I recently watched the animated movie 'Bolt' and was inspired to write this...about my first best friend.
I first met her when I was in my 4th grade and she was just over a month old. I christened her 'Ruby' (I think my Mom suggested to me that time, since the previous 2 dogs they owned were called Rover and Rosy). She had big round brown eyes, a shiny nose, perky ears, light brown colored hair covered her petite body and she had a very inviting, curled up tail. Yes, she was my first best friend for ever...my pet pom Ruby.
She was all I used to think about at that time. I used to feed her, bathe her, play with her, take her for walks and do a whole lot of fun stuff with her. She was to be my best friend for years to come until I completed my engineering...yes, she was a part of my life for 14 long years. I am using this space to reminisce about a few good moments we had together...
I celebrated her 'birthday' for the first 2 years after she came into my life with all festivities, cake, chocolates, dog biscuits, some 'privileged' guests and all the shebang. The cake and chocolates were anyways mostly meant for me since she didn't seem to be too interested in it...!!! Although the dog biscuits were her main cup of tea.
I used to take her for long walks in the evening and she used to sometimes prance off and go and eat some freshly laid cowdung off the road. Yes, ewwww!!!! That was her idea of dessert I suppose...
Many of the evenings during my summer holidays were spent removing ticks from her body and burning them since my Mom used to tell me that if there were not burnt they would come back 'alive' again. I am not sure if that's really true...
She used to have this uncanny ability to greet me whenever I got back home from school by wagging her tail and yelping at the top of her voice. Seeing her enthusiasm would make me forget all the day's fatigue and make me active once again.
When I used to feel sad and cry for some reason or the other she would be there at my side silently without making any sound. She would also sometimes lick the tears off my face. It may seem gross to a third person but at that moment I knew that I had my best friend right beside me.
This will be a very loooonnnnggg post if I list out all the mischief's we would be upto all the time especially during the summer holidays...she was always my official 'partner in crime' :-)
During winter, I would dress her up in a sweater and take her for walks...which would make her THE center of attention on the road...coming to think of it, she was just like my child. I used to stay up most of the night when she used to fall sick just to make sure that she was doing fine. I used to also save up some of my pocket money to buy her favorite dog biscuits.
Once, I came very close to losing her when a few street dogs mercilessly bit her in the middle of the night. I had my first semester engineering exams coming up in a couple of weeks and this happened. I stayed up a few nights nursing her and had to apply medicines on her thrice a day. Phew...by God's grace, she came back to me. :-) but after that incident her health was not as stable as before...
She came along with me all along and she passed away the day I left for the US, the first time. My parents didn't inform me about it until after a couple of days. But it was one lonely moment for me. Anyways, if you have kids, please let them have a pet since they will learn to be more responsible, more caring, will share more and overall will become sensitive and kind humans. What with the current generation of kids not getting to mingle and play with other kids, having a pet can make all the difference in their lives...
