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