both of us have this inherited habit of running behind cycles, scooters, bikes, cars etc. We feel proud of ourselves because our barking and running behind them drives them away, protecting our humans.
Troy is a handsome black Labrador, who I love to play with. Only problem is, his human is hardly in Coimbatore, and brings him out to play very rarely.
My human usually comes back tired and hungry when he goes out and comes back. In his absence, all I do is sleep. So when he comes back I want him to take me out! Sweet of him he does take me out, but at times pleads to me, requesting me if we could go out later. Spoilt stubborn I win all the time.
My Human eats his lunch, but before that he sees to it that my plate is full. I sometimes don’t feel like eating, and he feels worried wondering why, and gives me half of whatever he is eating: cookies etc. He bakes lovely cookies for me. If he has been good I share it with him.
We have dinner together, or I should say they have dinner, and I lie down under the table. I keep a paw on my human's feet and the other paw on his daughter’s feet, so that they won’t leave me and walk away. By the end of the day, I got out for the last time, this time with the son human.
You should have noticed:
a) I sleep a lot
b) I love to go out
c) Most of the activities I do is to get attention
When the lights are turned off, I’m off to sleep… Good night
