My dearest bobby.. I love you.. :)

Its high time I wrote about my favourite topic.. animals.. :) hmm.. Its like I love them so much that I just dont know where to start from.. okie.. lemme give it a try.. ;)

I had a pet doggie when I was a kid.. :) he was a dalmation, named bobby. His actual and official name was spotty.. ;) somehow he became bobby.. :oD he came to us when he was just 18 days old, small and frail.. :) a few drops of milk and his tummy would bulge..! :D He was a very active chap.. very mischevious and extremely naughty..!! no bed sheet was ever spared or no piece of furniture was ever left untouched by our smashing, curvy tailed friend.. Infact our dining table still contains memories of those good olden days where he sat beneath it and happily chewed away the wood to glory.. we had to do away with the cushions coz they became more than useless after the onslaught.. :D Balls made of cork were his speciality actually.. :o) tore them into bits in a matter of minutes..!! whatever went through this guys teeth could never be repaired, even by the Gods themselves..!! ;) and so we had him, for three and a half years.. he became as important as a member of the family.. oh heck..! he was a member of our family..!! :)

It was always bobby this or bobby that..! He accompanied us everywhere..!! Even to the beach, where he once chased a fair skinned, blonde foreign girl.. ;) he was a guy too.. after all..!! 8) And oh, it could also be because he was never put on the leash..!! He just wore a thick silver chain around his neck whom nobody ever dared touch..!! :oD The only time we left him all alone and went out was when he was still 4months old.. only for twenty minutes mind..! my mother has never regretted anything that badly all her life..!! ;oD Dad's half chewn telephone dictionaries and precious joke books serve as a beautiful reminder of all those things that happened eons ago.. things so innocent and kiddish, that only a pet owner can understand.. :)

Bobby's bath is an ordeal in itself.. a saga so dramatic that it involved the entire family, along with the neighboring kids and aunties and uncles peeping in from their windows..!! Like the eros and thanatos, bobby had someother instinct that told him of an upcoming bath much before we ourselves decided..!! He would go into hiding, under the bed, into a bush or would turn himself into a rock so hard that it became impossible to move him..!! :D after dragging him along, dad would put him on the leash, so that he wouldn't run away..!! :D And then it would start, first the brushing, then pouring water and then applying some special doggie soap that smelt of rose and neem leaves.. ;) bobby would stand and stare at us pathetically while dad washed him from top to toe, including the gaps between his fingers..!! :) The aftermath of his bath usually began with bobby shaking himslef dry so vigorously that everybody in the vicinity ended up smelling of rose and neem leaves..!! ;oD Bobby would run away the moment dad released the clasp and jump about the house, wagging his tail like a prop and sprinkling water everywhere..! :) silly chap..!

On his first birthday, bobby suffered an epileptic seizure.. we did not know what it was back then, but later we were told that he had Brain Tumor.. It became very clear that he would not be with us for long.. that was when we realized that animals can have brain tumors too..

One summer we had planned a trip to Orissa.. along with a few of our relatives.. So we went.. for a week.. it had been the most terrible week of our lives.. Bobby, left to the care of my grand mother, had been making things scary for them.. He wouldn't eat.. he wouldn't drink.. he wouldn't even take his medicine.. we were practically stuck.. a situation so terrible that we returned back as fast as we could.. that evening, bobby did not come tumbling down the stairs to meet us.. he lay there in the hall.. panting and wagging his tail weakly.. he ate his food that evening after my dad coaxed him for nearly an hour.. he ate very little, directly from my dad's hands.. while lying down in his lap.. that night, bobby breathed his last.. in my dad's arms..

Though I know that bobby was a thing of the past, I never knew that he would leave behind an impression so big that the void he has created can never be filled.. I keep thinking of him all the time, if he has safely reached God or if he has taken birth elsewhere.. I dont know where people go after death, but bobby certainly deserves heaven for being what he is.. a good, loyal and friendly member of our family..