Nature & Animals….. - HereNow4U.net

Animal Crusaders • Commemorative Issue • October 2010Sense & SensibilityIn our family, the tradition ofkeeping pets as family membershas been inspired by my mother.In her paternal house there usedto be varied animals as pets, andbeing the youngest, Radharani,my mother had the principalresponsibility and interest in theirupkeep. But her own preferencewas the cats. Later on, at theinstance of my brothers, the dogswere included. My eldest brotherwas a doctor in the army, he wasgifted a Tibetan Chow dog by aTibetan Buddhist monastery in1969, in appreciation of his freemedical service to the villagers inthe Ladakh region. He namedhim Mickey. As he was to moveon to another strategic locationdue to Bangladesh liberation warof 1971, Mickey was left in mymother’s care and became ourfirst family dog! All our22Radharani with Minisubsequent family-dogs arenamed after him.....to never lethim fade away!Like every story, our family’s petlovealso has a preamble! I was achild of six then. As my father wasan engineer in the army we wereprovided with a large armybungalow in the midst of greensin Ranchi. During our stay theretwo local mongrel puppiesappeared from nowhere andgradually became part of ourhousehold. They would go aroundfreely but keep coming back formeals and stay put near the maingate of the bungalow duringnights. Tommy & Kalu wouldMickeyI am the family face;Flesh perishes, I live on,Projecting trait and traceThrough time to times anon,And leaping from place to placeOver oblivion. ~ Thomas Hardyreadily respond to my mother, bytheir name she had given. Myfather was on the verge of transferand would be busy till late. It wasWar-time in 1945. One of ourorderlies Shanischara’s job was totake me and my younger sisterfor daily evening strolls andTommy & Kalu would be a part ofthe entourage.One incident of an evening hasbecome indelible in my memory,as my mother narrated it sographically! On our way back fromthe evening stroll we got caughtinto a hailstorm and heavydownpour. Shanischara took usto a house on the way, waiting forthe weather to become normal.Tommy & Kalu were around allthrough. Once the storm subsideda little, Tommy left abruptly, butKalu remained with us. By thattime my mother was worried, wasalready on the verge of breakingdown. When my father cameback, he set out in search, rightaway. Tommy came out fromnowhere and started followinghim. After a while Tommy startedpulling him by his trousers toindicate the ‘right’ way to wherewe were, and my father took thehint and started following Tommy.After going a distance theystopped, as Tommy startedhowling in front of a house andsure enough Kalu took three ofus out of that house even beforefather could call us out. That day,