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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Missing You...

For some strange reason, today his face has been very constantly fluttering through my thoughts…I haven’t been thinking of him for quite some time now and all of a sudden today he is in my thoughts…all fresh and cute as always…and his thought did instill a pain in my heart…a pain for the love I had for him….the pain of reality that I can never see him again…the pain of missing him…the pain of missing hugging him and loving him…I don’t think anybody else could ever take the place that he had in my mind ever after him…he was irreplaceable in my heart…in my family’s heart…He was our pet…a German Shepherd…a police trained watch dog…

“Gentle” was his name…an apt name for his behavior ONLY towards us…his family…I don’t remember when he came to live with us… but he was always there with us…He was an extremely brilliant dog…and absolutely disciplined and well mannered and knew his job very well…he was tall and well built for his age…I still remember the pace with which he would change his posture from a playful Pet dog to an Alert Watch Dog the moment a stranger enter our boundary wall…and trust me, if the new-comer did the mistake of picking even a piece of paper, he would find Gentle just near him….all alert and with a low volume growl, which would make even the bravest person drop down what ever he was picking up…lol!!!

I have to write a whole book on him, if ever I start talking to you about him…But today, as I remember him…I wish sharing with you about that day…the one day that me or my whole family can never forget…Even today, when I think of that day my eyes fill with tears and I wish…

Now, Gentle had a separate kennel close to our 2 storey house. His kennel was not less than a house or a room… It was as tall as any of our rooms and had a full length door, windows and a Tiled roof…It was like a Out-house…specially built in for the dogs that we had…if I missed telling earlier, we have had times when we had more than 7 dogs at a time…My dad was crazy about dogs and so were we kids…So, Gentle always had a magnificent royal life of his own…with good food and all health concerned medicines and all stuff…

Of all the people in the world, Gentle was scared of just one person…and that was none other than my Mom…hehe!!! My mom was strict not only with us but with the most disciplined Gentle too…lol!!! And the only reason for which Gentle could face mom’s wrath was if he committed the mistake of turning his room into his toilet…He had his own timings and specific areas to do it and if he forgot that Mom was there to teach him his lesson…You should see, his fear filled eyes when Mom scolds him…poor Gentle…

Anyways, one fine day, as a routine, just before going to school I went to his room’s window to say Bye to him…what I saw was there was a lot some waste fluid on the floor and he was busy licking them off…I started laughing and warned him… “Ha, Gentle, you did it in here…Mom is gonna kick you today…” As if he understood what I said…(No, he really understands what we tell him…)…he started frantically trying to lick off every bit of the fluid…Only then I noticed it was not some fluid but blood…I was shocked…Answering my screams for help, dad came running and brought him out of his room…I still remember how scared was he to come out of his room…He never had to fear Mom who was just half his strength…it was his discipline and his respect for his Madam…

I had to leave as I was getting late to school…I remember spending every minute of that day at school weeping and praying…not knowing what actually happened…I rushed home in the evening and came to know that in real Gentle, maybe while trying to bite off some fly or some insect bit his own tail so hard that a nerve broke and the blood was from the wound in his tail…He was given anastasia and a minor surgery was done…

By late night he was brought back home, carried by four people and was laid at our Verandah…he was half unconscious…we were all really upset and was taking turns to be with him…

All of a sudden, in his half unconscious state, Gentle tried standing up and walk out of the Verandah…none f us understood why he was doing that when he couldn’t even get up…even when we were asking him to sit, he was trying hard to walk forward but falling off every inch…he wasn’t giving up either…in his attempt, he fell off the three steps that led to the parking garage from the Verandah…We were trying hard to carry him back to verandah…God, he was indeed heavy and wouldn’t budge even…and then we noticed, why he was trying to move out of the Verandah…he was having dysentery…not a normal one, but all the blood that he drank in the morning was being ejected from his body then…

And poor Gentle didn’t wanted that to happen at the Verandah as he knew his Madam would never like it…I remember my Mom just breaking into tears on seeing this…She knelt down near Gentle and consoled him… “Gentle, don’t worry dear…Mom wont scold you…you come and lie down inside the Verandah…You are sick…Mom will clean it…Its OK…” …He was trying to keep his eyes open and gazing at my mom…As if understood what Mom said, he slowly gave in to our efforts…he tried getting up and finally we succeeded in bringing him back to the Verandah and letting him sleep for the rest of the night comfortably…to wake up the next day as fresh as any other day …

He died after 2 or 3 years of this incident…due old age…he saw the worst days of his health..and had really gone thru lot of pain before he went into final sleep…When he passed away, I was not informed…I was stopped from going near his rooms for days quoting some strange reason…But after a few days, when I really felt that something was fishy, I secretly went into his room and found it empty…Then I realized that he was gone…I know that there would never be another Gentle…

My dear Gentle, I miss you….

NB: I know, not all of you would love to have a pet dog…But trust me, if you had Gentle, you would never wanna leave him…As for us, till date, none of us could forget that night…when Gentle showed his disciplined character even when he was dead sick…Even today, we jokingly make fun of Mom…Afterall Mom was not less than a HITLER even to the most ferocious Gentle…and at the same time Mom makes fun of me and my brother that… “Even a dog behaved properly when I asked him to…but my own children till date hasn’t learnt to listen to their Mother’s advice or disciplines…” I would surely share with you all some other stories of him...some day…

4 comments:

KParthasarathi said...

Your story was moving and the narration excellent.Dogs get attached to their master and the affection is mutual.Still I have a fear for dogs and would make a detour to avoid facing one.I try to avoid entering houses that carry 'Beware dogs' sign.

As a chit i remember having brought a mongrel and hiding it in a gunny bag on the terrace of our house and how its howl woke up my dad in the middle of the night and the scolding I got.

Aileth said...

Your story reminded me of my late parakeet.
I used to let him roam free in the house and he wouldn't bite, he'd land on my shoulder and chase my feet. I was about 8 years old. He lasted so long I never expected him to pass away. One day I went to feed him by the veranda, and 2 other parakeets, I found them on the floor of their cage and my dearest was still standing... It's been a long time but I keep his good memories with me.

I am also afffraid of dogs,and I avoid them until proven that they are not going to harm me for no reason. Thank you for sharing your story.

Vikram Waman Karve said...

A lovely memoir to a great dog - that's why they say; A Dog is our greatest friend

Penny said...

I think Gentle was on your mind because he was nearby you in spirit. Don't know if you believe in such things, but I heard that when loved ones (and that includes pets) visit us in spirit, one of the signs is frequent thoughts of the person or pet. It is them projecting into your thoughts, possibly, but either way, it is them thinking of you.