Page 126 - Magazine 2022-intractive flip

Rover was a spaniel clothed in black and day when Appa was breaking a coconut, she
white with rather short legs and a bushy tail.
He would be at your side always, except when
it was time for a bath. Then he would go into
hiding and finally, Cleo would find him,
shivering in the storeroom, as if someone
had already splashed cold water all over him.
When I was about 13 years old, there was
heavy rain and floods in my hometown.
The roads were like lakes and water flowed
continuously from dawn to dusk. One
morning as Appa, Amma, my sister and I
stepped outside the gate to go to church,
we saw a white bundle on the slope leading
to the road. On close scrutiny, we realised
it was a puppy; shivering and helplessly
limp. I insisted that we take him inside and
give him some warm milk. My Appa had to
oblige, and I carried him inside, wiped his
fluffy body and gave him some warm milk in
a bowl which he lapped up immediately. He
remained with us and we called him ‘Fluffy’.
My Appa would look daily in the newspapers
to find out whether anyone had mentioned
that their dog was missing because Fluffy
had a collar around his neck and we were
sure that the floods had brought him to us.
Luckily no one came looking for him and he
remained with us.
Years later, we lost Fluffy in an accident right
in front of our house when he ran onto the
ST.TERESA’S COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), ERNAKULAM
road and was hit by a car. I cried bitterly
because we had become good friends and
strangely enough we lost him close to where
we found him!
As if to compensate for our great loss, we
got a kitten who was all hair, white and
blue eyed. She was named ‘Fluffy’ after ‘the
dear departed’. Her bushy white tail and
blue eyes attracted everyone and while she
reigned like a princess, Appa brought a small
puppy who was called ‘Tiny’ because she was
forever tiny. She had only an apology of a tail
and when she felt very happy, her whole tiny
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body would shake! What a pet she was! One
jumped forward and………. To our misfortune
and her ill luck was hit and she collapsed!
Very bad days followed to compensate for the
joy she gave us.
Tippu was a tall and strong character - a
police-trained pup who faithfully kept watch
for many years. He was feared by most of the
children who came to our house because of
his size and bark. He was the last of the ‘tails’
I knew as my pet in the house where I grew
up because I completed my studies and left
for Ernakulam to take up the job of a junior
lecturer at St. Teresa’s College. I enjoyed
my hostel life for the next six months but I
missed my pets.
Life became busy after marriage when I had
to manage my career, family, children and
had to adjust to the hectic days in the Bank
quarters, my husband’s transfers and finally
succeeding in building a house of our own,
which we called ‘Sharon’. Since my husband
also loved pets, we had many of them and they
grew up with the children - ‘Pussma’ who
came all the way from Ooty and who enjoyed
the world around her for 19 years until she
was finally found guilty of snatching chicken
from their perch or a tree nearby. The angry
owner planned to use an airgun on her but
to her luck, she was taken away to safety by
my mom-in-law and she spent the rest of her
days with her.
I cannot forget ‘Kitty’, a loving mother who
had many kittens and I must mention Catty
who used to accompany us to the movies and
watch the screen without any distractions.
Most of the viewers would comment on
her perch on one of our shoulders with
eyes glued to the screen! Kitty will always
be remembered as the mother of Tom or
Thomas, a handsome guy who was the
heartthrob of everyone. He and his son Tim
would climb the coconut tree to quite a height
and scramble down carefully while everyone
gasped at the manner in which they went up!