Writing 101: Day 13 – When Winnie Met Us

Hello, folks! I know this is supposed to be a “serially” post to pick up from where we left off from Day 4. But what I wrote on that day (on losing my faith), left me few options as to how I would continue it in a “found” context.  And anyway, that would be too boring for ya’ll to read. So today I chose to focus on a better thing – of finding love! Don’t worry, this is not a story of my romantic love, it’s something much better – the purest, most unconditional love you’ll find anywhere. It’s our pet dog.

*Drum roll please*

Presenting, the one and only – WINNIE, the diva! 

To start at the beginning, we literally found her. Very cliched, probably, but we did find her on a rainy night – alone straddled next to a garbage can. She was only a couple of weeks old by then, a tiny puppy with a confused face. You would have definitely missed her if she hadn’t been wailing continuously. She’s got black fur on her back so she blended nicely into that starless night.

It was my brother who actually dared to bring her back home, because out parents up until then weren’t very favorable of having pets inside the house. But it really rained pretty hard that day, so even though mum and dad weren’t very happy with it, they let her stay for that night. Me and my siblings were overjoyed to have such a cutie-pie in our hands. (Really, I wish I had photos of when she was younger to show you, but she was simply a ball of cuteness overload). She isn’t even of a fancy pedigree breed, she’s just a street dog (they’re called Indian Native Dogs). But it didn’t matter to us. So anyway, the night passes, the next morning had been nice and sunny and clear. We were still clutching on to her, playing with her, feeding her milk – but mum had already had a disapproving expression on her face. Dad was ambivalent. He didn’t know whose side to take.

To cut the long story short, we did succeed in getting her to stay with us for a couple more days. She was very frail and starved that we couldn’t just let her go. She was pretty scared of us at first, too, and always hid under the bed unless she was being fed. But slowly, a lot of things changed. She took to us, Mum started to like her, Dad started to take her on walks, and each one of us were pretty overwhelmed with the kind of love that was being showered on us. Two days became a week. A week became a month. I had the honors of naming her Winnie, finally (after a string of failed Indian girlie names). Eight years later, she’s still rocking our world every moment!

Winnie is the ultimate mistress of panache, the brand ambassador of oomph. She’s probably not the brightest dog around (still doesn’t know how to fetch!), but is she amazing! We have finally decided that you cannot have a single bad photograph of her.

They see me glancing, they deciphering…

It wasn’t very easy of course. It had been our first time experience with a pet and we were surprised by how much care they actually need. Getting her vaccinated was the worst. Like all little babies, she was terrified of syringes. She loved riding in the car though, with her head held out the window, taking in the wind and barking gleefully at stranger folk, but the moment we approached the veterinary hospital, she used to duck under the car seat (Dogs have a way of sensing these things, I suppose). But you gotta do what you gotta do; we were sorry for her, the way she used to wail when we constricted her forcefully on the hospital bed for getting the vaccination done. She’s still the same, the fear of syringes has never really left her.

When I look back, it feels almost impossible to imagine these past years without Winnie. She became the center of attraction and the topic of discussion almost every single day. She loves when people surround her and hates when people fight in front of her. And inevitably, she brought our family a bit closer together.

Here’s a little photo gallery!

Her favorite vantage point!

Oooh! Whadcha doin!

Winnie in winter!

Just thinking…dog things…

When she finally became a Mother!!