My Little One
It’s been a year since Siya joined our family. Getting her was an impulsive act born out of nostalgia from those days when a dog was always part of my childhood and a longing to pet other dogs being walked by their owners in the mornings when I’d be setting out for work. That should have warned me that it wouldn’t be an easy thing.
This little babe was more active than the guy pup we had to choose from. She had these adorable navy blue eyes and soft black fur. She smelt of milk and cerelac. And that’s what we fed her four times a day – apple flavored cerelac. She quickly learnt that the beep of the microwave warming up the cerelac meant that it was food for her. She’d eagerly await her meal wagging her tail.
Siya always wanted to join us on the sofa and many times we’d curl up our feet out of reach from her sharp nails. And her pointy teeth? Ouch! My colleagues have teased me aloud seeing the healing scabs on my hand from her paws and teeth – that’s when I’d reveal that it’s a puppy responsible.
Then another girl in the cab got a pug. And we became dog-mommy buddies. We’d start comparing notes about her muffin’s latest tactics and my Siya’s growing pains. DH and I quickly learnt that we needed some routine in Siya’s life or she’d become like Marley from Marly and Me. DH researched on the Internet about house training her. There were lots of frustrating moments and our conversations on the phone were about Siya’s antics.
One good thing about taking out the little puppy is the adoration that total strangers poured upon her. And I met other dogs: Bruno, Simba are couple of names I remember. And moms taking their babies in the pram would stop to talk. The neighbors opposite the house we’d been staying for three years started talking to us and would always stop to pet her.
We changed houses and Siya found that Simba is an unfriendly neighbour, Yuki is more than willing to flirt with her and the old lady in the adjacent apartment is grumpy. Yuki’s owners are an old couple with teenage granddaughters and these two would stop to pet our 4 month old.That has led to a lot of chatting over the gate 
One year has passed and a lot of mistakes have been made in bringing her up. Traveling out of town on a whim is not possible anymore because she gets restless on a long drive. Siya loves hanging her head out when she is taken out in the car. She does bark at people although we’d feared that she wouldn’t know how to!
I would so like to know what is going on in her doggy brain.
I’m always getting cuts from my puppy. They often look gruesome and make me look very suicidal lol. But I love dogs so it’s worth it. Even if they do hurt for days after.
My littlest will bark/howl at you until you pick her up. It’s cute and anoying at the same time.
Bark! Do you wanter water? I open the tap and she’s not interested. Bark Bark!! Do you want to go out? I open the door; again not interested. So you’ve had food and no more for you, since you are already overweight.
It is so frustrating not knowing what she’s trying to tell me.
Once you learn how to speak dog it’s very easy to understand lol. I hardly even have to ask mine what they want anymore. The way they tilt their heads and how they blink is sign enough for me. You’ve only had yours a year though, I’ve had my oldest for 5.
I wish we could have a dog! I had gone so far as to get my sights on a young doberman at a shelter who was ok with cats (really!), but what stopped me in the end was the travel situation. With our frequent trips for shows out of town, it would just get too complicated and expensive. Before the younger two cats (Laxmi and Pink) joined our family, Gureyo and Jaco (our two adult cats) always used to tour with us, so they have friends and fans all over the country!
Dogs are different. And unless you’ve got someone who’d be delighted to have them while you are away, it’s pretty difficult. So what’s stopping you from having Laxmi and Pink getting a fanbase?? That’s not fair when Gureyo and Jaco start bragging about when they were in some place with the band.
Once you get dogs, you anchor yourself to your home. You can’t be away more than a few hours. Hahaha, now you can legitimately say “it was the cats meow.”
Hi Jeena, I have two wonderful dogs and often wondered what “they were thinking”. I finally came across a great book, Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz who is an animal behaviourist and has compiled all available scientific data on how being a dog must be like. It proved a lot of my instincts right and gave me a lot of good insights about my furry friends.
Love your blog by the way
thanks for stopping by Claudia