Sammy & others

When the thefts increased in our colony, we adopted a dog..Tommy. He was a very sweet specimen but people were scared & he had to be taken at the back for the patients to enter. With him around ,we felt secure. Once he was stolen. Maybe he barked in the night but we didn’t understand his signal. Vaibhav was tiny then & atya had come to help out. She had finished her exams & free to come. My mother & atya shared a unique bond. She had joined stitching classes & liked to help us . At a corner shop, she saw Tommy tied up. She called him. He looked at her & wagged his tail , barked. The shopkeeper refused to released him. She came home & narrated everything. armed two more ladies she went & came back with Tommy.

I have never touched but I admired him from afar. Later as he became old & got bitten he had to be put to sleep. But we wanted a pet. We had a parrot for a few months. How his cage is being cleaned, how he eats his chillies & guauas was watched from a distance. Then we had a cat. All of us agreed on a name. Why only English names? Lets call her ‘Santoshi’ which later became ‘Sammy’. A cat with all colours & a temper to match. She was ferocious & when her feeding was done she left. A saucerful of milk was her demand. She would find Aai in the kitchen, went round, followed her . She would sleep on the feet at night.

She had a bunch of kittens ,whom she fed till they became big enough & ignored them totally. They were never her responsibility. You keep them ,throw them,feed them your lookout. Cats do have this trait. She never fed a weakling. Aai tried a dropper & the small feeds but the kitten was so tiny it couldn’t suck & got all wet. It did not survive. Survival of the fittest is their law. We humans are different. The mother always cares more for the weaker, smaller, younger among the offsprings. The lame,blind, dull or dim witted is her own. Sammi was in our house for all her twelve years. When someone says they never had a pet, I wonder how. In our case it was never a conscious decision but it helped us to grow right.

For a few days we had a rabbit too. but it wasn’t eating properly & we gave it back . Shambhu had a dog, he named her ‘Sammy’. She was their constant companion. In the mornings she brought in the newspaper. Only the supplement! Shambhu Would look & say, ‘Sammy’ after a sheepish look she would bring the main page. she was rewarded with a biscuit so she wanted two! She knew the sound of his car, the moment his car turned into the lane she would be all excited ,barking, wagging tail & looking forward to greet him first. She was a very loving dog. She loved small children She had only one kid in her lifetime.

When we visited Vizag, Kanupriya was tiny.She was coming down the stairs when Sammy saw her, She jumped up the stairs & met her mid way. She licked her entire face in joy. Little Kanupriya was so amazed ,she remained rooted in her tracks. When Sammy climbed down the last steps , Kanupriya recovered & found her voice. Gradually she followed Durga & then both were comfortable. There came a trainer who taught Sammy, both the girls stood patiently watching her.

Back home Durga found ‘Chiku’ an intelligent dog. Trained her, befriended her & also took good care of all her litters. Durga wanted o keep all of the 13. All of them were tiny then but I made her understand that it was impossible to keep all. Even if I give one chapati each how will we manage when they grow up? She gave away all except one…Osiris,who is liked by all small children around.

That’s the dog’s tale. More later, signing off…have a safe night!