Snoopy - A Dogyear later

*Phone rings*

Me: Hello.

Voice: This is Blah Blah Couriers. We have a parcel for you. Where does your house come exactly?

Me: Do you know Saint Micheals School? From there you take the first right and then ask around.

Voice: Ask what?

Me: You can ask for me, the name in the courier. Haven’t you heard of me?

Voice: (pauses to read name on parcel) No sir.

Me: I’m an internationally famous* author.        (*in my house only.)

Voice: Sorry. Never heard of such a name.

Me: I’m a big doctor and all, you know.

Voice: No sir. Never heard of you.

Me: You must be new to this town. I’m actually a big celebrity in…

Voice: OH WAIT! This is that beagle’s house. I’ve been here. You are that fat guy who was trying to chase that funny beagle after it stole your chappal. Hahaha… yes yes. Now I got it.

Me: ….

Voice: Hello? Hello? Anybody there?

Me: (in a low menacing voice) Just bring the damn parcel!

Snoopy completed one year at our house last week. We have had pet dogs for nearly 27 years as far as I can recall, each with their own unique personality traits and yet nothing like this guy.

Snoopy came to us at a time of despair when we had lost a lot in our lives and the recent loss of 14 year old Ruby had all but devastated us. We needed someone to love and bring laughter back into our lives and where our own species proved less reliable, this petulant four legged dynamo took up the challenge. Right from the beginning, his antics were just hilarious – he refused to be scared of us and took the warnings of a raised stick as a playful challenge, running past us to commit the crime once more.  

Chappals and laptop adaptors were chewed and mangled. He would/still does observe the location where my dad rearranges the soil and places seeds for gardening and waits for him to leave before promptly going there, digging up the seeds and placing my dad’s cap/muffler inside that spot.

He’s eco-friendly too. You can’t dispose of anything from the house. He immediately assumes that we are playing fetch with him and hence it becomes his new toy. I’d already shared the video of “the tree” with you all… there’s also the curious incident of the dog who walks around the house with a paint bucket to add to that now!

One easy way to identify him is of course, by the presence of a chew toy bone in his mouth. Where ever he walks, he carries it with him as though he were an aristocrat with a smoking pipe in his mouth. The only thing missing is a silk bathrobe I guess! My parents found it hilarious how every evening he would turn up at my dad’s feet demanding to have an apple. I found it cute… till I realized he knew I was a doctor! The “apple a day…” bit does not seem amusing to me anymore and seems like a subtle threat in fact now!!

Who're you calling small, fatty??

We were initially worried about how Victor, our Doberman, would react to him. Vicky has “been Roshan’d” as I trained him when he was a kid so now he’s the most docile Doberman in town and also the only dog in our house who readily obeys orders like ‘sit’ and ‘go to the kennel’. Still, the small 1.5 kg pup Snoopy vs the 35kg Doberman? One wrong move and he could end up eating Snoopy, my family fretted. I was more confident of Victor’s nature and was worried about the pup troubling him. Turned out I was right. A frequent scene that occurs now  (once we realised they were good friends and could be let out together) is the sight of Snoopy chasing the Doberman around the compound till Victor races back into his kennel and looks at me to lock the door from outside!!

Snoopy: My, what big teeth you have, Grampa!

Victor: Kid. Just leave me alone and you can have my plate of food. 

Most of this could probably be considered as the normal antics of a pup, I guess. But there are some things that really shocked us by their pure brilliance and ingenuity.

When he was small and was about do his business, we used to immediately carry him and race to the bathroom so that he would do it there. A few months later, one night my dad heard the sound of a door opening and turned the light on to investigate. It turned out Snoopy had just got up from his bed, nudged the bathroom door open at 3am and gone in to ‘do his business’ before returning to sleep in his own bed. This has now become a routine and he’s accustomed to it – my Mom has even had to wait after waking up one morning to go to the bathroom and turning on the light to see him at it while staring at her with an “OCCUPIED, LADY!! OCCUPIED!!” look on his face.

The other thing that left us stunned was “the ball”. We got him a squishy toy which squeaks as it is compressed. We figured it would keep him busy… we did not expect him to turn the tables around. Nowadays, every night we have to play fetch within the house as he dutifully goes, finds the ball and brings it to us and waits for us to throw it around before repeating the drill… for hours (talk about your beagle energy!)

He seems to have realised the appeal of it too because recently we saw another aspect of his nature. When a young boy was scared to play with him, he went, got the ball and gave it to the boy, demanding he throw it so that they could play together. An hour later, both were good friends.

The fact that he needs to be the centre of attention cuts into my own egoistic delusions of grandeur, of course. When he felt no one was paying attention, he started sitting on the ‘arabian chair’ (I really don’t know the correct word for that thing you see in the pic!). Fine, big deal… even I can do that, I told him pompously. 

The next night, he decided to show me who’s boss – he went and sat on the table top as a centre piece. (I tried to compete with him but my parents took a cane and started chasing me around the house till I ran into Victor’s kennel for refuge…. Grumble grumble.)

Besides being known to all the couriers in the city, he’s an online mini-celebrity in his own right too, being featured at Dogspot, the site where he gets his share of treats, bones, shampoos and toys. (How embarrassing do you think it is to be a doctor and find that your dog is featuring in more health-related articles than you? *wipes away tear*).

One year… it’s hard to believe he’s been with us one entire year. He’s entirely changed the ambience and mood within the house with his loving and playful nature and that’s something none of us envisioned when we first laid eyes on him within that orange basket he arrived in. 

It is hard for me to understand people who say they don’t like dogs. I kind of pity them because they don’t know what they are missing out on. There is possibly no better example of selfless love towards another person than a dog. It’s like a cauldron of happiness that just keeps on giving. I know that Snoopy has been a Godsend for my family and I’m truly grateful for that.

Of course, if in one year, the courier people know our house as the ‘beagle house’, I shudder to imagine what Year 2 is going to bring!    

I don't know what this writer is talking about...
I'm just a gardening enthusiast!