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.