PitaPata Dog tickers

Jan 28, 2012

I have a new job

Mom got home with the baby... Its a boy... And I've taken over the baby sitting duties. I growl at everyone at home whn the baby cries, n herd them to his crib if they dnt get up fast enough...

The kid is a fascinating thing to see, hear and smell. I've spent hours together investigating his crib. But I'm tired now... He keeps everyone up through night na... So, let me take the chance to nap... Albeit I know he won't mind if I use his feeding pillow to rest my head....


Jan 23, 2012

Missing my little angel

It's been 4 whole days... I'm sitting here in the hospital with the latest addition to our household, recovering from the c-section... Waiting anxiously for the doctor to discharge me so that I can go n meet Pluto.

I've been hearing tales of his sniffing my bag, sleeping with my clothes n searching frantically through the house... n I'm real apprehensive to see his reaction to the changes in me (we got him when I was 3-4 months along, so he's not seen me normal) and also his take on the latest addition to the family...my baby boy.

They say, I'd b going home tomorrow morning. Let's see...


Jan 18, 2012

Season for change

Winter is a time for changes... temperature changes and so does the whole greens around us... its a time when you see life growing. Changing from a steady pattern of growth, winters signifies rejuvenation. A time for fresh starts and new beginnings... in the nature outside and in my house too...

On the verge of a very personal change, I decided to make some significant changes to the household too... :) And Pluto proved to be the first victim... We got my darling angel "fixed". There are multiple opinions about when a male dog should be neutered...for that matter there are people who think it is not right to neuter. I'm not an expert, but what all I heard, saw and read, I was sure we wanted Pluto to be neutered. There was no way I was going through the rituals of finding him mates and runa round him cleaning up once he started to mark... It seemed more natural that we not cause him to get frustrated.

Did I have an easy way to get him to neuter? Nope. Not really. The hurdles started from my mom itself. Asking would it kill his desire to have family... how do you answer THAT? Sometimes science isn't always the best answer, you know. I had to do some real digging to let her know that Pluto will be a more happy-go-lucky after the operation. I even showed her an episode of Dog Whisperer by Cesar Millan to drive the point home. (apparently, She actually believes him more than she does her own daughters...) Well, its not to say that I was at ease with this tiny tot undergoing surgery... I spent most of the night watching him sleep-at-all-spots in the bedroom. Keeping a vigil on him to make sure he does not drink water from the bathroom faucet. (Since, the vet has set "No Food, No Water" for the night before surgery; and Pluto has mastered the art of opening the bathroom door to drink from faucet there, completely ignoring his own water bowl)

Come 10 o'clock, we were already dealing with an harranged little pup who had no idea why no one had taken him for his daily walk, and no one was bothering with his puppy eyes begging for food... My hubby loaded him in the car and headed to see his vet. After a brief encounter with a street dog and his famous dhoongu-dance on seeing his vet, his day got even a little more wierder. She gave him the sedatives. The hour I and my hubby sat outside the closed door of that operation room was creepy. I've never been a situation like that...sitting outside and waiting for doctor to come out... When she finally came out, I still couldn't bring myself to look inside. I didn't wanna see Pluto knocked out by sedatives and see his stitches and all... It was scary. It was much more scary to actually see him on the table with his toungue lolling out of the side of his mouth...not moving. :(

We waited for another 45 mins there, waiting for him to come around. And when he did, you could see that
Pluto n Amu Dee lounging on bed
he was his usual self. Wanting to investigate everything and wanting to greet everyone. Vet had said he'd be drowsy for the day due to sedatives and all... What we did not consider was his curiosity factor. My little bundle of joy spent entire afternoon, trying to walk...albeit his walk was total drunkerd... and we enjoyed his little antics... trying to keep him upright took some vigilant efforts from our side... but we managed. Post his initial efforts he did sleep through rest of the day though... which is the good part on his recovery cycle.

Three days post his surgery, I'm happy to report...Pluto is back to his own self. Jumping on people, doing his little Dhungu-Dance, licking people frociously and eating voraciously.... Yeah, there come times when I feel guilty for making him go through the whole ordeal. Especially when I see those stitches and realise that he won't be able to tell me if he's sore or in pain or just wanna ask me questions... (I know its me overthinking about the whole situation, but can't really help)

Popatrao, 3 years back
In addition to Pluto's operation, We also pre-poned my schedule for hospital admission. Which brought in the need for taking care of "Mr. & Mrs. Popatrao"... They both were on the "to-take-care-of" list for a long time. And changing circumstances at home FINALLY saw them going up for Adoption and Breeding. They've been in our household for more than 5 years now... and we've been feeling rather lost about their upkeep. With Pluto on-board, the house had become a little unsafe for them... keeping him off their scent used to be another exercise in vigilance. But that story some other time....

So coming back to the season of change... with my impending hospital visit, there is another bunch of changes coming our way... Let's see how fun or non-fun those changes prove to be... But if I've learnt anything about Pluto in my time with him... I know that he will cope and teach all of us to cope with them too...

Jan 16, 2012

I'm trying new Yoga Techniques...

I'm trying out some new Asan's these days... Here's a brief run-down....Hope you like them, and give it a try.
This one is called "Jivha Latkao-asan"
This one is also one of my fav poses to sleep nowadays...especially if I get too hot on couch but too sleepy to get down in one moment....

This one can be labelled "Mundi Latkao-asan"


The pose refered as "Shish Tekao-asan" is employed when I want to keep my head UP... :)

Shish Tekao-asan


Jan 10, 2012

Do we want them to talk???

Being a pet parent changes a lot of things... It changes the way you look at world...all of a sudden the world is divided into two black n white halves...one with people who love pets...animals rather, and other with people who don't.

The contrast is very strong when you see and experience recklessness of the "other" part of the half. It's blood boiling, heart-wretching and simply unacceptable. Makes you wonder what is it that we are teaching our children? And whatever that we are teaching, is it really making an impact on the way young minds think? Coz, I don't know where are we teaching our children to be disrespectful to elders and cruel to mute animals?

When I was young, I was taught that respect to elders, love fellow humans and have campassion for mute animals. I was also taught to take responsibility for my actions...and to be brave to face consequences of those actions. Did we stop teaching these things nowadays? Or we don't enforce these teachings anymore?


Coz if we do all these things, how come a young lad finds it OK to run over a stray pup and walk out of the vehicle post parking it without even a backward glance to the yelping pup?

It makes me sad and angry. It almost made me want to slap the damn kid and shake some sense into him. It's simply inhumane to run over any living being... in a country like ours, where people are run over and nothing is done, its insane on my part to expect law to be brought into a stray being run over... BUT is it wrong of me to expect some decency from specimens that call themselves HUMAN?



Had it not been for the yelps of the little one, I would have spent my time whipping the guy and knock some sense it him. What also saved him, was the sheer number of people who stepped up to save the little one. The crowd did what I was hoping to do...brought the kid back to scene and made him pay for all the doctor's bills for the little one. There were more than a  dozen people who walked over to the little one, calmed her mother and took her to the doctor, a 15 min drive away. (My dad included in the group at my insistence). The little one spent the night on sedatives and was fed by more than a couple hands over the next few days, the broken leg was plastered and medicine administered. Even when the little one was being taken care of... it took all my reserve to not bring her up to my place. (Pluto would have caused more trouble to her than peace)

Its been more than a couple of months now to the incident....By the sheer tenacity of the canine nature, the little one is back to its youthful nature, jumping around and running; though the leg has not fully mended, she still runs with a limp. (The snap shows the little one and her mom... U can see her bad back leg..) Looking at her, you tend to thank god for making her mute, coz you surely don't wanna know what all she might be going through living on the streets all by herself. She sure has a lot of things to tell and say to my fellow  HUMANS. And if she does talk, will we be able to handle to truth from her point??

Jan 9, 2012

Scatterbrain...


I've been an ardent reader of pet forums ever since we decided to bring a pup home. And the more I read about Labs, the more in love I kept falling for the breed. There are a load of other breeds that I want to be associated with, like Boxers coz I find them damn cute, Rotties coz they look so fearsome, Great Danes just coz they are gentle giants etc etc... But right now, I have a Lab on my hands and he is quite handful at the moment. (Also, my mom would probably grill me if I bring another dog in the house) So, I'm sticking to having a single Lab in the home.


So, why am I rambling about my love for Dog breeds? Well, just to say that EVERY single Dog Forum I've been to, talks about how Labs are voracious eaters and how they gulp down their food, and how insatiable appetites they have etc etc.

I feel rather strange reading all those people claiming that Labs are voracious eaters. People also seem to believe that they are good learners and can be trained easily. I've a single question to ALL those people out there... How do you train a 6 month old Lab puppy not to FORGET that he is EATING???

Yeah, you read it correctly, how to I train Pluto not to forget that he's eating???


See the thing is...We have toilet-trained Pluto. So, when he wants to "go"... he walks over to the toilet, nudges the door open and does his business (I'm trying to teach him to flush also)... Which is all fine and dandy by me. The problem occurs when his bowels start moving while he's still eating his food. Its like he'll be half-way through the food, all of a sudden he'll feel the "pressure" so he'll stop eating, wonder off to the toilet, finish off his business and then walk out, right PAST his food bowl and continue back playing or simply go harrass my sister while she's working on something to play with him...



At first I thought, he was done eating....but if I call him back to his food bowl, the great hyper lab will finish off his food and then go back to his usual play around the house. (Strangly, Pluto only eats when he's hungry only as much as hunger he has...against him being a LAB)...



So, coming back to the original Question.... how do I train him not to forget that he's eating???

Jan 7, 2012

Another one...

I chewed off another one of mom's house slippers. (This would be her third pair)

Pretty cotton slippers
This time she had bought a cotton slippers this time, coz I chew off rubber one's with the ease of eating cheese...which is my fav food item BTW. I simply LOVE dairy products...milk, curd n cheese. You jst have to add single spoon in any food, and I gobble it up in a flash. Mom seems to worry abt my milk fascination at times...but doesn't care as I'm as healthy as any hyper lab can be.


So coming back to mom's slippers... This time she got herself (actually badi-mom got them), cotton fuzzy slippers. I've bern trying to sneak them off of her feet for a couple of days... I fonally got my chance last night, whn mom forgot to put them UP on the table...


Mom went sock-licious....
And then she woke up in morning to see these... Hee hee hee
Sad part of it all, is that she found a solution to my obsession soon enough... :(