The first year of my dogs life was the most fun time for all of us. There is not too much of a difference between raising a kid and raising a dog I have realised. It was an experience my sister and I will cherish forever.
So let me get back to the first day. Our very own lovely little angel came over to our house. At that time we used to live on the second floor. I remember I placed him down at my parent’s room for the first time. He looked quite puzzled with the new surroundings. Sniffing around and getting scared of everyone’s step. My mother instantly became fond of him.
Dinner was laid and so was my doggy’s first meal. We gave him milk. But he was not in the mood for milk. He kept giving a small cry after every few minutes, obviously missing his family. After the meal, came the fruits. Ma instantly cut a slice of papaya and gave it to him. To everyone’s surprise he ate it! In excitement all of us fed him an entire papaya. My dog slept all curled up on the bed next to my mum, mostly in her arms the whole night! The next morning he got the biggest bout of loose motions. I think that was the last time he ever ate papaya in his life!
That night we finally christened his name. Everyone sat on the dining table and we all had this huge discussion. From Fluffy to Bruno to Scooby to Champaign all names were put on the table, quite literally. My mother’s side of the family had this legacy of keeping their dogs names on alcoholic drinks. That’s cause my grandfather loved his drink! So they had dog names whisky, rum, the last one was named gin.
But my father is a teetotaller. He loves to drink all right, but its water that he enjoys! And a glass of ginger ale really sets his moods on a high! My dad gave in an ultimatum that this dog will not be named after some alcohol. So we needed to decide what we all liked as a family. And the answer was simple.. Chocolates! J After writing all the chocolate names we boiled down to two, Mars and Tobblerone. Dad and ma started calling him with those names. Just to get the feel of the whole thing. “ Mars, Mars come here sweety” my mom gushed. Somehow that didn’t sound too good. “Tobblerone, Tobbler, give me a hug you little gem.” My dad put him on his lap. Dad smiled and looked at all of us. It was a smile that my dad gives when he has decided on something. It had content written all over it. So it was decided. Our new dogs name was Tobblerone Singh! Tobbler in short. Toby in very short. Toblu when we adore him. Tobli when we are crazy about him. I’ll tell you what we call him when we hate him in the next few chapters!!
So didi and I got ourselves together to train tobbler. I won’t say we did the best job ever, but by our standards we did alright. J The potty and piss training was the most difficult. Every morning when Tobbler would relieve himself in all the craziest of places in our house, we would put newspapers and put them outside in the small back terrace that we had in our house. In the evenings, post dinner we would take him there and wait for hours. This was a nice time for my sister and I since it helped us bond together. We would share the day happenings with each other and generally have a great time in these evening sessions! A few times tobbler would oblige us in a short time. But there were days we waited for hours and this fellow would just sniff around and piss everywhere but not shit! Idiot.
We never leashed him for anything. I was totally against it. So even when he had to go downstairs outside, on the road, we would walk with him and he would do his thing! I must admit that that was the first mistake I made while bringing him up. I made a lot more. I have learnt so much from bringing up this dog that my next one is going to be a super brilliant dog. The perfect one!!
Anyways after a couple of months, Tobbler started teething. You know most dogs start eating and nibbling on things around the house. Like tables, clothes, shoes, oh and how can I forget, my dogs second favourite, socks. But what Toby loved the most was to eat us when he got a sensation in his teeth. I mean he would see any one of us four, particularly di and I, and would head straight for our feet! And he would do so relentlessly too till the time I would not start screaming.
This was one of the worst phases of having Tobbler around. He would just not listen. He had become bigger, so it was not easy to manoeuvre him around the way we used to. Plus he never listened to us. I stopped taking out my shoes till I went off to sleep because of this. I mean imagine, being in your own house and not being able to do the simple things. Like take of your shoes!
I got sick of this habit one day and declared that I don’t want this dog anymore. My parents laughed, my sister cribbed too, ofcourse she too had had enough of this biting, nibbling nonsense. I know I didn’t really mean it, but I so wanted it to stop. “Talk to Dr. Rita” my dad suggested. It wasn’t a bad idea. I called her the very next minute and told her our plight. She laughed, “Geetika, Its very normal for dogs to do such a thing. I agree with you, that most dogs bite off things and not really people.” “Uh uh”, she cleared her throat. “But it’s ok. The habit will go. The first thing you need to do is teach him some manners. He needs to know when he’s doing something wrong. Keep a folded newspaper handy. Whenever he does something you do not approve of, hit him on his nose with that newspaper. He will understand and not make that mistake again.
Also do him a favour Geetika. Get him some chews. There are some exceptional shops for pets all around Delhi. Go get him something he can chew on, something fleshy, now that you’ve told me he likes to chew on flesh!” And she gave a big laugh.” Also feed him chicken in his meals. Make a nice broth for him and give him chicken and roti two times a day. He’s big enough to digest it.” I thanked her and put the phone down. I had already started to understand that my doggy was unique. And that he had done something awesome in his past life to deserve this. Non vegetarian meals twice a day, and not to forget chews for appetisers, what a life!
And so this became one of the first routines for my dear tobbler. In the morning we would get up and before rushing for school we would have our breakfast. Toby would sit beside me, waiting for me patiently to finish my meal. Then came the part that he and I loved the most our hot favourite, chocolate milk. He would start getting impatient and stand up on me a couple of times till I finished my milk. I would leave a few sips in the end for him. And in one shot you would see him lick off the milk from his bowl and look so satisfied as if he’s won this war and victory is his. For my dog, food is life. The satisfaction he gets after a meal or a snack or some milk or curd, is like a man achieving nirvana. And this satisfaction comes everytime he eats! It’s just that big a deal for him.
Once we came home in the afternoon. We would have our lunch and so would Toby. And then once his lunch was over, he would sit right beside me and start his “I am so cute and I’ve never had any food stare”. This means that wants a chewy. He would finish this chewy in a day. It was his dessert after a nice afternoon meal and he cannot do without it. And that’s when he would begin to stare. I cannot explain to you how innocent my dog looks when he gives me “his look”.
I’m sure you must have seen the character “Puss” in the animated film Shrek. His droopy lovey dovey eyes are not even half as marvellous as the one my dog makes. As if he’s telling you through his eyes that Geetika didi, look at me, I am your loving dog, who has never had a decent meal in his life. And I ask for only one thing and one thing only, that you give me my chewy bone, so that I can rest in peace.
And the moment you give him that bone, he would totally ignore you as you don’t even exist. This was an everyday routine, he’s sobered down a little bit now, but he still needs his chewy every once in a while. And then his “food stare is back”!
