Musical doggy encounters

 Some close discussion for which Ginger has turned her head away and Dash is uttering to me confidentially.

 Nikki and Ginger peacefully listening to the tabla.

 This brat is difficult to catch hold of...but this is a rare picture with him, as he must be moving away after that close confession to me whose picture I have posted here.

These are pictures taken on 21st May 2011.

Mishraji had come over for my riyaaz...and such scenes are very visible whenever I sit down to do my singing practice at home- which is a fairly regular part of my life anyways. So once more I have tried to capture them with the camera...all the dogs around me in the basement. Most of these pictures happen between ragas for me, when I need a little break and exercise my mind in a new dimension...with my pack this time around.

In the last picture here, one sees my sister having descended from the kitchen listening to Ginger while Mishraji runs his paws over Dash!

get the monkey

thanks to the presense of monkeys in our lives , we have to make periodic dashes to the back lawn and of course we have no mercy on the grass, the plants and the flower beds our mother has planted. As you may see here, the monkeys plant themselves on all levels around our house and it is our moral responsibility to show our suitable displeasure at their arbitrary behaviour.

getting dogs at one level and the monkey up above into the same frame was a tricky thing but I have managed it. Of course, I was trying to get as many dogs as possible. Here one can see at least three of them.

Now since you have chosen to call it quits we are letting you go, but otherwise we would have trailed you as long as you hovered within our sight.
By the bye Raga and Ginger have a most curious behaviour when it comes to the simian business. If I am inside the house, they cower at the sight of a monkey and run towards me, or hide incase I am not at home. But if I am at home and even standing outside then Raga is most furious and making huge leaps in the air, as if trying to jump up to the monkey. In any case even these monkeys don't come one at a time, they come in troops of about six or seven and sometimes, they could be at least three females with babies clinging to them!

Nikki and Dash are the least afraid of monkeys in our home, Dash pursues a monkey till the last of them vanishes out of sight, irrespective of size. Raga and Ginger are occasional heroines.

newspaper loving Raga

Catch  me to get the paper

this german shepherd is more into the business of retrieving- or shall we say is fond of reading the newspaper?

but this is actually what happens to the newspaper after she has ran around with it, needless to say, one can only run after her incase it is the paper-reading day for it. thankfully, my paper is delivered in the letterbox outside my house and i only let a free paper come to it. But imagine what would have happened in days when I had not yet worked out the letterbox...I was quite close to this scene on a daily basis. Maybe I did not teach her the 'get it' command properly enough OR maybe maybe I just pamper them a bit and let them have a go at the newspaper, which is hardly newsworthy in any case.

sound of children at play

here is my music room full of dogs and children, and of course us adults. it was fun we all had in this little room. on the floor one can see Ipsita's two sons, Payal's daughter Nikita, Basant's wife Payal with her son, Samaarth, and my own Nikki. Amartya the brat in red is playing doggy too, it seems. i am behind the harmonium whose keyboard is visible from here. wish i had a better angle.

look at Raga here posing. she never looks into the camera this way.

The Serious Benefits of Play

The Serious Benefits of Play: "There’s more to playtime than just having fun—there are important health benefits, too.
LET THE FUN & GAMES BEGIN"

two pictures from march 2010

i always love to introduce children with my dogs, good for both of them- in this picture my school friend, Priti's children had come home and they are all here sitting on the front lawn with my three girls: ginger, nikki, raga. Interestingly, two dogs are also looking into the camera. Raga had a bone in her forelegs and that was keeping her busy, otherwise she would have been licking these children. But I think this is a very nice picture.

In the lower picture, Rashma's daughter Isha is posing with Dash, who was a visitor in her home for that afternoon. So she is peering out of the window, as was Dash. He of course was very disconcerted being on the 3rd floor for the first time in his life and the dogs barking outside, made him quite mad and he was trying to get to them. While Isha also decided to get close to him and I took this picture!

yet another family picture

with the peculiar nature of our family, it is usually difficult to get all of us in one frame. so this is really one of those rare ones, taken today, holi-1st march 2010, by saikat. the enticement is a toast! and since none of the dogs know that, they are all vying for it. ofcourse, at the end of this picture, Raga got the booty and left it, for it is beneath her to eat something with is not spread with cheese. ginger is climbing over me in her favourite posture and the rest and wondering when to make the leap. in any case, each one of them jumped-naturally cannot be covered in this picture. but this is really one of those rare ones.

bad breeding or early learner???

what is your view on the matter? This btw is a little Rotteweiler puppy, who i christened Shadow and now the name has struck for want of a better idea! Shadow is held here by Dan, the nephew of Andre...whose puppy he is.

are we being served???

This is a typical scene in our household, when it is time for lunch or dinner. the pack is broken according to this hierarchy- Dash always scares the girls to stay at the door, while he himself is closest to the bowls with the food served in it, whether it is cooling or I am still serving them.

According to Lucy...recorded by her mom

Hunk and the real McCoy

As recorded on October 29, 2009. Event took place near Kali Puja time, 2009.

Place: Village Home, Radha Nagar, Hooghly District, West Bengal

We were in the village home the other morning when it happened. Mom was holding a camera in her hand and taking pictures of Gramps and Payal. Payal is a teacher. Anyways, more about me and Payal later; for now, getting back to the sequence of events of that morning---I was standing somewhere on the newly constructed marble porch where the blissfully unaware humans were standing and getting photographed. Suddenly in one corner (the common boundary with Sabi aunty’s house) I spotted Phoolkumari, stealthily staring at me, curling her body to sit on a heap of leafy dirt. In a millionth of a second I stiffened my body, lowered it to leap in her direction. Mom who was carelessly unaware of the impending brawl and was still finding the right angle on her camera to click Gramps and Payal, suddenly looked as I sped past her in my crouching stance. In the next millisecond, I had pushed the recalcitrant Phoolkumari out of the barbed fence around our home. Phoolkumari wailed and barked, showed her teeth and what not. I for one was enraged but kept my emotions well under control.

On the other end, more trouble was awaiting. Hearing the wails of Phoolkumari, Lalu of the neighboring house (his name is also Lalu, but he is a skinny fella) crossed the boundary and did the unthinkable. He was viciously showing his teeth to my bro Lalu. My bro is polite and not used to the rough ways of a real dog’s life. Bro wasn’t quite sure of how to react to this vicious gesture. Without loosing anymore time in understanding and strategizing, I went straight for the skinny Lalu and threw all my body weight in his direction, showed him a matching pair of teeth. He ran for his life and the ensuing pandemonium got all the spectators (father, Mukto uncle, Jethoo, Mum, Gramps and Grandma) a bit shaken up. Father grabbed the collars of me and bro and took us away from the site of the fight. The neighbors and standing folk started to shout at the erring skinny Lalu (of the neighbor’s house). Mom was still standing with her camera; didn’t know what to do with it. She thought she could have taken good pictures of me getting the intruders, but she couldn’t. It all happened too quickly and it was all so unexpected that Mum couldn’t plan any frame or angle. Had she been less petrified, she could have caught my bravado on reel, especially to show to humans who think looks is all what counts. I know my bro is a hunk but in some situations looks alone cannot deliver. But alas, I have no regrets, just better hopes for the future.

Lesson: Stay focused and calm. Issues related to the line of control of the house cannot be negotiated upon with sadak chaap kuttas (street dwelling dogs), whatever the humans may feel.

guard-dog-guard

Look at this little brat...guarding his roti. Once in awhile I give dry, plain rotis to three of my dogs- GND. All three behave differently with their prize.

Nikki, needless to guess, wastes no time in taking the roti to its natural destination: her stomach. Ginger goes berserk and takes the roti in the true playful retriever fashion all over the house like a crown and when she is tired enough or sufficiently hungry eats it slowly- with no hurry and sometimes Dash shoo-es her away and impounds the roti instead.

But in this picture it is the little hero himself and NO this is not a grabbed roti but his original roti; given to him and him alone only. And mind you, he is not hungry either ...so he is giving mean glances at everyone to scare the hell out of them. As if they are not afraid of him already. I think this glance is particularly directed at Raga- who incidentally would never, never eat a dry roti. But Mr.Dash does not understand that and he really has to scare her with the meanest looks that he can cast in her direction- the little guard-dog, guarding his roti.

Oh btw, these days Dash-aa (as I sometimes refer to him with love) is concerned, he is not wearing his harness as the former one is already used beyond further use and we are awaiting the new ones that are coming from Kolkatta.

posing with my girls this once-

Here I am posing with Raga and Nikki in two separate pictures. Raga the german shepherd and Nikki the labrador and me of course the homo sapien. the other dogs are also around on the front lawn

Nikki, mind you, is quite a handful and a real pleasure to hug. I call her my blood-pressure dog because when you hug her she gives herself so fully into the hug that you really feel the hug-warm, present in the moment and loving.

on the lawn with my girls...and the little boy too-

this is ginger, always demanding her fair share of your love.

effusiveness

Raga is known to be very loving and for showing her love too-in a very mouth-oriented way...without regard for the size of the person to whom the love is directed, or the comfort with which the recipient receives her love. See how it looks in this picture here as my closest friend and her child are subjected to her canine kiss.

patience personified or greed unlimited?!

Much as they are known for their gargantuan appetites, Labradors are also touted to be lazy. At least for various reasons my Nikki has become lazy- partially due to the leg pain and partially coz i got her spayed in an improper manner.

Anyhow, i took this picture yesterday as she lay in the kitchen- a picture of peace, patience and love for food all in one!