A tale of two puppies and Mother’s heart

I am not a cell phone addict. Seldom do I open messages early in the morning. But that day it was different .As soon as I woke up, intuitively I grabbed my mobile to check WhatsApp. “Puppies chale gaye,” read the WhatsApp message from my son.  My heart sank; tears welled up in my eyes as I read the post that puppies had gone. I could feel the pain in his words. Despite the fact that it was his own decision to give away his puppies to a family friend, I knew that my son was missing them. He had taken this conscious decision because of his impending posting to another station, where he felt it might not be feasible for him to take care of the little doggies.

The puppies were barely a month old when they had come in my son’s life. After completing MBA, my son got placed in a reputed company at Hyderabad, where he shared accommodation with another bachelor friend.  The boys decided to have, not one but two puppies so that the dogs could have each others’ company during their absence. How the bachelors managed to look after two little Dachshunds- Shadow and Brownie- is another story.

So far as I am concerned, I have never been comfortable with animals. Perhaps this is the reason we have never kept any pet. Initially, I was opposed to my son’s decision of keeping pets but I, too, got attached with the puppies over a period of time. A significant part of my chatting with my son would revolve around the puppies – their food, antics and toilet training. My son would share their videos with me in their playful mood.

Only once did I meet the puppies when I went to Hyderabad for a couple of days. So long as we stayed there, the puppies were debarred from entering the bedroom to which they had been having a free access otherwise.  The moment they got a chance, the puppies would sneak into the room. Before we could shoo them out; they would have done the mischief, pissed a little. I learnt that the small amount of urine they passed in the room was to mark their territory, establish their domain and to tell us that we were intruders.

The puppies were cute. But more than anything else, I found them lovable and adorable because they gave companionship to my son and loved him unconditionally. I liked the way Shadow, true to his name, followed my son like a shadow wherever he went. The hearty welcome the puppies gave him when he reached his apartment was indeed gratifying to me as a mother.

I was crestfallen when I came to know that the puppies had gone, primarily because I felt my son would be missing them. It was a mother’s heart that cried. It is true that being a mother means your heart is no longer yours. It wanders wherever your children go and transmits to you every pleasure/pain, small or big, your children go through.

(Published in Hindustan Times on Aug1, 2017)