Monday, May 18, 2009

An extraordinary creation of God

Let me tell you a little bit about an extraordinary creation of God that lives with us. Her name is Angel and if you haven’t guessed already (you are more tired than you think so go to bed and read this later:-)), she is our dog. If you are sitting there thinking ‘Uh, oh…Poor Meena’s well has started to dry up already. Under 2 weeks of blogging, she is looking at the rear end of a dog for ideas for an article’, perish that thought.

Angel is no ordinary dog. She possesses amazing qualities that are so often missing in human beings like compassion, loyalty, patience and wisdom. Yet she manages to stay a sweet, eager and innocent child.

Those who have never had the pleasure of adopting a dog in their lives might claim that all dogs are more or less the same. Believe me when I say that nothing is farther from the truth.

Angel has a most riveting personality and those who have spent some time with her would completely agree with me.

She has unique psychic powers that control our motor skills. When we are munching on something she really really wants, it simply falls numbly from our fingers to her waiting jaws.

She needs as much attention as any child and shows all signs of sibling jealousy if we play with our kids and leave her out.

She has a basket full of toys and insists on greeting all visitors to the house with her latest toy in her mouth and, not to say, her tail wagging furiously.

She has excellent taste and even better standards. She sleeps on nothing but leather sofas and chairs during summer months (the 2 dog beds we bought are totally beneath her, we have realized) and wouldn’t get on the leather furniture during the cold, winter months if you paid her unless we put a soft, comfy blanket on it.

She prefers to eat her 2 meals of the day at the exact same time every day but would graciously tolerate us feeding her pieces of bread, biscuits, bananas, cantaloupes, mangoes, carrots and more anytime in between.

She is afraid of a small vacuum cleaner but wouldn’t think twice about getting in front of us to take on an intruder 10 times her size.

She defends our backyard ferociously with all she has got from the many bunnies and squirrels that have the temerity to encroach on our land.

Despite our many failed attempts to make her understand that she is not a guard dog, she insists on barking away any mailmen, lawnmowers (or is it lawnmowerer ??), Utility company representatives, and painters that are unfortunate enough to have business in our neighborhood. She simply refuses to accept that we own only one house in the street and the neighbors are within their legal limits to come and go as they wish.

At the risk of sounding cliched, living with a dog is not always a bed of rose petals. Angel prevents us from taking long vacations. She doesn’t move a muscle to help around with the chores in the house and instead we wait hand and foot on her. She sheds a lot and snores quite loudly even as I write this post. I wouldn’t trade her for all the gold in the world.

Angel, it is a privilege to live with you.

-Meena Sankaran

11 comments:

Sriram Venkateswaran Iyer said...

Hi Meena:
Another gripping, tight entry, mixed with the right amount of humour :-) - Your blog entries are as good as the bisi-bele bath and urulai kizhangu roast! (my allegories are limited to the gastronomic domain only :-D )

I can vouch for Angel's power of drawing food from the hand! It has even slipped from my hand! Trust me!

Meena, there are at least a couple of more entries you can have about Angel - esp the one on how you use Angel instead of vacuum cleaner to remove food items from the floor - LOL

Keep writing!

Meena Sankaran said...

"Meena, there are at least a couple of more entries you can have about Angel"

After publishing the post, I realized that I had left out so many more things about Angel that deserved to be mentioned here.

Like how she leaps like a bullet ahead of everyone and gets in the van in the morning when I open the front door to take Aarthi to school....how she enjoys riding in the front seat with her head fully out the window and her ears flapping in the wind like a bat...how she cleverly she lets me know that her water bowl is empty (who said a dog can't talk?)...how she knows instinctively that you are not feeling your best and just comes and sits next to you to offer comfort...how on a full stomach she can turn on her most pathetic, sad looking face to coax a bit more snack out of you...oh so many many more things....

May be I should do a sequel like 'Angel, the saga' or something to talk about all that I had left out.

Good to see you here Sriram.

Srilatha said...

Angel also has the unique psychic ability to shift objects. She can sense the most empathetic person in a group who will supply her with choice snacks. And like the Ancient Mariner, she will hold them with her glittering (and soulfully sweet) eye until the snack magically materializes in her mouth. I love that dog :) and would gladly read about her every day.

Meena Sankaran said...

You should have seen her last night, Srilatha. She looked so cute sleeping on the couch with her head comfortably resting on the red throw pillow...I just had to write about her.

Isn't she just precious?

Srilatha said...

She is indeed precious..

Were I not an evolutionist, I would say that dogs are truly God's best creation :)

Sreelatha said...

Meena,
I wonder at your marvelous prose pieces. I accept with Srilatha that you have sinked into the Bombeck style. Great piece of art for a Great Dog named Angel! I wonder what was going on in your mind when you picked this name! Or did Aarthi pick this one and now she is transformed into being an Angel! Maybe you can write several other pieces like a series! We all would love to read more about her!

Meena Sankaran said...

Latha,

Thank you for stopping by. Down the line, I may write some more about Angel. You are right. It was Aarthi who named her 'Angel' and lucky for us, she turned out to be one. :-)

Kavinaya said...

Makes me wonder, if only names can make a person... :) Yet another well written post Meena. Just for the record, I luv Angel as well :)

Meena Sankaran said...

Meena,

Thank you for stopping by. I will be sure to let Angel know that she has a huge fan club. :-)

Vidya Venkat said...

Hi Meena,

I enjoyed reading about Angel, indeed she is an extraordinary creation of God. I could relate everything you said because of Ace, our 4 year old lab (puppy!).They have the magic touch in our lives. Keep writing ...

Meena Sankaran said...

Welcome, Vidya. I am glad to see you here. As a dog owner yourself, you can understand my love for Angel. She is, without doubt, an amazing creation of God. We should get Angel and Ace together sometime. :-)