Johnny

My first pet dog Johnny. I was in class ninth. The month was January 1998. My uncle had come to our home. He had earlier shown indication of giving up his dog to us. My mother had never denied but she was also never ready to have it as a pet. I was fascinated by the idea though I had not seen the dog. I just knew it was a cross bread dog of Doberman and Indian desi dogs (donot know the name). Anyways even though my mother looked boiled up at my suggestion to bring it, I went with my uncle to bring the dog. There it was tied with rope to a tree. Jumping and standing on its two legs raising the other two, trying to reach me. “Yeh kateta hai kya” (Does it bite)..”Nahi Nahi..bhokta hai..ussi se kafi log darr jaate hai”(No…it just barks..enough to scare outsiders..….”Thik hai mein isse le lunga” (I will take it)….then it was in my home..my pet…my new buddy…thin bony…untidy…as it had not been washed long time back…6 months old…with the colors of a Doberman and figure of a Desi dog……extremely agile and quick….My mother’s new headache… initially she never accepted the dog…for her it was a new trouble brought in by her younger son….. though she was the one taking care of its food….and ordering me to feed it and take it out for stroll….whoever came to our house (relative, friends) had an odd remark about it….initially we kept it tied, for the fear of it trying to run back to our uncle’s home…which was in 5km range of our house…..We had no dog chains..so we tied it with a rope..it use to cry and cry the whole the day, till either my brother or me use to return from school and untie him….(kept it tied to prevent it from digging the gardens)…..One afternoon when I came back a….from my neighborhood..from Mr Colonels home a bhaiya came to talk to me….he said your dog is crying all day..he had a german shepherd bitch ‘Cindy’ and had trained it…he came and asked me to untie it as the rope was hurting it…..I said it will run away..he said it wont, just keep some biscuit or something it likes in your hand….I let him untie it….and then like a free bird..Johnny started dashing here and there…like exalted and energized to full strength…after some dashing it came back to the home….then started Johnny’s journey in our family….during the first few months..My brother and I use to play with it…just to keep it active as told to me by our neighbor…go out and run with it…even while driving a scooter I use make it run along….it had some stamina and speed….would even momentarily run with the scooter running at 30-40 km/hr…And as my mother had not come completely on terms with the dog…I was to take care of its bathing, ticks and medical visits…I use to take advice from my neighborhood bhaiya about feeding and training of my dog…and use to implement these things without any ROI to my parents…anyways….the dog became smarter in looks and gained health…became one of the most dreaded dogs in the neighborhood…and even our known and unknown people who use to come visit our house complimented the dog….My mother had also started liking the dog...though the dog kept nagging our family when it use to run away for hours and come back after midnight…dirty and making us wash it….if it was not a winter night..otherwise we had to arrange special clothing for the king…..Anyways I did enjoy a lot with it…taking it to walk….handling its fights…enjoy he much the people around were scared of it…neighborhood kids telling me how threatening it looks…even beat it when it made mistakes..though later I realized less severe tricks to teach it so called discipline….the dog kept it cool when my mother brought a Pomeranian…..actually it maintained its cool throughout while this younger dog use to bother it…climbing on it and bugging it as I would say a elated and curious child goes on to approach someone…..After joining my college though I never spend much time with it….And it was the starting of my fifth year….2006….my mother had been telling me that the dog had lost a lot of weight and that it was under constant medical treatment…it had left eating food…my mother had to forcefully open it mouth to feed it…for 2 months it was like this….I came home on my summer break…it was the same..not moving…still and calm..it did open had its eye to show indication of life..but never responded..the agility and speed was gone..it was lying at one place waiting…After I had come..the next to next night it passed away….In the morning we found it was dead…not moving..still and calm..no hearbeat…no flow of blood..body stiffening…….I had carried it many times…sometimes to prevent it to get involved in a fight..some times out of love….sometimes to take it to bath….but this time I carried it to bury it…this was its last time….it was dead..maybe it was waiting for me to come back to meet me one last time….may be not….but it did left me with a lot of memories to cherish…My first pet dog Johnny….