Evoked Memories

She was staying with us but she was not permitted to get inside our house. She could freely roam in the yard, she was also allowed to use the stair through the house that leads to the roof. It didn’t take her long to figure out her boundaries. We called her ‘Chuchu’. My sister named her. Whenever she was called she would rush in, it didn’t matter if she was in the roof above two floors. She would go walking with me. I was around 10 and having a dog beside felt kinda cool.

We have a big boroi tree in our yard. And I have spent a considerable time of my childhood just protecting the fruit tree from local boys, we termed as ‘boroi chor’. But after Chuchu came to our house, the scenario changed. Dogs have an inherent sense of guarding and she was no different. Local boys were very fearful of him and so they refrained from coming for boroi. She was very vigilant regarding unknown people’s intrusion and she only stopped barking after she had seen some of us greeting that visitor. What amazed me most was her ability to differentiate strangers from known people. She would never bark on an acquainted person even if he had last visited us years ago.

Once she was scolded by Abbu. She was very hurt. She spent the whole day on the roof and didn’t have any food. Upon returning from office Abbu went to Chuchu and finally she was convinced to have some food. My sister used to bring ‘Ice creams’ for Chuchu and interestingly enough she was very fond of ice creams. Once somehow some monkeys accessed our locality and they were causing great disturbance, even attacking some people. One day when Abbu was on the roof a monkey appeared. Abbu called Chuchu and she rushed in. Seeing the monkey, she barked crazily and lashed on the monkey. The monkey somehow escaped with its life. Little memories like these still peek through the window of my mind.

We were not aware that Chuchu was a she-dog. We only got to know when she bred babies. She bred four babies at once. Keeping that many dogs was not something we could do. We could only keep one and the rest were given for adoption. The one we kept was ‘Ranga’ and I daresay, he had grown as the boldest dog of our vicinity.

Days were going well but it was not meant to last for eternity. Every story has an ending. Generally Chuchu didn’t go outside herself. That horrible day she did. When she came home she was not the same. Her two back legs were broken, blood spot was everywhere on her legs. She was most possibly run over by a vehicles, we would never know. She was in no state of walking, she literally dragged herself to home. We called upon a doctor. He prescribed some medicines but he also said, the wound was irrecoverable. Which meant only one thing: this accident will push her to death. She would not sit where we wanted her to. She preferred the back of the house to spend her last hours. She was provided her food there but she hardly ate. Enduring that ineffable pain for two days, she left. There was a gloomy ambience all around. For me it was the end to one of the golden chapters of my childhood.

“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself”

– Josh Billings

I am proud, once I befriended a dog. Had I not, I would never believe an animal could be so loyal, so smart. Moments create memories and memories like this make life worth living. I can’t evoke everything but whatever I do, is enough to make me smile even in this hard times.