When the Master got disciplined!

After successfully raising my twin kids, I thought that taking in a couple of dogs would be akin to chump change. How wrong was I?! I can’t just walk into my home anymore! I first need to call my kids to restrain the excited dogs so that I can quickly rush past them, lest they leap and get a hold of me or my clothes. Neither can I seem to just leave my pair of slippers lying around unless I want them chewed to pieces. Nor can I dry my clothes in my backyard, unless I want them shred to ribbons! For the first time in years, I find my independence taking a severe backseat. But it appears to be just a case of ‘aa bail mujhe maar’ — I was just asking for it!

We were a fairly happy and content family of four. But then life seemed too peaceful! So a minor ask that my son had for over two years suddenly seemed very important and deserving of immediate attention. He desperately wanted a dog and my previous houseowner was against having pets. So we set out to upturn 10 years of peaceful settlement and find a house that would accommodate pets. After many rejections, we ended up with a lovely independent house. It looked right out of an 80s Tamil movie! The next step was to find the pet. This was fairly easy as a good friend runs a dog shelter. She shared a couple of pictures of newborn puppies. Being a mother of twins, I felt terrible separating these siblings. So, we ended up adopting not one but two indies.

The first 4 to 6 months were so wonderful! Coming home and spending time with these puppies was the best time ever. After a long time, I genuinely looked forward to coming home. (This is not to say that I don’t love returning home to my children. I adore them to bits! However, for the past 3 - 4yrs they’ve been going through their pre-teen and teen phases, respectively. So, IYKYK!)

It was somewhere around the 6-month mark of the puppies that the destructive phase started. Almost everything became a chew toy and was shredded to pieces. This included some of the strongest chew toys I’d found. Don’t be fooled by the cute adverts for dog toys! Nothing is tough enough for their sharp teeth and persistent gnawing. Flipflops, plastic bowls, flower pots, newspaper, mugs, buckets, bicycles - almost every household item one would generally keep in the verandah or backyard were not spared. Thankfully their food bowls were made of steel. I only see dents now, but no holes in them yet.

We now have an invisible “Lakshman rekha”, an unspoken boundary of sorts, within and around the house. If anything is important enough and needs saving, it must be kept within this line. Gone are the days when I could casually leave things around and go about my business. My dogs have taught me the concept of “a place for everything and everything in its place” more effectively than my parents or kids ever did.

Before you get a pet, other pet parents only focus on and talk about the challenges of feeding them and caring for them. No one talks about the psychotic destructive nature of these tiny monsters. I think it is probably one of two reasons:

1. They are so used to keeping things out of their pets’ reach that it is business as usual and not something worth mentioning.

2. They have been conditioned and sobered by the pets in their lives long enough. They may find it embarrassing to admit it publicly.

I have always been an authoritarian. My children are easily disciplined by the usual Indian household tactics. Even if there is any kind of retaliation, I employ other tactics to discipline them. But this approach doesn’t work with my dogs. People have often told me to wave the stick at them to instill fear in their hearts. And it’s not like I haven’t tried! But one dog, Chutti, growls and snaps, while the other, Chellam, tightly shuts his eyes in submission. I don’t have the heart to bully either of them. So, I just let them run wild. Now our newspaper guy has learned to throw the paper far into our home’s verandah. We now have a solid, impermeable, box for milk packets. There is now a sturdy and sealable shoe rack in which all our footwear goes. The only things I can’t save are the plants! But now I believe, in the grander scheme of things, a few strewn plants hardly matter.

There is another side to having pets at home. It’s the one that makes one wonder, “How could I ever live without them?”. The intense tail wags, along with their excited leap directed at me when I come home from work, make me feel so warm and welcomed. When I see my usually reticent son shower them with kisses, and my daughter trick them with treats to make them eat their food, I find it very heartwarming. We also split responsibilities. I take care of cooking, my kids take turns feeding them, cleaning their bowls, and cleaning the yard. One can see a whole new side to one’s kids that one never knew existed. Seeing one’s children develop into well-rounded compassionate human beings is the best gift ever! I was once paranoid of street dogs, and now I can walk past them without feeling jittery. I even admonish them for tailing me on my walks, and they seem to listen. Of course, my comfort stops at 2 or 3 dogs, if there is a pack of them I would run in the other direction!

There was a time when we would go on multiple vacations. A long weekend warranted at least a road trip. It’s been almost a year and we’ve had only one vacation. But, hey, nobody is complaining! I wish I could leave them in someone’s care and take a break, but my kids won’t hear of it! As much as I resent not having my freedom, I can’t seem to complain much. Somehow, this family of six feels just right. I wouldn’t have it any other way! Though I do have an eye on that little puppy on our street…