Our weird family!

We were newly married and though, I knew that my inlaws had a big dog, it was a big shock, when we entered the house and he came running with glee(to pounce on my husband and sniff me, for I was new). I instantly froze, until fil put him back in his kennel.

A little history here, my interactions with dogs, or should we call it encounters, have never been good. I would have easily won marathons, if I had put in the same effort, that I did, when being chased by a dog. It is probably true that dogs can smell fear. My longest run was inside my school, chased by a huge, giant, god knows what breed, a highly carnivorous one, off the leash. I ran around a playground in circles for a long long time(those were the days when I was young and energetic, and very thin too...hmmm) and he did not tire out. I made such a spectacle of myself, until I ran into a chapel/prayer hall and some one was brave enough to get hold of his leash.

Also, coming from an anti pet(who thought pets were basically unhygienic, unpredictable and uncontrollable) family, I tried so hard not to preach to my new family, about the hygiene concerns, germs that he could spread etc(actually, the dog was well maintained, stayed out and was regularly vaccinated).

It took a while for me to get over the fact that he was a germs galore(or that he did not brush his teeth or take a bath everyday or that he rubbed his nose off the dirty ground or that he was always drooling). I slowly tried to make friends with him, by offering two Marie biscuits every morning(a tradition in our household). The first day, he was skeptical and did not touch it for quite sometime. After a lot of coaxing, he slowly bit into one and hesitantly wagged his tail. I was entrusted by my new family to feed the dog biscuits and I took it seriously. There were days when I went overboard and fed him an entire packet, much to the dismay of my mil(who worried that he would not eat anything else the whole day) and my fil who worried about the long trip to town to buy another packet of biscuits(apparently, a packet lasted for a week or more). But, I had finally won his trust and he would stay rooted near the door, searching for me, after his quota of two biscuits. Despite all the warnings, my heart would melt and I would run to the kitchen to get more biscuits. They tried to hide the biscuits(one look at the the dog's yearning eyes and I would find it, no matter where it was hidden). They tried to shoo away the dog(he did not even bother to look at them, his eyes were constantly on me and he stood rooted to the ground). He moved away only after being fed more biscuits, wagging his tail vigorously and barking happily.

As days went by, biscuits were constantly hidden or moved, so I started sharing what I ate. Our dog did not just love biscuits, he was a foodie, he loved food. He loved oily, fried stuff and would not touch it if it was not hot or tasty. Our efforts to make him taste pedigree(he ran away screaming thinking we were trying to poison him) went in vain(so, did a big bag of pedigree). He loved the tiny kisses chocolate(in small doses, very rarely, I know that chocolates are not good for dogs!) and everything we ate. He was a human foodie in a dog's body. Every dog has its day, and ours had its day almost everyday! He is very old now(for a dog), can barely hear or recognize anyone. He no longer loves biscuits and spends most of the time with a tired, retired look.

As much as I was able to win the love of this family member, my attempts went in vain with the other smaller member(our cat). She constantly ignored me(and everyone else except mil). She spent a lot of time on the couch, more than we did and walked all around the house with her dirty little paws. She always had a proud, conceited look and would purr and purr when anyone sat on the couch. Everyone ignored her and she went back to sitting on the floor. Being a new bride, I wanted to impress and the first time, she came and stood next to the couch and purred, I promptly moved, making space for her. She royally curled up(three seat wide couch) and dozed off. I did it the next day as well. Unfortunately, I had set a wrong precedence and she started to purr louder and louder whenever someone sat on the couch and ignored her. It took a few days for me to ignore her too and not get up and make way the moment she purred(after being teased by everyone about how much respectful I was, even to a cat).

There were instances when she would have curled up on the dining table chair and one of us would sit on her for her skin blended with the chair fabric and her presence was hardly noticeable. For some reason, she never feared the dog and the dog always ignored her(can you believe it?). She would come into the kitchen at 5am and wouldn't stop meoing until she had her first milk(coffee???). The cat is no more. The couch is all clean and no dirty mud paw prints on the floor, but sometimes, I still hear the angry purr, every time I sit on the couch.

There are no words to explain how much I hated, a dog and a cat being part of my family, on the day I entered my new home. But, time and their innocent, selfless love has changed me, so much that I miss the cat and fear that the dog is aging and wish for just one more chance to share our food with him. Call me crazy, but he has been part of the family, loved us and guarded us for years and I do pray for him every now and then.

 

Thanks for the first fb Priya
So sorry to hear that you were bitten by a stray. I am still wary of the street dogs and wish the corporation atleast gets them vaccinated.
I have not seen dogs let lose here, however was chased by a tiny one. The owners were crazy and thought it was funny that he was chasing people. I moved on, thinking, alas, dogs in the other end of the world too can smell my fear :-(