Diary 9 - The Refugee 31 July 2019

Today was walking in the rain with Luna. I, with an umbrella and Luna, without one. She cannot walk beside me. She has to run ahead; pulling me along. It seems as if she owns the land and I am a mere tag along. 

It is true. She is the master of the land. We cannot capture her wandering spirits of her ancestors within the confines of our cemented walls. She has that spirit within. How can we tame an intangible entity that has a history stretching across years?

But, I still wish to  train her as we cannot leave her. Dogs are territorial animals. They usually do not venture out of their territory. And we have got her from a territory that will not accept her back. And the the current space is not her native. So, in short, she is a refugee. Trying to make her mark(peeing, to be precise) in the alien land. We know, that a refugee in an alien land is socially unacceptable. Either, you get refuge or you do not. 

Right now, Luna has refuge in our house, but not socially accepted by her peers in the dog community. Alas, Luna isn't aware of  these complex, logical(rather debatable) theories. She is instinctive as any animal would be. She marks her territory by peeing at certain strategic locations during our walk. In fact, once she cocked her leg to pee! Showing dominance, eh? Or is she transgender?

I leave this diary with a heart that beats for Luna's dilemma of following her wild instincts and at the same time respecting the confines of the space where she has been refuged.

 Her wilderness will eventually win. 

Diary 8 - Luna and Mummyji - April 2019

Luna and Mummyji

Luna and Mummyji have a 'danda' relationship. Danda is a cane or a stick.

Our mummyji is not fond of dogs.  But she did not protest either when we got her home. In the initial healing days, Mummyji would regularly pour milk for her in the evenings, when we were out for work.(and later evenings too). But she wouldn't pet her, touch her or allow her to lick her feet or sniff around her. Distancing was the norm with Luna. Neither would she talk lovingly with her.

And one weapon that our Mummyji found to keep Luna at bay was the sleek, wooded stick - the 'danda'. Whenever, Mummyji wielded the danda, Luna obeyed. ANd so 'danda' entered into Luna's meager list of vocabulary.

Our Mummyji's main job profile is to keep the house tidy, spic and span. Hence, she would go bonkers at the wild, unclean habits of Luna and would keep training her to sit at one spot and eat like a gentle lady. Alas, dogs, ancestrally and genetically, do not understand royal human idiosyncrasies. More so, a desi street urchin lineage of  Luna.

And so the tussle continues...

(P.S. Mummyji has now accepted Luna in the house and is more tolerant of her habits, or you may say, has got used to her around! And Luna respects and obeys Mummyji more than us!)

Diary 7 - Luna and Sanju - March 2019

Luna and Sanju

Sandeep (Sanju) is the alpha. The master who can play wild, command, cuddle, feed and rebuke with firmness. And Luna listens to Sanju, though he does not speak much to her. She understands his honest body language that displays no duality; just purely present in the moment.

Sanju is the doer. He is climbing trees, fixing machines, wielding axes, drilling stuff, dancing around, watering plants - in short, doing stuff. 

The hand that cares

 (Here Sandeep is on the guava tree in our front yard and Luna trying to reach him through the peeping hole) 

And Luna enjoys activity. She is curious to know what's happening and runs behind and around him as she feels he is doing Some Very Important Work and she will get to contribute her part in it. 

Sanju is also the fearless warrior who can take her out in the street without a leash and protect her from the strays in our locality. And protect the dog haters from Luna!

He plays with her occasionally, but whenever he plays, Luna cherishes it for many days. He hardly spoils her with constant attention, but Luna cherishes his tiniest ear rubs or rare belly rubs or frequent throw games. 

Hmm... I wonder how this universal play of relationships work. I try to go out of my way to make Luna comfortable and happy and Sanju gets all the adulation and obedience from Luna! I guess, I need to learn something about relationships here. 

Diary 6 - Luna and Ishaan - March 2019

Luna and Ishaan

Luna has a few 'people' friends. Most of them are the children of our mohalla. When she was a pup, she attracted the attention of many children around. She was the only pup pet  in our mohalla who wouldn't walk as in walk during her walks. She had to constantly run! People commented that it was Luna who was taking me for a walk,(rather run) not the other way around!

Since children and pups love to run and play around, the children around were amused by this new kid in the block. Some would come to her just to entertain themselves, some would stay away from her unbridled energy, some wanted to play but were scared of her and some actually loved dogs.

One such dog-lover, free-spirited chap is Ishaan, a ten-year old boy. He is wild wild, as wild as the guy in Man vs Wild. He would growl with Luna, strangle her, tackle her, pretend to bite - all on his fours! Watching them is like two lion cubs engaged in play in the wild.

Here is the link to watch the man cub and Luna in action - 
https://photos.google.com/u/1/search/_tv_Videos/photo/AF1QipPRj1AgZZG2VnQ5LsmFDySX24oKd1LmvKDLeIa4


Ishaan remarked one day, "Luna is bold."

I pondered, "Not as bold as you, Ishaan."

Luna started looking forward to meeting Ishaan. She could hear his footsteps from a considerable distance. She would bark, swish her tail vigorously and peep out of the little, diamond - shaped peep holes in our narrow gallery when Ishaan came home.

Peeping  beauty...

She would generally do this whenever children would play in the street downstairs.

I could see the longing eyes. Luna longed to go out free and play with them. And how I longed  this could be possible. But Luna is a dog, I mean, a bitch.

Ishaan would come home many a times against the wish of his father. Sadly, nowadays, he is not seen outside. His father, who comes occasionally from his distant workplace, has imprisoned his wild instincts in his home jail. The father wants Ishaan to study, just study.

And Luna misses him!

Just like Luna's wild instincts are being curbed being a house pet, Eshaan too is being tamed.

Diary 5 - To give away or not give away - March 2019

To give away or not give away

When we got Luna home, injured, we had no plans to keep her as none of us in the family are dog lovers.

Sandeep's opinion - dogs are meant to run around in open spaces and our house wasn't big enough for Luna. When she grows up, she would find herself restricted and this will kill her natural, wild instincts.

That is when I really wished that we were living in a country side with sprawling landscape. However, that's not happening. Can't take lock stock and barrel to a farm side and farm, at least not right now. Though, Sandeeep is a farmer by heart. Maybe someday, but now.

Hence, the long discussions whether Luna should go or not.

Another argument in favour of giving her away was where do we leave her when we go for our long vacations. You see, Sandeep and I take long breaks during summers and go trekking, backpacking in the mountains. We love the mountains. 

Our mountain happy faces!

So I started inquiring around for any potential dog lover who would adopt Luna. Sadly and fortunately(see the paradox there!), we found none. It turned out that nobody is willing to take in a 'desi' dog. It is not fashionable to own a street dog among all the fancy breeds of dogs that seemingly symbolize the status of a household. 

We also inquired at shelter homes only to discover that shelter homes provide just food and shelter and nothing beyond that. 

Meanwhile, I was getting fonder of Luna. I started resisting the idea thought of giving her away. My fears ran as thoughts.

What if she does not get people who do not cuddle her?

What if she is not given the food she likes?

What if she is not allowed to chew on things while she is teething?

And so the 'What ifs'  persisted.

This persistence led to a series of mild and heated discussions between Sandeep and I. But I could sense that Sandeep was also growing a slight fondness for Luna. 

Diary 4 - Puppy hood Pees

Puppy hood pees

Those were the days when our drawing room floor  was strewn with newspapers. 

Why?

Because Luna had no control over her bladder! She would pee anywhere she sees a newspaper or sometimes a rug or just pee anywhere. We had to use more newspapers to soak up her pee from the floor! 

Of course, she would get rebuked for it;  but it did not work much  at that time, as puppies, they say, need to pee very often, literally after every half an hour! 

Our major job of the day was to clean up the mess. And guess who was freaking out the most - our cleanliness and organisational freak, Mummyji! She would keep cursing and at the same time keep cleaning too! 

This peeing misadventure continued for a month; a month filled with sound and fury, chaos and understandings. 

In our living room

And one fine day she grew up! Grew up to understand that peeing in the rooms is offensive. I guess, she is a slow learner. It took her a month to figure this out!

 Since then, she would run upstairs whenever she wanted to pee. That is our terrace. And not just our terrace, our neighbour's terrace, our neighbour's neigbour's terrace and the neighbour on  the right! 

Not just pees, she was expanding her territory by pooing in other's terraces. 
Initially, the neighbour's politely pointed out that she was peeing. But gradually, it wasn't cute any more. We started getting grumpy complaints very often. We were in a fix! We did not know how to potty train and Luna was a reckless brat! Our relations with our neighbour's were at stake.

We had to give justifications to our neighbour's many a times.

Justification 1 - Uncleji, we woke up late today, so we could not take her out on time. So she  peed on the terrace. (We are trying hard to wake up early because of Luna, the early riser!)

Justification 2 - Aunty, we are new to taking care of a puppy and so are trying to figure out how to train her and change our lifestyle to suit her  bladder needs. Please, accept our apologies. 

Justification 3 - Uncleji, I am very sorry, from tomorrow I will definitely wake up early and take her out! 

Justification 4 - Aunty, I  truly apologise. This would not happen again. I have cleaned your terrace with water. 

And to all these apologies, the only advise I would get is 

TIE HER UP!

And we did not want to tie her up. So, we persisted! And one fine day, she grew up to understand the neighbour's woes as well! She stopped peeing and pooing on their terrace. She would in fact leap towards our neighbour's neighbour's terrace which is kind of abandoned. Nobody really comes there. She understood that and would leap over the wall , pee there and come back. We were relieved. Our persistence payed off! She is a self-taught learner. Totally unschooled! 

Diary 3 - The initial days of recovery

The initial days of recovery

Rest, eat and then rest. Occasional play with the neighborhood kids Simar and Tegh.

(They are the ones who named her Luna. According to the Tegh,  the 6 year old boy, the pup was a 'she'. He also ordered me to keep the pup and that he should see it when he returns to Bhopal after a year! And Luna is still with us, but the kids haven't come yet.)

  And since it was winters, we would spend most of the time on the terrace to bask in the mild winter sun. And guess, what was Luna's favourite napping spot - my lap!

Luna and the lap!

Whenever she would see me sitting down on the granite bench, she would try to leap up to my lap. I would oblige, happily sometimes and reluctantly at times. She would cuddle herself comfy on my lap and nap there for an hour or so. And I would be exhausted with an overdose of Vitamin D!

After a month, she wasn't limping anymore, much to our joy. Her gait was like any other healthy pup. How happy were we to see her trotting along the limited space on our terrace! At that time she lived on the terrace since she hadn't become a member of our family. She was just to be tended, recovered and sent away.