explorers
this pack is looking around in the backyard. in fact this is the garden which is being planned for them with a sandpit and grass on run on and play on. but for now they are not allowed in!
Miss Lucy occupies the driver's seat when she has to wait in the car. She insists that humans and the family dog (our other dog) can arrange themselves in whatever suitable place they can find; the driver's seat she must occupy. When the human driver enters the car, she moves to the front passenger seat. In this picture, we are at a gas station and Lucy seems poised to drive the next 100 miles!!
Training Time By the Beach
We had gone with our mutts to South Padre Island National Seashore, some 30 miles east of Corpus Christi, TX, USA. It turned out to be a very windy day. Like most places, you cannot let the dogs run into the waves; they have to remain in their leashes. We let me run for a few minutes with their leashes, till a park ranger caught sight of us.
times they are a-changing
soon this empty house, this silent weeping lawn, this morose driveway will be abuzz with the sounds of dogs all over-running around, playing, fighting, jostling, chasing each other and what not.
raga was born in a house numbered 367. is it her strong fate-line that is getting us back to a house of the same number? is it the combined destiny of all the dogs? or is it my fate-line that i could choose to come away here, with my dogs and i did?
grass for the lawn
this man here dug out the grass, about 200 feet of it, at the sundar nursery when i went there for the grass. preparing a lawn for the dogs is not all that easy after all. it was october, nearly 12:30 or more in the afternoon, and if you can see the sun was very bright indeed. anyhow today the grass has been watered for the first time and the rest i can do is to pray!...
some dogs have all the fun
nikki is one of them. the day i went to faridabad last, i took her. for two reasons- first i wanted to make her have a run around the house there, a feel of the earth and the grass which they don't get otherwise. then i couldnt take raga because she gets travel sickness and starts throwing up and then ginger and om prakash(who was going there with me) are not good travel companions.so that leaves out nikki- who manages to go everywhere thanks to her temperament! the lucky brat.
and see what she is doing in these pictures- looking out of the boundary wall of the house in one to see the road outside- in fact the construction activity that is going on in the vicinity; and then sitting among the flowers of harsingar that have fallen in the morning from the tree. this tree was planted by me here, outside the bedroom nearly ten years ago or longer back. i am using two images of the same thing- one a closer shot and one from a distance. you cannot imagine my happiness to see her here among plants that are not growing out of pots, what to mention the fact that she can run around so much. had the other sisters been around, they would really have enjoyed themselves.
canine welcome
if you dare to come into our home and profess your love for the pack and are not exactly afraid incase they did the same, well...er..r...r.r..
this could be you!
ofcourse milder variants are possible too...the young man and the dogs are all at their extreme and extremely flexible behaviour. it needn't get that ...much/bad/expressive!:)
friend from next door
this little friend, whose name is not yet clear to me, a black labrador, comes visiting once everyday. in fact the boy who handles him tells me that he pulls the boy towards our house-naturally he has so many siblings and friends here. so when he comes, he stands his ground and refuses to budge, while the dogs indoors go berserk and its all a woofy affair for the humans, unless i stand with them and make them shut their mouth.
the first picture is the little fella from the lane behind the second is my girls, who react in this manner usually. they assume this posture to either bark at him, greet him or greet me when i come home from outside anywhere.
dog for adoption ?!
beware of those who have dogs to put up for adoption. so my experience goes, unless it is a shelter...even then be careful. my experience of dealing with some of these people is bad. let me tell you what happened yesterday. i got an sms- about a dalmation up for adotion. the manner in which the sms was written i couldnt discern the age of the animal. so i called the number forwarded. first the phone rang and nobody picked up. then someone called me back from the same number within 45 seconds.
i said i had called for the dog. "oh it is a dalmation which is about a year and a little older". knowing how many girls i have on my hands, when i heard his age i backed out. but the lady at the other end was very patronising. when i uttered,rather unthinking of me too, that i was not sure how old the dog was and had called for a smaller one...she told me(very uppity now) that i should go and buy one if i want it, because when you go out to adopt dogs they dont come that young. i think our whole family is having by now a tradition of adopting dogs. me having done the dog up there on the blog title and her companion and my sister getting her's.(i am waiting for her to tell her own story, in her own time- while she finds her feet in the new city she just moved into from Austin)
In that case i was obliged to tell the woman, that i had a pack of three girls of my own. Upon which in a continuation of her patronising tone and as though educating me she said, "oh well! the three would simply kill one male" Now it was my turn to be amused and I told her, "usually that is determined by who the alpha is in the group- whether it is a human or a canine" Then i think she understood i knew a little about dogs too, climbed down a bit from her mighty position and enquired whether i wanted to know anything else. i was not even interested in hearing her voice by then.
But what i am driving at is this: usually when someone has an interest in putting up a dog for adoption and another one has an interest in calling or finding out...i think dogs should go to the people who have a genuine interest. i remember this other dog outside friendicoes- a yellow labrador who is now tied up over there-and getting more and more emaciated by the day, losing his spirit being tethered and losing his general joie de vivre. he was found stray somewhere and apparently went out biting too!( just imagine what he must have gone through to undergo such a change from his breed temperament) Now there is this very uncouth woman out there, who watches over the dogs, the pet store there and does some other myriad activities. it is not my nature to call anyone names, but when i see people who are loud on more than one occasion and whose only method of handling their stress or pressure at work or decision-making is shouting...i really am very upset inwardly, and turned off outwardly. I know these are the people I do not want to communicate with. Due to my taking things in a lighter way or talking politely if they mistake me to be a person with no mind or ideas- they are to be pitied. So this lady is one of those. I had also expressed a desire to take that cur home coz he was so pitiable there and deserved careful, compassionate, purposeful handling...and she again was one of those imbeciles who wanted to 'educate me'. Certainly i am open to education,but by now into the fourth decade of life- i know who i want my teachers to be. Dogs? Yes, Humans?- NO NO NO. Besides if you look at the catalogue here- they are my all in my personal collection, not a desiretta.
That also brings me to the story of how we got Caesar home. I think Tony had called up a European lady who had a dog up for adoption, and this was barely a couple of days after Rocky had passed away. But that lady had appeared to be so fussy about who she wanted to give her dog to...they must have a garden in the house, servants and whatnot. I wonder who the dog went to...but i am really amused, and rather pity those owners who have dogs up for adoption. i know from the stories of the four dogs i saw very closely- Goli, Junior, Lalu and Lucy- we were one of the best people to give the dogs to. Our dogs will tell you that story - not our tongues. (Though Caesar is another story- something that makes my heart ache all the time)
Last of all...a few months ago a friend was wanting a german shepherd- grown up. Saw an ad for adoption and called. The man who put up the ad, was going overseas, wanted to actually sell his dogs for Rs.15000/ each mind you. He simply didnt seem interested in who took the dogs (had two) but who could pay!...the adoption word was a hoax!
i said i had called for the dog. "oh it is a dalmation which is about a year and a little older". knowing how many girls i have on my hands, when i heard his age i backed out. but the lady at the other end was very patronising. when i uttered,rather unthinking of me too, that i was not sure how old the dog was and had called for a smaller one...she told me(very uppity now) that i should go and buy one if i want it, because when you go out to adopt dogs they dont come that young. i think our whole family is having by now a tradition of adopting dogs. me having done the dog up there on the blog title and her companion and my sister getting her's.(i am waiting for her to tell her own story, in her own time- while she finds her feet in the new city she just moved into from Austin)
In that case i was obliged to tell the woman, that i had a pack of three girls of my own. Upon which in a continuation of her patronising tone and as though educating me she said, "oh well! the three would simply kill one male" Now it was my turn to be amused and I told her, "usually that is determined by who the alpha is in the group- whether it is a human or a canine" Then i think she understood i knew a little about dogs too, climbed down a bit from her mighty position and enquired whether i wanted to know anything else. i was not even interested in hearing her voice by then.
But what i am driving at is this: usually when someone has an interest in putting up a dog for adoption and another one has an interest in calling or finding out...i think dogs should go to the people who have a genuine interest. i remember this other dog outside friendicoes- a yellow labrador who is now tied up over there-and getting more and more emaciated by the day, losing his spirit being tethered and losing his general joie de vivre. he was found stray somewhere and apparently went out biting too!( just imagine what he must have gone through to undergo such a change from his breed temperament) Now there is this very uncouth woman out there, who watches over the dogs, the pet store there and does some other myriad activities. it is not my nature to call anyone names, but when i see people who are loud on more than one occasion and whose only method of handling their stress or pressure at work or decision-making is shouting...i really am very upset inwardly, and turned off outwardly. I know these are the people I do not want to communicate with. Due to my taking things in a lighter way or talking politely if they mistake me to be a person with no mind or ideas- they are to be pitied. So this lady is one of those. I had also expressed a desire to take that cur home coz he was so pitiable there and deserved careful, compassionate, purposeful handling...and she again was one of those imbeciles who wanted to 'educate me'. Certainly i am open to education,but by now into the fourth decade of life- i know who i want my teachers to be. Dogs? Yes, Humans?- NO NO NO. Besides if you look at the catalogue here- they are my all in my personal collection, not a desiretta.
That also brings me to the story of how we got Caesar home. I think Tony had called up a European lady who had a dog up for adoption, and this was barely a couple of days after Rocky had passed away. But that lady had appeared to be so fussy about who she wanted to give her dog to...they must have a garden in the house, servants and whatnot. I wonder who the dog went to...but i am really amused, and rather pity those owners who have dogs up for adoption. i know from the stories of the four dogs i saw very closely- Goli, Junior, Lalu and Lucy- we were one of the best people to give the dogs to. Our dogs will tell you that story - not our tongues. (Though Caesar is another story- something that makes my heart ache all the time)
Last of all...a few months ago a friend was wanting a german shepherd- grown up. Saw an ad for adoption and called. The man who put up the ad, was going overseas, wanted to actually sell his dogs for Rs.15000/ each mind you. He simply didnt seem interested in who took the dogs (had two) but who could pay!...the adoption word was a hoax!
learning hands on
this vet's surgery is a interesting place and occasionally i see a somewhat independent individual moving around the place. i mean of course of the canine species. so here is one who is captured by me...a young, playful doberman who in this shot is grappling with ball of gauze, and serious about it. the vet, being the affable chap that he is doesn't mind having an additional apprentice of another species:). Another shot of the same is there on my photo-blog. have a look incase...
i dare you untie my mouth
this can also happen to a retriever! especially if she happens to behave unpredictable, untrustworthy and hyper-sensitive to any touch. yesterday after being spayed this girl needs her antibiotic-shots today. this is the only way the doc feels safe with her!
Did you take an appointment?
look i am a busy individual. you cannot just walk upto me and expect me to give you my time. you better call up my secretary and fix an appointment. meanwhile, i am okay if you take a quick shot- in a passing sort of a way.
this is one of those lanes where the animal meets the human in a civilized manner
on two sides of this empty space are areas where dogs come and go in/out; where they meet with their human friends, wellwishers and lovers. some also live in a shelter here. a lot of interesting sights meet the eye if you visit this place.
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