To my precious friend.
Tags: Pet Love, Dogs, Sad, Pets, Family

I have always wanted one. We were in the city and that too in a rental, so there was never a chance. There was enough space for just three people. That wasn’t the only reason. Circumstances didn’t allow us to have one nor there will be time to take care of it. But this all changed and a chance appeared this last year. We were back in the village. I was staying with my mother after my college for a brief period of time. We have our own place and most of them here had one. One for each home. The guardian angel — A dog.

It was around the month of July, a relative of mine had a dog that gave birth to five puppies. Two females and three males. As soon as the news reached my ears, I went up to see them all. Like many places here, people always giveaway the puppies to others who are interested in taking them as the mother wouldn’t take care after some time and they all end up stray. Another reason is that there is always one house that needs one, even though almost everyone has one. We didn’t have one either. This time all the conditions were favorable. Place-Check. Time to take care-Check. People to show love-Double check.

So, I rushed to the place and to the owner, who is also a relative, managed to distract the mother from the place and took her away. She wouldn’t leave them initially but after some time she left. The puppies were kept under a sheet of dry coconut tree leaves which was serving as a roof sitting upon very small concrete pillars. There was just enough gap for the mother and the puppies to come out and go inside. An average human can at most extend their hands through the gaps. The insides looked dark but also seemed like a small comfortable home. I could see two of them sleeping and three others slowly crawling outside. Each one of them was not more than the size of my inner palm. My eyes laid on one which appeared to be a light brown-biscuit color. It was not even walking but crawling slow and steady. Their legs were so small their tummies were touching the ground. There were all round and fluffy. Now, there is this belief here that the number of nails a puppy has, the louder it barks. Obviously, I didn’t care but that was one of the main eligibility criteria around here. I informed the person that I’ll come after a month and take the light brown-biscuit colored one. Mother milk-strong. I went back home and told them it had twenty nails.

It was almost a month. They would’ve been grown a little by now. At least that’s what I was expecting. I went again to see them. They were slightly bigger than my palm now. I took the one I chose to home. It was still crawling with its tummy a little higher than the ground. The ground clearance still needed work. I told my parents that I was going to return it back and take it after some time. I felt it was too soon to leave the mother. Half a month passed and the relative himself brought it our place. He told us that it keeps running and if it were to go somewhere it might get lost. This was the right time. That night, we welcomed the fourth member of our family.

From the next day onwards, the home had a feeling of a child’s presence. Much like for a child, there was a lot of time consumed for deciding a name. I was the deciding person, but at the same time, I wanted it to be easily pronounceable for the people there. After numerous possibilities of combinations, I settled for the name Yuuki meaning precious friend combining their kanji equivalents.

Mom doesn’t like puppies inside the house. I was taking Yuuki everywhere. I have seen a lot of memes that say the father is the one who says no to dogs but once they are brought home, it’s always the dad and the dog who becomes the close friends. I didn’t believe until I saw it. Days passed, Yuuki grew a little. There were two small incidents that took place shortly after. Every morning mom used to wake up early to do the outside work. Yuuki would always follow her wherever she goes. On one such early morning, mom closed the gates so that Yuuki wouldn’t come outside and when she came in, it went outside the gate. Unknowingly, she closed the gates but still knew that he was outside. After sometime when she got busy with work we forgot that he was not there anymore. Now, dogs always run somewhere but they come back home. Yuuki was two months old pup. He ran off somewhere. We searched for over half a day until the neighbor asked us if we wanted a puppy they found in their fields. They were not aware we had one already. Yuuki went on and slept in their fields. From that day onwards, mom used to say nothing when Yuuki sleeps inside the home. She was glad that he was still there. The second was totally on me. While Yuuki was sitting on my lap, he tried to jump off me and I didn’t stop him. The result was him landing on his weak legs and then his face hit the ground. He was yelping. I ran to him and held his limb to rub them softly. He was continuously yelping for a long time. That night I was so frustrated on myself for not being able to take care of him. From the next day onwards he was normal. Those were the possibly two big incidents that happened for us and him.

Months passed, I was back to the city for a few months. He had grown really well by then. We bought a collar for his color. I used to take him for walks. We would run to the ends of the road. He always goes after sniffing for cow dungs and it is a drag to pull him from that. Bad Yuuki. I used to sneak on him whenever he is sleeping. He would have no idea when I’m near him. But then when his instincts will finally kick in, he would slowly open his eyes and give his front paw to me which almost means like — “I’m sleeping hooman. Let’s play some other time. But I still like you, so here is my paw. Take hold of it.” As much as cliched it sounds, all my worries fade when I see and play with Yuuki. He is a hyperactive pup who runs first to take a taste of my fingers. And that is when he’s not sleeping. When he is disturbed during sleep, there is always the “play with my paw mode”. More time passed, we played a lot, ran together, ate together, had fun together.

It was the first week of 2020 and I had to leave for my job. I know I will be missing him. But there was no other way. It’s been almost over a month and a half by now. I used to hear him whenever I call my parents. He was as energetic as ever. I was planning to go back to see him after my first set of exams get over. It was only two weeks away. Silly how my parents used to ask me to come home once in a while and I would get excited thinking of meeting Yuuki more than my parents.

I was going to my classes, as usual, that morning (12/02) when I called my father. We were talking and then he said that Yuuki wasn’t feeling well. I asked him to brief. He explained to me that Yuuki wasn’t feeling well for the past two days and was vomiting blood. They didn’t know what happened but it was well the night before. But the problem started the next day. They called the doctor. Injections, IV, etc., were given and treated for the past two days. Before my father hung the call, he told these words — “polaikardhu kashtam dhaan” meaning “He might not live”. It was so sudden it felt very unreal. I told him to not worry about it. I was worried too but was more confident that nothing would happen to Yuuki. Later that night I was returning back to my hostel when my mom called. She said that she was calling from her new phone that I gifted her. I was glad. And then she went on to ask if I knew.

To which I replied, “yes, what is the current situation?”

“Yuuki is gone.”

I couldn’t believe what I just heard. I sat down right there on the footpath. I didn’t know what to say. She kept on speaking about the doctor, and it was some virus that affected Yuuki, or it was an ulcer. They buried him this morning. The more I listened the less it made sense.

After two restless days, he had milk that morning. Then mom took him outside where he started walking slowly and then he sat down to close his eyes. That was it.

The most frustrating part was that I couldn’t even correctly figure out what was the cause. There is this just one line they keep repeating — “Doctor said it was some virus”. Also, this happened just after I spoke to my father that morning. But then they didn’t say this to me till I returned back from my classes. I was living unaware for a day that Yuuki was already dead. They were worried about me. Dad cried. Mom cried. I, cannot cry. Not while they are. I am yet to talk to Dad. I sat there at the footpath for a few minutes. I came to my room to keep my bag and went outside again. I called my cousin and talked to him. I texted a friend and she called me back. We talked a lot. It helped in getting me distracted for the next two hours. But as soon as I hung up all the calls and went to my bed, it all came back. I was just two weeks away from meeting him. All that six months of togetherness, all of the memory I had of him, flashed before my eyes. I took my phone and scrolled through all his photos. I wanted to write. I wanted to write everything that came to my mind. Everything in mind was about Yuuki. Writing had always made me feel better. But ending this now isn’t making me feel any better. Closing my eyes anytime now is not giving me sleep but his face.

I saw everyone in my life until this point as a character to my story. Every being was a character study and every being has its own story. This is the story of the fourth member of our family, Yuuki. You will always be missed, but never forgotten.

A long good night from the now again youngest member of the family. Dad and mom miss you.