Rocket and Goblin

Anu and I got married two years ago and we both happened to be dog lovers. In fact, in our early dating stages we had even come up with a silly plan to “share” a dog. Imagine, living in separate flats and “sharing” a dog. That too in Bombay!! Thankfully, that never happened and we just got married to each other. Anyway after we got married we started discussing getting a puppy. We spoke to many of our relatives, friends and acquaintances who either had had pets or were experienced in raising dogs. Almost everyone we spoke to dampened our spirits by sharing with us well-meaning warnings:

“Your social lives will be over.”
“It’s a crime for working couples to keep a puppy.”
“All your good furniture will be history.”
“It is a huge 12 year responsibility, you can’t get out of halfway.”
“The house will become hell.”
“You can’t travel, blah blah blah.”

My first word of advice to those who are in similar situations – don’t listen to anyone who says any of the above. We have two dogs now and NONE of the above has come true and I am tired of waiting for any of those to come true. Dogs adapt beautifully as long you adapt to their needs in some way. We both work, we stay in a typical fancy apartment and our dogs are not unhappy. We travel – we just dump them in our gaadis and take them everywhere. They are absolutely fine and so are we. They have NOT destroyed our newly polished furniture either. Whatever little mess they make is very handleable even for a working couple like us with no 24 hour domestic help. Another thing was the decision about what puppy to bring home. I was very clear in my head that I wanted a “proper” breed – a beagle or a boxer actually. Having lived overseas all her life, Anu felt we should adopt a stray as they are the ones that NEED a home (the pedigree puppies get homes easily anyway). So this was another thing we were a bit stuck upon. Finally we decided to postpone this dog thing for a few years. Then on a very ordinary day as I was driving into the basement parking, something that looked like a huge rat scuttled under my vehicle. I jumped out to see what it was and from between the wheels came out this scrawny little ugly brown thing – wagging a diseased threadlike mangy tail! That’s how Rocket came into our home and our lives eight months ago. He has grown up to become the most handsome dog I have seen. Strangely, everything about him has changed my way of thinking about pure breeds totally. Today I can’t even think of choosing a pedigree over a pariah. So much so that three weeks ago we again brought home another little fellow from the streets outside our (new) apartment.

Sanjay Sarkar