After ages today, went for a walk. With son and husband and dog. Am delighted to say that Sonny boy is gradually accepting Tee (lets call her that) as a member of the family. One with her rights.
Till some time back, when requested if Tee could accompany us on our sojourns, Sonny boy's answer would be a pouting NO. Or at best, a resigned OK. Today, it was a happy looking-on, while Tee gambolled around, her tail wagging nineteen to the dozen
at the chance of a walk.
Sonny boy was on his cycle, and if he were alongside us, Tee, as is her wont, would end up right in front of him, making him brake all the while. But- no whining of "Amma, look at how Tee's spoiling my fun. or Amma, can you hold Tee....?" no Sirreee! Just a familiar sounding irritated-resigned shout of "Tee!! can't you see me coming???"
He's accepted that she has as much right to be on the road walking as him.
A big part of this is due to his latest affection for Tintin comics. While Tee doesn't come ANYWHERE near Snowy as far as obedience is concerned, Sonny boy does see the moments of similarity when Snowy rummages in the dustbin and is shouted at by Tintin. And he sees the bond between Snowy and Tintin...
For Onam, we'd been to Cochin to the Acha's home. So there, all the cousins were playing a game, where you had to give the letter of names of people in your family and the others had to guess who it was. So Sonny boy said T and everybody was like- WHO is that??? And finally a gleeful Sonny boy said- Its Tee! She's also part of my family!!!! People, there was no one prouder than me at that moment!
Today for our walk, we'd been in one of the neighbouring gated enclaves, where there were puhlenty of dogs- pet as well as stray. Tee-Chicken-Heart believes that attack is the best form of defence. And so, just the sight of a stray would send her into frenzied barks and aggressive straining at the leash. Passers-by would look at us warily and move respectfully to the side. And Tee'd continue barking for all she was worth till she passed the territory of said stray. And then the stray would come and piss right where Tee'd passed. As if to affirm that the area was still his/hers and not Tee's.
Pets inside houses though, were not as visible to Tee as the strays. However Tee was totally visible to them from their vantage watchpoints. They'd wait silently, watching with bated breath till Tee got right before them- and then, set up a sudden ferocious volley of barks accompanied with jumps at the gate/wall ....Tee would be totally taken unawares, and would strain at the leash again, with eyes darting all around for where this unholy menace was coming from. But once she'd identified the noisemaker, she'd take particular care to piss calmly, right in front of the gate on the opposites side, while the other poor dog would go frantic at the insult to his reign. Sigh. The games dogs play!
Its been a while since I posted randomly... There've been so many times when the idea for a post crept up, but I'd be too busy or too tired of sitting in front of the laptop and the post would be gone forever. And then of course, good ol' FB has also been playing havoc with posts. It is such an addiction, I tell you!!
Rest later, folks.
