The Gurls

I discovered merely by accident that I am such a big dog lover. I have always had dogs in my family....nothing huge and ferocious but always a German Spitz. These are tiny dogs(tiny by my standard now at least) and are not much of a trouble in any respect. The current dog my parents have is named Ruffle and I have had him since I was 15 years old. He is a sweet old guy and I love him very much. But he is not the reason I love dogs so much today. Infact, I hardly ever paid any attention to Ruffle until recently.
In 2008 Kunal got posted to Alwar,Rajasthan. It was peace station so we got a family accommodation there. Soon afterwards, Kunal went away for 2 months on a long exercise with his unit. Me being such an independent soul did not much fancy the idea of going to Dehradun for 2 months , so I decided to stay in Alwar alone and started to discover the place and my culinary skills.
Soon after Kunal left,I started going on long walks alone. There we not many people to talk to in Alwar and I started enjoying these walks. One day I brought back home a female stray dog...it was raining and she decided to camp in the balcony to protect herself from the rain. Next morning I gave her some bread and milk and she decided I was her friend for life. I named her Suyi....she was a beautiful brown female with the most gentle temperament I have ever seen. She became a true friend to me and walked along side me everyday even though I didn’t have a leash. It was nature’s way..the dog decided I was her friend and she gave me company on these long walks.
I started looking forward to seeing Suyi asleep on the balcony every morning after that....I started making extra chapattis for my lunch so that I could feed her what ever was left. Even though I was all alone in Alwar that winter she was a true companion to me. She would sit alongside me on the terrace and bask in the sun while I read in the afternoons...she would walk alongside me if I wanted to go buy groceries. Yet, there were moments when Suyi could not help her wild instincts and disappeared for days...
Suyi made me see dogs in a totally new light. I realised what I needed to fill my empty days was a little puppy love. Back then I was not working and Kunal was extremely busy. I totally needed something to engage myself with and a dog seemed a good idea to me. But the truth was, I didn’t know anything about keeping a dog. Back home I never participated in any dog related activities....I had no clue what it takes to actually bring up a puppy. Thats why when I told Kunal I want a dog, he was totally against it. I had become a dog lover...one who didn’t own a dog yet....
Now Kunal has always been a dog lover...he always had huge dogs around in his house and he was quite good at it. He repeatedly told me I wasn’t being practical....that someday I would wanna have a job and then a dog would become a liability. I should have listened to him....I didn’t and I am quite thankful for that in many ways.
On May 18th 2008 my darling baby girl entered my life. I named her Xena even before I saw her...and it just happened to suit her to perfection. She was a fiery little cotton ball. Whoever said you cannot buy happiness forgot all about little puppies. Oh...the soft fur and the pretty blue eyes....it was love at first sight. Xena was a little German Shepherd and she was a gorgeous puppy...she was a pain in the butt but adorable none the less. Both Kunal and I made a thousand compromises and countless adjustments in our lives to fit Xena in....we don’t regret even one.
Unlike Suyi, Xena is not a follower. My beloved Xena believes in leading the way. She was a troublesome puppy though now has turned into a beautiful, confident dog. I guess, Xena wants to chew through life....she is one nippy dog who loves to chew anything that comes her way. She is the most active dog I have ever come across and loves to play fetch. In many ways, she never wants to grow up. That, I believe, is the real charm about her. She has brought so much happiness in our lives. I know and I can speak confidently for Kunal as well, we would rather miss a thousand holidays than not have Xena. She changed many things in our life....I don’t mind even one. A dog is a responsibility...a chewer like Xena is an even bigger one! If she got to a book or a favourite shoe we considered it as our mistake for not hiding it well enough:P Somehow, she has played a major role in all our decisions. We think of her comfort before ours....we worry about her before anything else. I don’t think I could love a human child more than I love Xena... the day I first held her in my hands I became a mother and she would always be my first child.
On Xena’s second birthday I decided to do something crazy....I got another dog! She is a Neapolitan mastiff and we adopted her through an organization called Friendicoes. These people try and place abused and neglected dogs into happy families. I believe we are a very happy family...and so entered Ginger...a very happy dog who just wanted to eat through life. Just like Xena is obsessed with her yellow ball, Ginger is obsessed with food. I think it has something to do with the fact that she was emaciated when we got her. She was found on a construction site...being fed occasionally by labourers. She was extremely malnutritioned and sick initially. I think bringing Ginger into my family is the most charitable act we have ever done....though I had a motive of my own. Just like before, Kunal was not ready to bring in a second dog..a second dog meant additional responsibility and we were still reeling under the effect of all the extra work we did for Xena. But being the wonderful husband he is, he gave in and let me bring Ginger to our family. Ginger is a cuddly little bear...she loves to eat and loves to sleep....she snores like a log and drools like crazy. Ginger is everything Xena is not....she follows you everywhere and is a very easy dog to handle.
I recently found out from the vet that Ginger is only 8 months old...we celebrated her birthday on May 7th 2010 thinking she was already one! Guess we will have to do it all over again soon!!!
I love my dogs...they are a LOT of work..but I enjoy every bit of that. If someone told me 2 years back that I would jump out of bed at 7 am and rush to the kitchen to make giant sized chapattis I would have laughed my head off...yet that’s how a typical morning starts in my house. A typical Sunday is even worse...after walking and feeding the dogs they have a bathing session and post that, a detailed grooming session. On most Sundays we are doing “maintenance” for these little critters till about 2 pm.. We love each minute we spend with our ‘Gurls’ but without doubt, the highlight of my day is always when I walk in through that door and my babies greet me with a wagging tail and unlimited licks...always so happy to see me even if I was gone just an hour. They never fail to make me feel special....they never fail to make me feel important...and for that and a million other reasons I love them more than life itself.