When dogs become more than friends

One Incredible Creature

2014-04-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

If a Dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience

I cannot believe it's already more than an year since I wrote this blog. I guess I had an excuse; I was busy :-)

Alice turned 6 years old on Oct 25^th 2013 and I feel so proud to be a Mom of a lovely Dog and a beautiful Girl who turned 4 on April 6^th 2014. Surprisingly Alice is so gentle with Eesha that it feels insulting to call her a Dog sometimes.

Being such a high energy Dog I don't understand from where she gets that maturity to be so calm when she is around kids. Alice and Eesha are so friendly now, almost inseparable. It's so amazing how that transition happened suddenly. There were days when she was scared of Alice and won’t go to the basement without us but one day to our surprise, my Dad gave her a Magic spell and it worked and she became comfortable overnight and the funny part is we still don't know what it is :-)

Whatever I say to appreciate Alice would be less. I chose this day to write this blog because it’s a special day for me and she is a special person in our lives.

We recently relocated to New Jersey from Atlanta. Yes, you heard it right. People give me all kinds of looks when they hear this. But circumstances made us take the decision and we are pretty happy and settled as far as our work/home life is concerned. There is a little more work with Alice as she just arrived from Atlanta on April 20^thand may take some more time to settle but she is almost there. It’s been 3 weeks now for us.

I am writing this blog to appreciate that saintly creature that drove with us in a Car for almost 17 hours, all the way from Atlanta to New Jersey without a single trouble. It wouldn’t be fair to not mention that she behaved even better than Eesha, not that Eesha is troublesome in long drives but behaving better than a kid on a long drive is something to be appreciated.

Our move started sometime around 1^st week of April and she being a dog, there was no way we could have made her understand as what is going on. She seemed very anxious with all the stuff being moved around and people visiting too often, taking away furniture, we being away from home once in a while overnight and then for 2 weeks and so many such small things. But every time I got a minute, I will go console her and tell her “There is nothing to worry. We are just moving to a different city. We won’t have this home anymore for some time. We will take you with us but you have to wait until we come back to get you in 2-3 weeks.” The day I came back from New York, she was so excited and it looked like she was confident that we are not going to leave her and go this time. The next night she slept in the Garage because we had the home cleaned up and didn't want it messed up again by her hair.

Next morning, she was ready to leave with us at 5:00AM. We made a bed for her in the car. Even though it looked very cozy and comfortable, the one who was supposed to use it was not someone who can express that comfort in words so I was closely watching her throughout the trip to ensure she is relaxed and not stressed. So, not sure how actually it was but she adjusted very well. Initially she was standing for the first 20 minutes of the drive, and then she sat down and relaxed like this.

After a couple of breaks we made in between, she kind of understood the pattern so as soon as we slowed down the car, she will get up. Raj and I took turns and stayed with her while the other freshens up or eats lunch etc. However, how much ever thirsty or hungry she is she will not drink or eat anything in that break until the other person refreshes and comes back to car. We figured out, it was a kind of insecurity she has that one of us is going away. She will constantly keep looking in the direction until we are back. Once we are back she will be relieved.

Around Virginia, we faced terrible traffic conditions and started getting frustrated and I bet she was the most well behaved and calmest creature ever seen in traffic. She was lying on her bed in the car and didn't make a single noise until we reached the apartment.

Now comes the funny part, she has never ever seen herself in the mirror, the first time she got into the elevator, she was shit scared. One, she was seeing a dog in front of her, which was doing the exact same things that she was doing, another she was seeing someone who was looking just like Amma but she could not reach her. It was so funny to see her reaction. So restless as if saying “Where the hell did you bring me?” Soon we were out and she was less stressed.

Now she lives with us in a smaller home with no backyard, people around her all the time and I can see she likes it. She loves to be around us. She goes plays in the park with other Dogs. She plays with Eesha at home. She feels more comfortable, happier and less stressed.

Eesha is very sensitive about us dealing with Alice more than ever. If we scold Alice or talk to her rudely, Eesha would start crying and be very upset. She will clearly say "Amma, Alice se jor se baat mat karo...", "Amma, Appa Alice ko scold kiye...", "Amma, Alice sad ho gayi...", "Amma Alice se rudely baat karungi to Chikki sad ho jaegi...". It's hilarious but it's extremely serious for her. And Vice versa when we scold Eesha and she starts crying, Alice will follow her until Eesha stops crying or Eesha goes and pats her after the crying drama ends.

We have come to realize that if you stay in a smaller home, tons of situations and conversations can happen due to smaller space hence creating more interactions, which clearly everyone likes.

So far we all seem to be having fun...

Down the Memory Lane

2012-07-18T12:33:00.001-07:00

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring-it was peace.

Alice Alice Alice...The three words I have for you is I love you

Day before yesterday my husband sent me an email in my Office ID attaching a 5 year old picture of 1 week old Alice. That picture was nothing great as "just a picture" but when I look back at it as a memory, that is one of the most adorable pictures of my scrapbook. Here you go with that picture...

I immediately made it my Desktop Background and couldn't stop myself from going down the memory lane every time I looked at it. That doesn't happen when I put Eesha's picture on my desktop. I just look at it, smile and get back to work. Coming back to Alice, Oh My God, she was so adorable. After sometime, someone came by my desk, saw that picture and asked me "Is that a Bear?" I couldn't stop laughing and told them "No, 'it's a German Shepard DOG for heaven's sake". Still laughing, anyway that's not where I am getting to...

Imagining how big she has become now, forced me to realize how old she has become at the same time. She is almost 5 years old. Reminded me of the movie "Marley and Me". She has probably completed 35 percent of her life span which is so painful to digest. She is the most "love giving" person at home. I cannot compare her devotion to anyone. Like I said once in my blog "The later you come home, the more upset your spouse is, but the later you come home, the happier your dog is to see you!" That's such an unconditional love...

Monday I work remotely from home and use my Husband's office room since he goes to office that day. This is in the basement around Alice's living area. She is not allowed to come inside the office room but she can come close to the room's door and she refuses to go away from there till I am in that office. As soon as I get up and go upstairs, let's say to drink water or for lunch, she will follow me till the stairs and will come sit in the staircase area. My husband told me that but I thought it's just with him but for him she does a little more. If he comes up she will start barking. basically calling him down. She doesn't care what he does after he comes down, but as long as he is in front of him she is cool.

We plan to get another Dog, the search is on, not sure how long that's going to take. We think she needs a friend who will stay with her all day long. I will keep you all updated on that one too :) It's going to be the same exercise of housebreaking/potty training//basic discipline all over once again!!!

More bonding...

2012-01-09T10:49:00.000-08:00

A dog can express more with his tail in minutes than his owner can express with his tongue in hours.

I am sure all parents will agree to my next statement. Every parent has made some parenting mistakes. We did too and this was not the first but a memorable one.

Eesha became very comfortable with climbing up and down the stairs when she was around 18 months but obviously she was much much slower than us when she had to go up or get down with us. Normally she would start just climb slowly touching the wall stairs, take a break sometime, touch all the flowers in the flower vases on the way and say "Foyer Foyer" (meaning Flower Flower) and continue with her journey of going up or down.

Eventually we got busier and started lifting her in arms when climbing up or down because we were in a hurry and that's how she just lost that habit of climbing completely. We didn't realize until one day when we were very relaxed (not in a hurry) and wanted her to come up by herself.. She just refused to climb. I left her down and came up thinking she will cry for sometime and come up but she didn't! Raj lifted her and brought her up thinking she is crying just because I left her alone. We realized the problem that day and started the learning process from scratch.

So, this happened a couple of times before she again became comfortable and it was one of those re-learning days that I was too busy to even say few pampering words and call her down so I just left her crying for 5 complete minutes. She was sending some panic signals in her voice though nothing was wrong because I could still see her. She was just sitting and crying at the first stair. She was supposed to come down. I didnt lift her and let her cry.

Alice, who stays in the basement for most of the day suddenly started barking as if something is terribly wrong and she needs to be there with us at that moment. The door to the basement normally remains closed. So, I went down and checked on her and she left me down and seeing that the door is now open climbed up hurriedly and started barking looking upstairs. She looked at Eesha and stopped barking and went down giving a look at me and started wagging her tail as if she wanted to say "You guys scared the hell out of me". I realized the problem and Eesha was almost down by that time and wanted to see Alice. So, I took her down in the basement to show Alice and the first thing she said to Alice when she looked at her was "No bark". Alice didn't care but I rolled on the floor and laughed.

Anyway, but guess what! we had to treat her for relearning climbing up and down. What a silly thing to get a treat for! I thought kids are eager to do that. But now she is good (came back to normal).

Got late for office but was all worth it :)

I know Alice's photos are due but for now enjoy Eesha's! :)

Alice and Me

2011-08-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

She is our friend, our partner, our defender, our dog. We are her life, her love, her leaders. She will be ours, faithful and true, to the last beat of her heart. We owe it to her to be worthy of such devotion

Raj went on a 3 day long trip to New York recently and that was my first night all alone with Eesha. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten Alice but I am not worried about her security but being all alone with Eesha, I do get worried about Eesha's security.

I must say more than Alice being dependent on me, I was dependent on her becasue she can stay without food and water for days, I know (she has done that in past) but I can NOT stay one whole night without her support and courage. Not that I am scared of anything. I have stayed alone in past without her as well, but now it's not all about me. With a small baby with me I am more concerned about her security and well being that my own self's. The courage that I get just by thinking there is someone powerful around me to protect me from all evils cannot be jotted down in a blog. Normally she is just a baby, but in these extra ordinary situations she becomes my guardian. More than she follows what I say, I follow what her instinct says. So, if she is barking at night at vague hours I definitely come down and make sure everything is OK. She wont bark for no reason.

It's not fun staying alone but both of these kids keep me busy all day long and I don't even have time to think about Raj till I reach office and see him online. It's not fun :) but I can't complaint . It's a new experience and I am embracing it so far. Hopefully Raj doesn't have to make these trips too often.

Alice in Wonderland

2011-07-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

Alice is a free bird now (pretty much) No wonder why she loves a huge backyard. We love to watch her chasing rabbits and squirrels in the backyard. She goes out when she want to do business and comes back when she is done.

This long weekend we got our backyard fenced and we don't have to worry anymore about Alice waiting for us to do business while we are out. We had a fun filled weekend with Alice this time. Soon Eesha will grow and they can have fun together in the yard.

We are finally settled with our new home and getting back to life. So much looking forward to it.

Oh did I tell how calmly she behaves with our 15 month old daughter. When I am too busy and Eesha is giving me a hard time to do stuff, I would just tell her "Go see where is Alice" Eesha cannot pronounce Alice yet, so she says "Ice"; for her even I address "Alice" as "Ice". So, I would say "Go check out Ice" and she will be excited to go check her out every time I would say that. But I noticed a couple of times after happily playing for about 15 minutes Eesha would come running shouting "Am Am..(short form for Amma in her dictionary)" Since all that area is not visible from the place I am working at in home, I didn't know what's really going on so I put a camera one day and started watching after sending Eesha to Alice. Alice has a specific area till where she can come, we have bordered that area so that she understands that it's her space. I noticed after leaving from my work area Eesha slowly goes and sits beside Alice and starts touching her, patting her gently. Oh by the way I love to see how gentle she is with Alice. After 5 minutes of playing Eesha gets excited and gradually slides and reaches very close to Alice, almost barging in Alice's space and Alice gets up from her own area. Then Alice tries to move carefully in that small area to go a little behind, and her body touches Eesha's and Eesha is like "No No". Eesha tries to hide her face, makes faces and comes running "Am Am.." So that's what was really going on and thus I discovered who the brat is here.

I have to agree that we made a great decision of getting a Dog even before Eesha came. She is definitely more matured than Eesha :) and doesn't mind Eesha complaining about her for her own mistake. I am sure there will be more stories to come as they grow older. But really love to watch them grow this way.

Alice and Crissie

2011-06-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends- Alexander Pope

It is very sad to see Alice not getting any workout in the sense she doesn't get to go play with Crissie anymore. Raj tries to take her for a long walk everyday as schedule permits. So, yesterday Raj took her for a walk and when they came back I was standing outside the door and we were talking about how much she might be missing Crissie. She didn't hear me since we were talking very softly. Then I though "Let's see how she reacts when I say the name Crissie". So I called her by her own name which is Alice for 3 times and she was busy sniffing the grass. The fourth time I called, I said "Crissie" and she gave me a shocked/surprised/excited/questioning look which is difficult to forget. Soon she realized herself that there is no way Crissie will be here. I think she will be better once we have the fence built and she gets to roam freely. I also wish we take her to our old home to play with Crissie once in a while

One more fun thing to talk about is her "feeling of closeness". When I and Raj leave for office and work respectively, Rekha my sister in law takes Alice out for business in the mornings and evenings most of the times. Alice would normally go and sit in the basement after they are back and Rekha will stay in the main level playing with our daughter. Alice would never come up by herself the whole day to stay with Rekha and MIL but as soon as I or Raj come from office or work respectively, she will not go down unless scolded or asked to go. Rekha noticed this for a few weeks and told us. If anyone of the two of us is in the basement she will prefer to be in the basement probably for safeguarding. But if both of us are not in basement and even one of us is in the main level she will come up and sit in the main level. That is something we didn't get to know in the old home because she used to stay in the formal living room and had her limits as till where she can come. This home gives her a little more luxury of being around us.

Like I have said earlier, there are so many things your kids can learn from your Dogs, (well for that matter good or bad) its worth having a Dog when your kid is growing up. Most importantly they learn to love animals. Tomorrow even if they see a PET Lion cuddling his master, they will know what exactly that means to the master. Secondly they wont be scared of Dogs anymore like most of the kids are. Most importantly when they have their family later, they will also wish to give a home to a Dog.

Hopefully the fence will be done by end of this month and Alice will have a little more luxury that before.

Believe It Or Not!

2011-05-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

Lots of people talk to animals but not many listen to them. I tried to...

-Myself

Before I start writing anything else, let me tell you; some of you might not believe this even after reading it and knowing that it's coming from a trusted source. But I will still share with you all, so you know how crazy I am about Dogs.

So, the foundation of this story started sometime in mid march when I was driving to office and listening to a very famous Morning show of Atlanta on Radio. It's called "The Bert Show". The hosts were interviewing a lady who claimed to be a Pet Psychic (Animal communicator). I know you either already lost interest in the topic or are very interested on what happened next. So, I will keep writing for some of those who will read it complete. I called in the show and said I wanted to talk to that lady. Obviously they won't have time for so many callers so I was put on hold and told a little while later "We are running out of time, so please try next time or go to her website." Ok! that works I said, only to realize later that it costs a heck a lot of money for a 30 minute session of your pet. I said OK I still will do it. I asked this as my Birthday gift from Raj and he agreed. I wish I had the "Surprise" icon from Yahoo messenger to add here. So I was all set for the session. I used to tell Alice now and then about how Amma scheduled this for her and soon she will know what she is lacking in case she is. This is how it works. I had to send a picture of Alice to that lady on her website and she will call me on the scheduled time and we start counting 30 minutes from there. I can ask whatever I want to know from Alice. Alice can tell whatever she wants to tell us. She works with Telepathy, talks to the pet and lets you know what she heard. It was scheduled for 30th April at 6:15PM, the day we were shifting to our new home. Wow I can't believe I left all that work and sat in a corner to talk to this lady when she called me. Every statement she said about Alice blew my mind.

Some very interesting statements she said were:

"So, you have been talking to Alice about me and she is telling she is excited about this session"

"She is nervous as what's going on in the house" then I told her we are moving to new home today so all packing and stuff is going on.

"She says she is going to miss her tree in the yard" (In our neighbor's yard)

"She asked if the little animal going to come along" (Neighbor's dog)

"She said she would like to play with the little creature at home, how soon can they start playing together?" (That's my daughter who is just 1 year old now, so we don't let them be together alone or for long)

"She said she wants to be a house Dog and she doesn't want you to get another dog if she is going to stay away from us and the other Dog gets to stay close to us"

"She wants a little dog and not big one" (Guess she wants to boss around)

"She doesn't like dry food"

"She likes Chicken"

"She would like to play up and down on stairs like she used to earlier"

"She would like to go out in Car more like she used to get to do earlier"

There were too many things she told and I was stunned as she told stuff only raj Alice and I would have known. I am looking forward for another session with her but not so soon. I will have to first work on her previous session to fulfill what Alice needs and wants. But it was an enlightening experience to know that animals can also think so much, have needs wants and demands, preferences. WOW that really blew my mind. It was truly worth it. Believe it or Not!

A Blue Evening made White

2011-04-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only defect, really.

Agnes Sligh Turnbull

So once again Alice proved to be a wonderful partner for the lonely me.

I was feeling very blue that day and felt very frustrated and irritated becasue of a couple of things that were happening one after the other; making me feel sitting in a roller coaster ride of emotions. I felt like crying and I did too. There were enough people around but you know sometimes it happens that even though you have people around you, you feel deserted. I would be lying if I said that I didn't miss my closest friends. One of those was Alice.

I desperately wanted to sit with her and share some of my feelings. The best part was she won't ask questions. So, after returning from office, I spent some time with Eesha and wanted to go to Alice but had some house chores to take care of.

So, I kept myself busy with the chores but I could hear Alice barking in the garage, then not sure why, though now I guess I do. I quickly went to her and told her "Wait Amma is coming shortly, we can chit chat a little". But she kept barking, barking and barking. That was annoying; not that I wont be able to sleep (who wanted to) but that if no one sleeps becasue of that noise, how will I come down and spend time with her.

When I was done with all work by 10:30PM, I turned off the lights and pretended to go to the bedroom becasue I didn't want anybody's presence when I was with Alice. Those were OUR special moments. Everyone went to their bedrooms and started getting ready to sleep. I pretended too. After Raj and Eesha slept, I came down and brought Alice in from garage and spent an hour with her, when I and she just sat beside each other. I patted her, said thanks, sorry, I love you and all that I was feeling. I really think she was a good listener and I'm sure she understands. When she looks at me with so much attention, and gently licks my hands; then rubs her nose on my clothes, rests her head on my lap I never feel like saying "NO". For we all know now that we can buy more clothes, but never a friend like that. She didn't get up till I got up from there.

I give her my time, space and love that I can spare and in return, she gives me her all. It’s the best deal I could have ever made. After an hour I left her back in the garage and and we both were as calm as never. She did not bark I did not cry. So it made me feel as if she knew what I was going through and was equally eager to calm me down.

I never felt like this with my older Dog Laika becasue I was a kid so she was more like a toy for me but now I am grown up with lot more responsibilities and having a Dog really helps to reduce stress.

The Bad period

2011-04-01T10:36:00.000-07:00

With eye upraised his master's look to scan,
The joy, the solace, and the aid of man:
The rich man's guardian and the poor man's friend,
The only creature faithful to the end.
George Crabbe

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the "Not so good" part of having a FEMALE dog. So, like every female, dogs also have to go through heat cycles. The good thing is they have to go through this every 6-9 months and not every month but then it goes on and on for 21 days and not 3-4 days. This is going on for last 1 week and we are forced to keep her in garage but that explains a lot of her stomach upset part as well. It is pretty common to have a digestion problem during the heat cycle and that holds good for anyone who can reproduce.

There are ways to have them spayed so that they don't have to go through that at all. Our neighbors had adopted their dog and adopted dogs are fixed by default. But we had purchased Alice and didn't want to spay her. It basically involves removing her Uterus so that she doesn't have to go through all this which also means that she can never give birth and I was very much against this. I didn't want to take away her right of being a Mother and after becoming a mother myself, I really wanted her to feel the same for her babies. I do agree that involves a lot of pain, uncomfort for her as well as us but in the end it's all worth it. The feeling when you have a baby is incredible.

For the last 3 years I have been pushing hard to not have her spayed. I am not sure if I can do that anymore. I really become very emotional when I imagine her not being able to have kids and Raj understands that but unfortunately there is a huge difference between understanding and agreeing so he wants to have her spayed after this season of her heat cycle. At the same time I do agree that she will be much more comfortable by not having to go through this torture now and then given that she doesn't know what it is all about but then who knows she might have her own ways to gain that knowledge.

As of now we are extremely busy with Eesha's Birthday preparations and are giving little attention to Alice since she stays most of the time in garage. I ideally would like to breed her with a pure German Shepard and have her produce lovely and affectionate doggies just like her but I am not opening my mouth about this right now :) I might need to study more about "How to convince your spouse for breeding your Dog" kind of book to do that.

Don't be disheartened by seeing all bad thing for last 2 posts. It's all part and parcel of the game. At the end of the day she is still worth it. Someone who belives in just giving and not taking.

She is still worth it!

2011-03-08T09:14:00.000-08:00

"In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog."
- Edward Hoagland

I have some bad news and good news to share! Good news is we we had a great vacation last week. The bad news is we just returned home from a wonderful vacation to Mexico! That calls for another blog. Check out my "Miles to Go before I sleep" blog for updates.

Another bad news is Alice had to go through a lot while we were out. Neither this one is an exciting topic to talk about nor am I enthusiastic about writing this blog but I promised to show you the pros and cons of having a Dog so I got to be honest and you need to be practical if you are seriously planning to get a Dog.

You all know, on a sunny day Alice goes to play in yard with neighbor's dog but unfortunately it was raining for all 4 days here in Atlanta while we were out so she was under house arrest. On top of that she had pooped all over the carpet as she was suffering from diarrhea from the day we left. Since we were on a cruise we could not call up the pet sitter to get her updates (as if we would have been able to come back if we had got any instead we would not have been able to have fun wholeheartedly thinking she is sick) But this became really bad.

We saw her email the day we landed back in US. When we came back home at 6:00PM, she was playing in the neighbor's yard and was overjoyed to see us. We brought her in the garage and she had to stay all night there as we were too tired from the drive back home to clean the poop so we decided to do that first thing in the morning. Temperature wasn't great according to me for her to stay out in garage, well that's a mother's heart I guess. Raj and I had major argument over that but Raj was not ready to let her inside as she can stamp on the poop and make things worse. So we put 2 rugs on the concrete floor in garage, made her wear a pet jacket and turned on the camera to see if she is fine a little while later. She is not very comfortable sleeping with that jacket on but this time she didn't have an option and neither did we. We came upstairs and Raj kept a watch on her through the camera and came back to sleep when she slept comfortably. That's a Father's heart I would say. Raj had to clean her poop early morning before he started work. Obviously I could see he was not very delighted about that. He is going out of town also today. Must have really pissed him to do that on such a hectic day. He might have even got thoughts like why did we ever get this Dog but I know inside his heart he loves her a lot. He is the one she considers Dad and I can almost guarantee he will never let her down.

At the end of the day she still stays a lovely adorable dog who cares for our daughter, who protects us from dangers, who protects our home from thefts, who loves us unconditionally, who listens to all orders, who will listen to our troubles always, who has stood by us during every single trouble, who searches for us when we are not around, who feels sick when we are not with her. This list can go on and on. We still love her from the bottom of our heart because who doesn't do accidents/mistakes and this time it wasn't her fault. This mistake was nothing in front of all the positive things she does.

Ending this blog on a good note. We had a real fun trip and are glad to see Alice after 4 days.

Predictably unpredictable

2011-02-14T09:54:00.000-08:00

Heights of faithfulness-A Dog will even protect his master's dead body and grave

-A random though from a dog lover's mind

I am back with my dog news. Let me tell you a secret today. This lady at my home who walks on 4 legs, has beautiful blue eyes, is completely black with a little bit of tan, very affectionate and last but not the least looks like a female dog is not really a dog. She has different faces. She is a kid when she is with me or my husband. She is an adult for the Grandma. She is an elder sister with Eesha (remember how she came running downstairs when Eesha was crying) She is a friend for the pet sitter. She is a ferocious female Dog for the stranger. The next one is hilarious. She is a normal human being when she is alone. Did I say "Normal"

Enough of background, I will come to the point now. So we went to a friend's home the past weekend. I and my husband took off from work on Friday and we left Thursday evening. Well, it was not evening exactly, you know how these trips are with a baby with us and a Dog at home. So, there were couple of things we needed to make sure that they were taken care of like the pet sitter, home security etc so we actually left home at 8:30PM which is not exactly evening. Also when we leave home for overnight trips we turn on a device with which we can track who came in and went out, what's Alice doing etc. We can actually see her through that. So we turned this camera on and left. Generally when we are at home we keep Alice in front room and block the entrance of kitchen and family room so she doesn't go anywhere but stay in her area as we have a small kid at home. But when we go out we unblock all entrances so that she has access to those places when required. But we really never had the necessity for her to go to other rooms in our absence unless there is a threat. We, as in my husband and I, used to talk between ourselves that we need to train her to go to these places when required and not let her go to these places when we are in the home. But we never got to that but still used to unblock the entrances when we were not at home.

This time we were tracking her with the camera from our friends home and surprisingly she was walking inside the kitchen, family room, upstairs and everywhere inside the home just like we do, basically with out any hesitation. We thought **** she has to be trained again to not do so. She has started roaming all over the house and we don't prefer that. We had a great trip with friends and came prepared to scold her. But obviously as soon as we saw her we forgot everything and started patting her, playing with her etc.Then we went inside the family room through the front room and surprisingly she stopped right near the entrance even when there were no blocks. She stood right there and gave the looks "How can I come in, I am not supposed to get in this area" and we rolled on the floor and laughed looking at her smartness. She obviously didn't know that we were watching her but she actually did what we wanted to train her for which is to not come in that area when we were in and to come if she sees any threats. We understood that she kept checking the whole home time to time in our absence without being told to do so.

That's the reason I believe they are called the most faithful and grateful animals in the world. Oh! I cant count on my fingers how many times I went back to her to appreciate what she did, before I went to sleep and every time I made sure I said "I love you" I really cant stop thinking and laughing about it how smart she became without us teaching her to be so.

Alice's 1st winter

Oh My Dog

2011-01-31T09:21:00.000-08:00

Losing would be painful, but not as painful as knowing there was something else you could have done.

-Joe Trippi

After a long time, the weekend weather was just too good to be true. We had fun with bunch of friends whole weekend at our home and the weekend just showed its face on Friday and flew and I don't have any regrets because it was fun! The only not so fun part was what happened with Alice.

So, like every sunny day she went out with Crissie to play whole day and came back in the evening. Since these days its not sunny and pleasant she gets to go to Crissie only once in a while so we increased her outing time when she goes to do business in the backyard in the evening on days she didn't go to Crissie's backyard. Mornings, she still has to come back on time after business since we are in a hurry to start office work but in the evenings, she would just roam in the backyard (it's not fenced and she never goes out of sight unless there is some dog around) till my husband would say "Alice, Come in". Oh yes! Before that he would ask her after 10 minutes of her roaming, "Alice, are you done?" and she would just look at us and would give a gesture of "Oh no, not yet" and continue to roam, but she takes it as a warning and buys a little more time though she might be done. Then in another 10-15 minutes he would say "Alice, Come in" and she will come running inside the house.

So coming back to what happened yesterday, since she came back in the evening, we would generally assume that she would have done her business at their place but we still let her out once again on such days before we would call it a day to avoid accidents. Raj left her around 12:30AM (night) while we were still playing with our friends. Let me remind you if you have not seen her or her pictures in the blog, she is completely black and the amount of tan she has on her skin is negligible. That tan is pretty visible in the day light but in the night, forget it. So we consider she is black. So my husband got this blinking red light kind of gadget from Wal-mart that blinks when she moves, so that we can track her. But well that broke a week back and she has been a good dog and comes back as soon as we call.

Sorry, I keep going back; but I have to build the background. So again, he left her at 12:30AM (night) and was feeling too sleepy, so I called him for a game that we were playing with friends as he was planning to go up and sleep after she comes back. But we got so involved in the game that we totally forgot about Alice and kept playing for half an hour. Suddenly he got up and said **** "Alice is outside" and I was alarmed. I was changing my daughter's diaper but I cant believe, I left her as it is and went running outside. He got a torch and we started looking for her calling her name. She was nowhere in sight. Our friends all came outside and helped us to call her. I started crying loud and my mom who was sleeping upstairs came down, picked my daughter (who probably was startled with our behavior), as she sensed something went wrong. Then suddenly we saw something moving in the woods and BOOM, there she comes running after may be 2 minutes of calling. To tell you the truth I already have tears in my eyes now. Guess she thought she also got a night out like us. I think she was stuck in the woods but made her way back. Everyone was telling that dogs come back and my experience also says so but I know what I went through. To tell you frankly she is such a sweet and friendly dog that even if someone sees her roaming somewhere with her tag that has our name and phone number, I don't trust they will call up and tell us about her instead will just keep her :) I am just too scared of losing her. Too much! Thanked goodness for sending her back.

I almost thought we lost her and I sensed the fear of loosing her once again. We have decided to not go out of sight till she is in after business. In the morning when I got up and came down, I once again thanked God for blessing us with her.

This is her first day at our home/her new home in 2007

Memoirs

2011-01-25T08:13:00.000-08:00

When a dog barks at the moon, then it is religion; but when he barks at strangers, it is patriotism!

David Starr Jordan

So yesterday someone was talking about how their dog behaves differently to different people for the same situation and I obviously went back to the great old days with Laika.

I was may be in 5th standard while this was happening. We had subscribed for two newspapers at home, one was Hindi Newspaper and the other was Tamil Newspaper (one of the many regional languages of India). Hindi was for dad and Tamil was for mom. These newspaper distributor guys used to come in bi-cycle at different timings and throw newspaper in our road facing balcony and leave. Laika would obviously bark at them as she would take this act of throwing stuff at home as a sign of danger. The fun part was whenever the Hindi newspaper guys used to throw Hindi paper she used to hold the paper in her mouth and bring to Appa but whenever the Tamil newspaper guy do the same thing she will tear the paper into pieces and her face will glow with a sign of relief, satisfaction and proud. We never understood that logic until one day we discovered the truth.

That day we hid and saw when the Hindi newspaper guy came to throw the paper. He threw it and went like anybody would do. Then we stayed to watch the Tamil newspaper guy and we saw that he used to do something unusual and dogs don't welcome unusual things. He used to tease Laika from the road and do some signs that would irritate her and then throw the paper which forced her to behave aggressively with his paper and she would tear it thinking something is not right with this paper or may be she just didn't like that guy and didn't want his paper at our home. After seeing this my dad shouted at him and asked him not to do so and surprisingly Laika stopped tearing the Tamil newspapers and would bring them in her mouth and hand it over to my mom.

All these funny behaviors of Laika urged my husband to get a dog for us also. These silly things might be nothing to people who don't love dogs or are indifferent to dogs. I write this blog exclusively for people who like dogs but don't have one because their spouse is scared of dogs or they themselves are scared of dogs but still like them, or who like dogs and have one. My personal suggestion is read my blog if you want to convince your spouse to get a dog. My blog would be a never ending topic for such people, well mixed with sweet and sour stuff.

Oh, coming back to present, Eesha and Alice have started interacting with each other. I am just waiting for the summers so that we all can have some fun. One of the the great pleasures of having a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not be angry at you or laugh at you but he will make a fool of himself too. That's the reason I guess they say that Dog is the only living being in this world who has seen his God.

The Other side of the coin

2011-01-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

Dogs are animals that poop in public and you're supposed to pick it up. After a week of doing this, you've got to ask yourself, "Who's the real master in this relationship?"

Anthony Griffin

Every day might be a New day but I am sure everyone agrees that not every day is a good day. It was the Thursday before Christmas and we woke up in pretty fun mood not realizing how worse it can become in another 2 hours. After doing our daily chores in the morning I came down to have breakfast. Alice would generally come and say Good Morning in her own way and play softly with Eesha and leave. But that day she didn't. I noticed and assumed she must be tired after the previous day workout with Crissie because she went out after a long time. Crissie doesn't come out too often in winters as she is a short haired Dog and catches cold soon.

So I decided to go see Alice after breakfast. Meanwhile my husband came down and right when I was about to leave, my husband said the bad "S" word and I saw that Alice had pooped on the carpet. Let me remind you she is 3 years old, completely housebroken, potty trained long back and completely understands where to potty and where not to. I was surprised, my husband was in a shock (see the difference between mother and father) I am not in here to describe her poop but frankly speaking it wasn't looking normal. Suddenly I remembered that she didn't come to me in the morning to say Good Morning. I tried to recall when she played with me last time while my husband was busy thinking of ways to clean the mess. He was getting late for office, so was I but at least I was all ready to leave so I took the initiative to clean it. Sounds crazy right "I was all ready for office that's why i could clean and he was not ready yet so he could not" as if you need to get ready and properly dressed up to clean such a mess. Obviously it is not completely gone but a friend suggested to use White vinegar to clean it and it worked very well. I would suggest that to anyone now.

I relaxed and remembered that she didn't come to say me hi the previous evening either when I came back from office. I did not take that seriously but guess she was not well. We stayed with her spoke to her gently; she was highly guilty though. It's funny to describe how she behaves when she is guilty. She will completely lie down on her belly, that's the way she says sorry. We just have to raise our voice a little and she knows her fault. Sometime even that is not required like this time she was just too guilty to come and say Good Morning and didn't look at us in the eye. She was fine a little later.

This was the other side of the coin but I choose to ignore this as this becomes void as you look at the previous side of the coin.

The Bonding

2010-12-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

No symphony orchestra ever played music like a two-year-old girl laughing with a puppy.

Bern Williams

So Eesha is now 8 months old and Alice is 3 years and they have started reacting to each other. We keep reading about these articles where Dog's aggressive behavior lead to child's death and honestly speaking statistics show that most of the dogs who behave this way are either medium or large breed dogs and the kids are generally 5 or under. So we are not very confortable leaving Eesha anywhere around Alice unsupervised unless we have locked child gates though it hurts to think that way and it hurtthe most on that beautiful day when Alice showed her concern for Eesha,

The other day we were all upstairs with Alice. Eesha had fallen asleep on her hi-chair in kitchen so we left her there. Oh by the way this is the same day when our painter was in and Alice accompanied us upstairs with him. So, on our way down, she was behind me and my husband when suddenly Eesha started making some sounds as if she was about to cry, guess she suddenly realized that no one was around. We knew she was doing this because she realized she was alone so we didn't hurry to reach her as we were already on our way but what was surprising was Alice pushed us hard on the stairs and ran towards Eesha . The child gate didn't let her get inside the kitchen but she at least made it to the kitchen where Eesha could see her. Obviously that didn't mean anything to Eesha but it meant a lot to Alice. So when I appeared she gave me the look as if trying to say "I have made sure nothing is wrong".

It's very important that they have bonding with each other and we try to do that every time they are together. We are eagerly waiting for the winters to be over so that Eesha can have some fun with Alice and also Alice can have some fun with herself. Meanwhile you guys can have some fun watching how my lovely dog searches for me when she know knows I am still somewhere around but not visible.

Man's Best Friends

2010-12-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

If you don't own dogs, not even one, then there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.

Roger Caras

So I am back with "my" dog news

So let me start this post with a new name Fyisty; she is Alice's biological sister. We met her in October 2007, when we went to see Alice for the very first time. She is a nice dog and very protective. How we knew, so here is the story.

She was playing with her owner when we reached there. As soon as we reached, she realized someone has come to meet them and became alert but did not bark at us. She was sticking like a tail with her owner whole time, while we were talking to him. We asked him why is she not barking at us? Is she trained not to bark or is she not barking because you are with us, becasue the kind of German Shepherd I was used to (Laika) barks at everyone who is not "blood related". Well things are different here I knew. So the owner explained "She is not barking because she doesn't find you harmful. At this moment you are having a friendly conversation with me. The moment you raise your voice or show any signs of harming me like raising your hands or touching me, she can read my discomfort and will show her true colors then!!" Pretty scary to stand beside a dog with that type of feelings...though we were not upto something like that :)

Now coming back to present, over the weekend we requested our interior painter to give us a visit/quote etc as we wanted to get our house painted this year. He came to our home around 8:00PM on Friday. He was pretty friendly because he is actually someone from our community and Alice knows him very well. She sees him all the time around like when we go out for walks or when he comes around our cul-de-sac. To tell you how much she knows him, let me tell you another story in short. Once we were at office and she was playing with the neighbor's dog in their fenced backyard, the gate was not locked properly which opened with wind and these dogs were obviously on a "Dogs day out" or who knows might have been "Dogs DAYS out". Fred saw them suddenly near the other end of the community while he was returning from somewhere. He recognized them and brought them back in his pick up truck and left them in our neighbor's backyard. I must tell that was pretty close to losing her or who knows she might have come back by herself. But anyway so she knows him very well and welcomes him in the cul-de-sac always. But this was the first time he was coming inside our home while she was there. And I have to tell you how efficiently she made sure that she was there ALL THE TIME BETWEEN HIM AND US for our protection even though she was so friendly with him. She didn't leave us for one second. She is generally not allowed upstairs but that day she just followed us where ever we went with him. But what was funny was she probably didn't want him to feel bad (in case he doesn't turn out to be "bad guy") about what she is thinking so she was playing with him in between a couple of times.

Unfortunately I was just too engrossed with the painter and the painting and failed to notice this beautiful moment until my husband pointed it out after the painter left.

Now, THAT was a lovely feeling to know that someone is there for me even if no one is there.

There forever...

2010-12-08T09:17:00.000-08:00

With eye upraised his master's look to scan, The joy, the solace, and the aid of man: The rich man's guardian and the poor man's friend, The only creature faithful to the end

-George Crabbe

Last night I was watching this movie "Marley and Me" for the 100th time and it filled my eyes with tears as we approached towards the climax. I felt like murdering the director of this movie. For some reason he had to show that Marley died in the end but he could have as well shown that he ended up in heaven thus bringing him to life in another world because that's where all dogs end up . Love that movie still.

It reminds me of Laika, my childhood German shepherd. She died on September 24th 1996. She had been a very healthy dog till she was 10 but as she approached her old age things started changing. I remember days when she was unable to climb the stairs, we used to carry her to the second floor once she was done with her business. She used to cooperate so well in troubles also. When she was 9 she was suffering from Pneumonia and Doctor gave her an injection but told us the truth He had absolutely no hopes that she will make it through the night. We couldn't sleep that night with the thought of not being able to see her alive next day. But she survived and went on for another one year. We thought the problem is solved but actually the problems had just begun. She started catching cold cough very frequently, her body was not supporting her.

In general she always preferred to be around us (My sister and I). She would come to our study room in the night and sit beside our chairs while we were studying. We were scared of being alone in night but when she was around we had no fear. She will stay with us till we are not done with what we are doing and will walk out with us when we are done. Nobody taught her to do all this, she just had it in her. She would never leave us and go away. She was very brave and would leave no stone unturned if she sees any danger around us.

So that night we were preparing for our exam for the next day and she came and lied down in our study room as usual. We noticed her and continued to study. Soon it was time to sleep, so we bid her goodnight and she did too with wet eyes. We came to the bedroom to sleep, not knowing that was her last night with us....she passed away that night. We came to know early morning when we came to see her. It was again me and my sister who saw in the morning that she didn't move from there after we bid her goodnight. We touched her and her body was stiff like a rock. Probably she expired immediately after she bid us goodnight...

She didn't realize she took 11 years of our life with her and now we are just left with memories as we buried her in our hearts....

Coming back to present, today morning when i got up and saw Alice, I was so glad that she is a part of our lives and helps me to keep alive the memories of Laika. I played with her a little in the morning before I left for office and I must say everyday she becomes more adorable than the previous day...

Look how she tries to hide from me

As they are growing...

2010-12-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.

Our daughter Eesha is now 8 months old and Alice is 3 yrs. It's so much fun to watch them grow together. Alice plays quite safe when Eesha comes in front of her and in fact Eesha is the one whom we have to control all the time to avoid any accidents. Having a dog is such a nice feeling and I realized it when I was a kid. I had my first German shepherd, Laika when I was a kid and it was then I realized that there are so many good things to learn from a dog and that's when I decided that when my baby is growing up I must have a dog.

Laika was a very sweet dog. She was aggressive with anyone who was not "blood" related to us, at least that is what we concluded because she used to bark for closest of our friends but will wag her tail for farthest of our relatives (family related ones) I am still not sure how she understood who is relative and who is friend. Even if the relative is visiting us for the first time in life she would wag her tail. Guess she smells our blood in them :) She was loyal sweet protective a doll and a monster at times. She would not allow any one to cross the road in front of our house. Thank goodness we lived in second floor.

We were simple middle class people with a small one bedroom house, so we didn't have any place for her inside so she used to stay outside and guard whole night. Temperatures in that part of the world would never go down below 60, so she was always safe outside. But one day we realized the fear of having her outside when she saved us from a snake. We were not at home and she was tied outside in the balcony. While we were approaching towards the home after parking our two wheeler in front of the house that night, she started barking suddenly. She would never do that normally. She will always jump and welcome us from far itself. But her bark was aggressive this time and it became worse every second. We were confused and didn't understand. My dad got some hint and asked us to stay far and we went far from there but could still see her aggressive behavior. It was night time around 11:00PM and nothing was visible on the grass. Finally we saw something blue glittering in the dark and that's when we realized that there is a snake and Laika was trying to warn us. My dad managed to kill that snake with a stick with the help of our neighbor and we could see the happiness on Laika's face. We were so proud of her.

No doubt, Alice reminds me of her. I would love to spend my life with dogs, and I look forward to learning many of their traits, especially being patient and being there when you need.

Happy Friday!

The Healing Power of dogs

2010-12-02T17:11:00.000-08:00

Dogs have always had special standing in the medical world. Trained to see for the blind, hear for the deaf and move for the immobilized, dogs have become indispensable companions for people with disabilities.-NY Times

Yesterday our daughter started crying suddenly for no reason, at least that's what we thought. We tried to make her quite, gave her toys to play, shifted her from dad's hand to grandma's hands to mom's hand. But it seemed like she was troubled with something that none of us could figure out.She was thinking about the same thing constantly and was crying again and again after a pause of couple of seconds.

My last option to try with her was my sweet female dog Alice who can put a smile on any crying baby's face unless he or she is scared of dogs. Then Alice was sleeping in her room. She had just come back from the neighbor's backyard after a long hectic day of fun but as soon as we went to her, she saw my daughter and started responding with happiness and acknowledged that we came to meet her. And to my surprise my daughter got diverted and started laughing once I brought her in front of Alice and Alice started jumping as we played with her. As usual she was always ready to entertain.

Sometimes we don't understand what kind of healing power these animals might have for the most serious things that upset us in our life that too especially dogs. For the umpteenth time in my life I have agreed to the fact that dogs are much more than just four legged animals. Research tells that dog owners pay 40% less doctor visits than non dog owners. I am not sure how true this is but one thing I can say for sure is that after a lifetime of regard for dogs and many years of attachment, I have reached to the conclusion that dogs definitely feel more, feel more intensely and feel more purely than I do (I am not going to speak for other people). I know that she will be always there when we need her but unfortunately we don't understand every time when she needs us...

Journey from little to huge

2010-12-01T14:38:00.000-08:00

One reason a dog can be such a comfort when you're feeling blue is that he/she doesn't try to find out why...

I am a dog lover, and had always wanted one after we lost the one I had grown up with.It was very difficult to convince my husband to get a dog.Finally he got convinced. Thanks to my excellent marketing skills!!

Finally Alice came home in November 2007.

She was our first German Shepherd. It took her some time to get adjusted with the place and us of course but that happened quickly and pretty soon we all were in track. The first few months while we were struggling to potty train her were tough but it was all worth it. Now that she was growing up, she needed a friend to play with her all the time. German shepherds by nature are very high energy dogs, irrespective of that everyone needs friends.She needed one too. We were very happy to play with her for 4-5 months but as soon as she grew up BIG, she had so much energy that we had to figure out something to have all that energy spent everyday. Luckily our neighbors too had a female dog, a lab mix. Our dog became friends with her. Did I tell mention they had a fenced backyard too? Oh Thank Goodness they did, so the problem was solved. Days passed by and she turned ONE. We invited all our close friends for her first birthday. I baked a cake, decorated the place for a party and we celebrated her birthday just like we would have done for our baby.She was a baby, she still is one though she turned 3 this October.

We didn't realize how much we got used to her. I remember times when I was sad and she sat by me just like a good friend who would listen and understand my troubles. I remember the chilly morning of January we spent with her outside in the front yard because we got locked outside the home and she was just 2 months old. I remember getting sweater for her for her first winter. She has taught me the meaning of devotion. With her I know a secret comfort and a private peace. She is hurt when I leave her alone. The later I come home, the happier she is. She promises to stand by me in prosperity, poverty, good health and sickness. She promises to wait and watch for me until I am safe. Her presence by my side protects my fears against dark and unknown things. She searches for me when she knows I am there but not in front of her eyes. I am glad to have her and fear to loose her.

She has set the bar of loyalty for me. Her love for us is unconditional and beyond our imagination.

She is more affectionate than anything else in this world, even more than our own baby. I promised to myself today that she is always going to be my eldest daughter in every sense.

Looking forward to play with her over the weekend. Must be fun.