All set for a ride!
"Did you ever notice when you blow in a dog's face he gets mad at you? But when you take him in a car he sticks his head out the window." ~ Steve Bluestone
Duke has a few worldly possessions that he owns with a guarded attitude that no one has bothered disputing his claims... Listed in the order of his 'attachment' to them-
1. Our car, sorry, 'his' car (He first owned a black Fiat and is now the proud owner of a silver Santro)
2. His 'Alien' soft toy that papa brought him a few years back (It is yellow and blue with two antennae sticking out of its head)
3. Sandy. Yes, my cousin Sandy. I know we are talking material things but with Sandy, Duke quickly established a strong ownership that was similar to what he had done with our car
4. And any other thing that took his fancy...
Dukie was barely a few weeks old when we first tried taking him out on our scooter. It was almost disastrous... He wriggled and squealed and whined with terror so much that we forced to stop just a few yards from our home and take him back home... So, it was quite obvious that when we took him in our car the first time, we were taking no chances! Mom had him in her lap in the front passenger seat and had the window rolled up, with just a couple of inches open for some ventilation. And then, we discovered how a car window affects a dog! He wriggled and squealed and whined again but so he could stick his nose out the window! He soon had his head out the window and was looking out at the passing world with such a look of happiness and contentment that we couldn't stop laughing at him :)
From that day on, the black Fiat belonged to Dukie and Pa only 'maintained' it for him :) He would insist on being taken out for car rides, sometimes standing in front of the garage and barking until Pa took him for a ride. A few years later, when we sold the Fiat and bought a Santro, we were wondering how the missing Fiat would affect Dukie. But lo and behold! The Santro belonged to Duke within a few hours of it arriving home...
Dukie was now a year old and growing fast and flourishing. We were discovering a lot of things about him too. Two things we learned 'Not' to do around him was-
1. Scold Sandy- Ma and pa had a tough time in disciplining Sandy as Duke would just stand there and bark like mad in a menacing way if we so much as gave Sandy a dirty look... I told you, Sandy belonged to Duke...
2. Mouse hunt- The first time, we thought Duke would be useful so we let him remain in the room while we tried to catch the stray mouse that invaded our home. We realized that Duke would go berserk at the sight of ma (Pa is scared of mice, hee hee hee) standing with a broom in her hand and whacking behind boxes and would, instead of attacking the mouse, run and start attacking the broom. He would just look blankly like an idiot and would realize belatedly that the mouse had just run over his paws in its bid to get free. Yes, Dukie was that dumb when it came to catching any pests...
We soon started locking him out or in a spare room when we either attacked another pest or if ma and pa had to take Sandy to hand... Duke could be heard howling on top of his voice but he was at least safely out of the way! Safely for him, that is. Ma had once whacked him with the broom while mouse- hunting :) Na, she didn't mean to (She probably did!) but he had darted at the broom just when she was aiming for the mouse.
We were soon realizing that dogs were not quite the 'dumb and sweet' pets we had been expecting... Dukie changed quite a lot of our assumptions about dogs. He displayed such intelligence and individual character that we soon revised our outlook of him.
A few really cute instances for you. These are a few of our 'popular' Dukie stories-
1. The groundnut laddoos- Dukie loved, loves and will always love food. Of any sort! He had just been drooling over some groundnut laddoos when pa decided to give him one. Duke hogged nicely and after a few minutes realized that there was some stuck to the top of his mouth cavity. He tried all possible mean to get the stuck laddoo off the roof of his mouth and then he suddenly quieted as he probed around with his tongue. He realized that the laddoo was stuck somewhere 'up'. So he found a simple solution. He lifted his head up to the ceiling and then started licking the air over his head :) Only, all he found was air :) Pa had to help him scrape the laddoo off after that stint didn't work!
2. Ducking for dear life- Papa was posted to Delhi when Duke was a couple of years old and our house was on a hill top over looking the Indira Gandhi International airport. Most aircrafts landing passed us overhead and seemed very low. The first day, while on his evening walk, a plane was making its descent and passed low over the land. Dukie looked up, saw the aircraft over his head and to 'save' himself immediately sat down on all fours so the plane would not touch him :) He stayed in that position until the plane was safely on the runway!
3. Don't go pick on someone your size- Duke has always derived some sort of a sadistic pleasure out of barking at 'poor' street animals while sitting in 'his' car. He would yell and his body language would suggest that he would tear the other dog or animal (usually cattle) apart if only he were on the ground and not riding in his chariot. He was always particularly aggressive around cattle. He would bark at them even while on his evening walks. One day, he found a calf a little way away from a cow. And being the coward that he is, he decided to terrorize the calf. He pulled hard on the leash, got himself free and stood very close to the calf barking his head off. Before the cow could come to its rescue, the calf turned his back to Dukie and delivered a swift kick with its hind legs straight to Duke's jaw :) Lol! have we laughed about that incident or what? The coward has since then started barking at cattle from afar and never tugs hard enough on his leash to get free, just enough to show that he is not scared of taking on any other cow. We pretend to believe him :) Let him keep his dignity...
4. Jumping Jack- You would have, by now, realized what the car meant to Dukie, it was his prized possession. So what would happen when two of his interests, his car and his love of terrorizing hapless street animals, collided? We found out soon enough. We had just pulled out of our house when Duke spotted cattle near by. He was so super excited that after barking a couple of times, he just jumped from the backseat onto mamma's lap in the front passenger seat (That must've hurt her...) and then all dad saw was a blur of cream go by the steering wheel. It took us a few seconds to realize that the cream silhouette that had dashed past was actually Duke who had jumped out of the car- Back seat onto mamma's lap then out the drivers window! Wow, we were a few yards down the road when we stopped. Dukie had hit the road and after barking at the cattle again, realized that the car, HIS CAR, was no longer around. We sincerely believe his greedy heart must have skipped a couple of beats! As we watched, he came flying down the road, eager to get back into the car. Pa, just to teach the idiot a lesson, drove on a couple yards more before letting him back into the car... We were thankful that there was no traffic around when the stupid pig attempted the stunt... He has, since, never tried anything like that ever :)
5. Traffic Signal- This must be a common occurance with over- enthu and extra- friendly labs. Dukie had once scared the daylights out of a motorist when, at a traffic signal, he had reached out and licked (Read kissed) the elbow of this poor guy who almost died of a heart attack! We were majorly embarrassed but were saved any drama by the fact that the man was fond of animals and did not make an issue out of it. We have been very careful not to let Dukie try that again for the fear of causing an accident. I mean he would love to repeat it and may cause someone to react violently. I mean, I love dogs but would be rightly scared to have a monster size doggie reach out of his car window and lick my elbow!
Well, those were just 'some' of his antics, there are many many more! Stay tuned and you'll know just why we are all so obsessed with our butterball :)
I'll sign off for now, see you soon!
Cheers!
Megha
