Stupido

Stupido was such a lovely puppy. She and Fenny struck up a friendship, something I had never expected out of my girl. But Fenny has shown me several things that she is capable of doing, one such thing is to go make friends with strays who she thinks my dad and I will approve of. So Stupido became a common visitor near the gate when we took Fenny for a walk. When Fenny would return home from the walk she would run straight inside for some biscuits and milk/water/mango juice (she is totally pampered) and Stupido would wait outside and she would get her share as well. There are several instances when Stupido tried to get me to pet her, but I wouldn’t because my mom has banned me from petting strays every time I see one. Stupido would follow my mom and me as well when we would go for our walk. She was such silly pup, half the time we would be worried that some big dog would come and attack her. Thanks to her I had to carry pebbles in my pockets to shoo the bigger dogs away. So Stupido started looking up to me as her protector, something I wish she hadn’t done. So 4 months into this routine, I started using a special whistle for Stupido because if I used the one I used for Fenny, Fenny would probably get jealous. So one day when I whistled, Stupido came running straight at me. Stupido had an exceptionally long tail which would spin and go whoosh-whoosh and when she got super excited the tail would get confused not knowing which direction to spin in, so it would go clockwise half way and return anti clockwise. She came and licked my hand and so I pet her. I mean she had already licked my hand so I would have to wash my hand so why not pet her as well and then wash my hand. She was so happy that I pet her. Two days after that she just disappeared. 2 weeks later I saw her and she was in such terrible condition. The big dogs had gotten her. She was so badly bruised, the flesh on her leg was torn, there was huge gash on her back, she was just a small bag of bones. Seeing her like that made me hate the dogs that did that to her. That was probably the first time I ever voiced hatred towards the canine specie. That was the last time I saw her.

4 weeks back I saw a little dog follow my mom and me, instinctively I turned around and said, “Hey, Stupido.” But this wasn’t Stupido; it was tan colored dog, almost the same size as her, but not her. So I turned and decided not to look back at the mutt, it followed us for a while but then went its own way. The same weekend, I saw a lady on our street hitting a really tiny puppy. Initially I thought it was their puppy so I decided to mind my own business. But when the beatings continued and the pup kept crying, I just had to go and find out what was happening. Turned out the puppy was a stray and was “scaring” the aunty ji. I picked it up got it home, fed it, put it in a cardboard box and the chappie was christened CROCKERY, that was the label on the carton and thus the name. We tucked him in the box for the night. When we woke up in the morning, Crockery was gone. No amount of searching helped. In a way I guess it was good that he left, but on the other hand he is such a tiny guy, I wonder if he will survive. But then again these strays are survivors aren’t they? But even they could do with an occasional treat or pat on the head to know that they are wanted and are welcome in this world.

P.S: I never meant to blog about Stupido, as much as I loved her she has probably been my most favorite stray pup. When you see the pup all happy and fine around you, you don’t think beyond that. I never did. It was only on two occasions that I cried into my pillow thinking that I love Fenny so much. One: when I read Marley and Me and the second time after Stupido.