From the sound of a pigeon flapping its wings to the sound of the milk van delivering milk, each and every sound in the 350 meter radius is audible to me. I sometimes even hear the sound of the snoring watchmen guarding my building. I feel pity on my homeless stray friends down, who do a better job of guarding the building than the watchmen who is sleeping. By god's grace we have good sense of sound and smell.
I am PUNCH RAGHUNATHAN, the Bull terrier. I am little over 2 dog years old which is like 14 human years old. So you can say that I am at the peak of my teenage. These are my days of joy.
Walking is a human's best medicine (i am not educated enough to tell who said this sentence, so I don't know). The person should rewrite this sentence as "Walking is a living being's best medicine." Early morning walks are so awesome! I always look forward to it as I can answer the call of nature, whether nature is actually calling or not. Irrespective of the day, I want to walk and wake up as early as possible. I go jump and start licking all my family members who are sleeping so that I can go for a walk. I have a wish of walking without a leash. But unfortunately, I am so naughty that my master Avinash is sure I will end up causing havoc on the streets by trying to jump on people and on my street friends who are normally sleeping peacefully. Hope one day this wish comes true. I walk as fast as possible dragging whoever walks me. It’s a brisk walk for me as well as my walker. I always decide how much distance I need to walk and always follow the traffic rules by walking on the left side of the road. One more thing about my love for early morning walks are the fewer cars parked on the roadside as well as less traffic. After returning home I drink a lot of water. Love the way my legs are dirty but unfortunately cannot keep them dirty. So my legs are cleaned with a damp cloth or sometimes Avi end up washing my legs.
My favorite place of time pass is the bedroom window where i can see my building friends playing downstairs or fighting with other building dogs. I feel jealous as they have ample space to play around but sometimes I pity them because they have to fight for their survival. I can sit on the window for long hours seeing my friends play or kids playing football or people going to schools, colleges and offices.
As time passes, my pet friends start coming down for their walks. Romeo, Tyson, Akatsu, Pebbles, Caspy, Simba (RIP Simba I used to love fighting with him but never had any bad feelings towards him) These are some of my pet friends in my building and there are others outside the building too who i meet during my walks.
Blacky, Whitey, Browny, Rio, Bamby, Dharam are my stray friends. They always come to play with me whenever I go down. They always follow me wherever I go but I never cross their jurisdiction. The way they drool over me makes me feel a bit superior but in the end they are my friends. I hate to see pigeons sitting on the window and try to shoo them away from my house. I always bark even if they sit on the rain protector sheet on the window.
Fatigue kicks in early due to walking, watching my friends, barking at pigeons and all. My stray friends, when they sleep, dig a bit to sleep, so I also try to do the same. But the only difference is, they sleep on mud and I on the sofa. I only end up moving the sofa cover a bit and sleep. I am not completely asleep; my eyeballs keep moving and looking at what is happening around. If someone rings the bell I am up on my guard again immediately, ready to pounce on the person who is coming in. The Safety door in my house is only the thing that protects them from me. If it is someone from my family, then I am soooo happy and excited, I just wait for the door to open. I pounce on them till they cuddle and hug me.
I do not have a fixed schedule of eating. I eat only when i am hungry. My appetite is good as i have a lot of exercise. Food varies from dog food, curd rice, ice cream, biscuits and at times roti with some Vegetables. I love to eat Bananas, Grapes and Water melons.
I play, run and jump whenever possible and am a part time skater too. Rubber and Tennis balls are my favorites as I can tear them in no time. In skating, only difference between me and a human is that human skaters use wheels for skating and I use a vessel to skate. The Vessel is placed reverse and I keep both my fore paws at the base of the vessel, I will keep running till I bang on a wall. It is a great exercise for me and I would wish to teach this skating trick to my friends. None of my toys last even for a month except for a ring which lasted for more than a year. After keeping my front paw on the toy, I tear it apart as a lion feasts on its prey.
Whenever my toy is thrown i fetch it as fast as possible, but will never give it back to whoever throws it. We dogs are natural athletes, so can run as fast as possible. I challenge any human to run along with me, i am sure i would win by a large margin. My body structure is built in such a way that oppressing force cannot reduce my speed. When i run, my whole body gets structured like a supersonic jet making me cover long distances in short time.
We animals don’t like to be left alone locked up in the house. As an attention seeker, staying alone in the house is a nightmare for me. But at times it is so unavoidable that I am alone at home for some time. If I get hold of a newspaper or a cloth when i am alone at home it ends up in bits and pieces. Sitting on the hall window, I keep waiting for my family members to come back. If I see them from the window or if I hear the sound of the main door being opened, I get extremely happy and excited and start running here and there.
Bathing....No words can describe my misery!
Whenever someone from my family says “Kulika Polaama” (“Let’s go take bath” in Tamil) I try to disappear, get under the table or hide wherever possible. I know it is necessary to take bath, but I just don’t like it. In the bathroom, I make the most innocent face possible and stand as if I am a bent tree. Once my bath is over, I roll all over the bed or sofa trying to dry myself completely. My ears get dirty easily so it has to be cleaned regularly. As I see the ear bud pack I come and lie down so that my ears can be cleaned.
3 to 4 rounds around the building at the end of the day along with meeting my stray friends ends my day. I come back home, clean my paws and go to sleep on my comfortable bed. At night, I get up even at the slightest sound, even if it is someone walking on the staircase outside. I believe that it is always good to be cautious than to regret later.
I love my family very very much, all of them including my Amma, Appa, Aissswaria (my sister) and Avinash (my brother). They love me and take care of me like I am the jewel of their eye. They make me who I am and love me to an extent, I never knew love was possible. It is a wonderful thing to be loved so much by one's family. I love them more than anything in the whole wide world too!
