PETA family in my view is incomplete without a pet. A pet is just a nomenclature bestowed upon the miracle remedy for stress. We had one. One which made my life and my family's remember the patch of green in our stretch.
The name is scooby. My best friend for a reason. He never says no to my hugs, songs, guess what anything in my domain of torture :-) .
The Instance of Thought
It all started with my pal Karthik wanting to bring home his second pup, having just lost his first one. Decisions important in life are just a bookmark of destiny. Mine was too. The thought to get my own pup made me so anxious. Picking him was instantaneous. A choice was never so easy for me.
Operation Scooby Doo
All this with a couple of my family members hypo allergic to the thought and just that. When I started counting the money i had saved for no reason from previous year's festivities, running short of hitting the mark was obvious. 800 bucks was a big thing for a 11th standard school guy.
I had just sneaked into my mom's purse a day earlier with a successful hunt for a 30 bucks.
A girl in a family is always a good source of financing, especially the youngest. I was lucky enough to have one avtar, my Sister.
The 200 odd bucks were in in no time.
Step 2, how do you bring in this new member without even informing the pillars of the family?
The old trick up the sleeve was to turn to stubbornness. Ofcourse, with the confidence that no one would say no to a cute thing like Scooby.
Step 3, when is the auspicious time of entry? It is always better to bring the merchandise in during the absence of vigil than to repent and reason in their presence.
A day when my mom would move out to the temple was chosen. I dont know whether i could ascertain my plan and execute it better than the way I executed "Operation Scooby Doo".
My mother came back home to be greeted by a small white ball with legs. A first glance will always make people mistake it for a doll. This gets followed by the surprises and shrills for people hosting a pet at home first time.
I had guessed it right. The reason to fight to have him in vanished at that instance. Still, the animal thing kept my mom and my cousin Jaggu away from the pup for some time.
My First Home
A small house with big hearted people was my home then. It was called the "Saravana Illam". It was a two level building. Watching scooby run up and down the narrow cement stairs was a pleasure and delight.
A dog was my fascination and my grandma's nightmare. Not because she had a phobia, but the possible diseases list that the pet brings along. I first resorted to a government vetenary hospital.
The Distemper and Rabbies Vaccinations in his thigh and my handling placing his neck on my shoulders, affirming him comfort and safety only bonded us more.
He helped me discover motherhood when i regularly fed him daily doses of tonics for Calcium and Liver functioning. Probably only thing i regularly did for a long time, next to sleeping.
Back at home, the saturday activity for the whole family was to bath this little rascal. Pronounce "Scoobo Kulikkalama" meaning "Scooby take bath", he reaches the furthest corners beneath the cot or he simply locks his legs and displays his protest to this anti diplomatic procedure.
Taking bath is an assurance for his ration of special biscuits and chocolates at the end of his torment. So he focuses on reaping the results and that is when you get to shake hands with him, his gentle posture to clean his foot. Reach back to his butt and he gets uncomfortable. May be a soft spot for him.
Atleast twice, he makes sure you get wet by shaking his whole body vigorusly . Then up he goes to the terrace. Two towels and some fun. Me at one end and his teeth at the other, we flux our muscles in snatching the towel for ourselves. Aggression is a split personality of this guy only seen during this. The result, new towels once every couple of months.
The combing operation on his long white attractive hair starts with lot of pit stops. Pet Maintanance was a new thing we were learning at home.
My Experiments with Scooby
I had my share of the "Thirupathi velai" - a term coined based on the barbers at Tirupati who tonsure but not perfectly. It was peak summer and Trichy being a pretty hot and dry place, made us decide over giving scooby a trim.
Beauty is skin deep. Ya, I scaled it totally. Scooby was skin exposed. But only on one side. Sincerely that is one of the worst things i have done on Scooby. But poor fellow, never complained. Coz, for him i was the god father.
Through all these, with me was my friend Sathya aka Sathiyamoorthy. He mentored scooby to climb my TVS XL super with rear legs on the rubber mat and the forelegs on the Gas tank.
Till date, it was my pride to take scooby with me on my rides.
People say love is blind. Love at times also is left unexpressed. The day was a week end. I, as usual had took scooby and left without informing, to my pal Karthik's. I was surprised to learn after coming back that my grandma, who till date never touched the poor guy had combed the whole of beemanagar to find him.
Kiruba the Idiot
Then came my worst of moves. One for which till date, as a matured marriage ready bachelor, i repent. I took scooby to the Govt. Vetenary Hospital and sterilized him. The sedation he had and the after days till now, make me feel for it. Every time scooby barks at a passer by dog, it only interprets me to be scooby's anger to the teasings by the strays of his potency. My advice to the reader is, Please do not snatch what is his right to reproduce.
I still laugh at the artificial insemination done on the cows that we rear at Salem in my farm house. It makes no sense. Is the animal not worth its share of pleasure? May be a Planet of Apes thing if happens and we are considered as lowly, our view may change. I should wait till I have my say on such a thing.
Scooby was never the same again. He grew more agile and he would show aggresion more often and so on. That was when we planned and started building our new home at Srirangam. We did our house warming by 2000 but were in it only by 2001. I still remember the rage i was in when my dad denied access to Scooby since a cow entering home was auspicious and a must. I had to leave scooby Home alone at Beemanagar For the first time. I remember angrily taking scooby in an Auto rickshaw from Srirangam to Beemanagar and putting him in and coming out, all when he watched me in despair, possibly thinking that we are dumping him and moving on. People overrun their love and affection for the sake of a few procedures, which are supposed to make us feel better, but often working opposite.
In the mean time, our Malaysia trips to visit Dad were of big concern. A Two month seperation did not affect us too much with the things we had in store at Malaysia. But, it did affect this little fellow.
Every year, we would come back to see a skinny sad guy who was different from what he was, when we left. Reason, atleast he felt the seperation.
Move to Srirangam
The Next thing was, Scooby had a bigger home ,a compound to mark his territory , without his scent, but later, to sustain under competition, he regularly did mark our home with his scent.
We had moved up the financial ladder and the exposure limit and scooby switched from the regular diet of rice and milk to pedigree.
The one new person who got added to scooby's healthy life was Dr. Loganathan. Scooby, never went to a doctor again. Coz, he came down to take care of Scooby. He had regular visits. We have never gone beyond allopathy for our sake. Guess what, Scooby was first in our home to take Homeopathy. Thanks to the doc.
The first big loss I had in my life was my Grandfather Mr. Kandasamy. He had politely lived his life and left us with a huge dent. He always wanted to see us in the big house and unfortunately never got his chance to do that. Scooby starred at the Ice box with no idea. He then matched the ice box with point of no return. He too in his own way gave his salutations to my Grandma when she took her turn in the ice box.
Me to Bangalore
Life moved smoothly then. I did the soul search and landed in a mediocre job with a mediocre salary at Bangalore and a fortnight was the maximum time i was away from Trichy. As days passed, my Dad went West to the OPEC's and my sister got her M.Tech seat in Chennai.
My Brother
Being alone is one thing good for soul search. Being alone is also one huge reason for people turning insane. Especially for those who never stayed seperate. My mom was undergoing that phase in my second year of work at bangalore. We had just lost our grandma. The only member besides mom at our home.
We were scattered with no immediate possibility of gelling together.
My mom was alone. I feared the worst. She will drain the will to live without her mom who was her soul support. But i learnt in a month's time that it wasn't so.
What is the duty of a son? Giving money? my Dad, from his rags has reached riches that i am a dummy at home, for which i am proud of.
Giving unconditional love? That sounds familiar. But with limited talk time under the STD Corporate scheme of the blood sucking Cellular service provider and the work pressure, i could limit the so called Unconditional love to my mom to just a few minutes every day.
Then came the enlightment of the reason for my mom's happiness. There was another guy in my place showering her unconditional love. Cuddling her every morning, eating with her, keep driving her to a walk or to bath him or to brush his hair, etc., Yes. For the first time, I realized that my mom can be without me or my sister. She had her son in the form of this fox bred german Terrier, evolved to be polite and handsome.
Yes, This is when i realized he is a brother to me.
Then came the Logan
We kept leaping up the ladder and it was time for our next big buy. A car. A Logan buzzed all our minds and so it was. An entry level sedan for the first car buyer, My dad.
Scooby found himself comfortable in the rear seat, with only the window as his option. He would cuddle in my mom's lap and rest for a while before snacking on the murukku and biscuits and the duty free chocolates my dad brings. Then up he sits watching the road as though he has to blog it that evening.
His Decline
Long journeys would usually be filled with breaks in some motels or dhaba's. We take turns since he is not the same in the eye of the hotel owner. He will be assured a scoop of icecream before getting back on track.
Scooby started getting older. We did not take long time to realize that. He developed respiratory problems.
We, for one time in our life had an opportunity to stay together as family again. I grabbed it and joined a company at Chennai. Dad, now a freelance consultant simply based himself out of chennai. And miraculously, here we are in chennai all five of us. But not for long.
A dog's Lifespan is 10 Years. Anything more is luck. We , under given living conditions predicted a healthy two digit for this guy. Man proposes, God.....
I, for the first time, went to the land of opportunities. for a training for 90 days. He was there to send me off. I told him one last thing. "Hey you stay alive till I come back".
It was 3'O clock in the early morning. I am a deep sleeper. I dont often wake up from sleep. I did then. It was scooby. He Kept running away from me. The dream was so real.
Then i controlled my anxiety and pulled back my bed sheet. Only to be awakened by the ring of the phone by 4 AM. It was a broken voice. The emotion was so. My sister said "Scooby is no more." The time was 1:30 PM when he died. "3:00AM US CT - 1: 30 PM IST".
He had made sure he survived the travel to Trichy. He covered each square feet of my home. The whole compound. Finally, rested for ever in his favourite place. His eyes were closed only when my sister returned from her university exams.
I was surprised to know that my dad cried a couple of days after scooby left us. He is emotionally strong. Only till then. I cried for the next couple of days. First time for me, US was insignificant and I longed to be in Chennai.
Now he rests, in our garden, under the shades of our garden. Manuring the trees. He still wets our cornea once in a while.
He paid me his visit. I dont beleive in ghosts or demons. But, on angels, Yes. Especially this one.
His back scratching on my pillow when i lie on floor watching TV to pat him,
His invites every evening at home, mainly to get his share of my snacks,
His love to me despite me ruining his life,
His travel experiences to beaches, boat rides etc., etc.,
His hair, flying all around even now,
His ear wax, which i used to clean,
His anger communication to piss in the sofa when angry on us,
His dignity not to eat marie biscuit and to eat only good day/ cream biscuit,
The tip of iceberg is here. I cannot express how important he is in our lives.
Scooby is a good brother and he has always made our lives so good.
No other dog can replace his place. This blog is just a sample of my part of the story.
Hope all get a chance to live the life we lived with a brother like scooby.
Scooby - May your soul rest in peace.
- Kirubakaran Velswamy
