Joy Of Life

Working from home is never easy and sometimes you never know when to call it a day. However, taking break once in every couple of hours is an important factor to keep the brain pumped up and going for the entire day. I thought walking in the backyard or having a conversation with a little child is exciting and I come back refreshed to get back to work. For the past 9 years, every one of my break is nothing but exciting thanks to Orion, my sweat heart puppy miniature Dachshund (even though he is 9 years old, we still consider him as a puppy). For my wife he is a grandson and for me he is indescribable joy of life.

When my son brought this handsome puppy home, my wife and I resisted but my son insisted that he was going to keep Orion with him in his apartment near the University campus. After we started spending time with Orion, we couldn’t resist our inclination to keep him always with us. Only once every year, we let him stay with our son i.e. when we go to India. Otherwise, Orion is always with us and we don’t even go out much other than for shopping and we always try to come back in 2-3 hours as he doesn’t like car rides. We normally keep a rock music or some other music in the TV so that he doesn’t feel lonely.

He loves playing with the toy and our favorite game is to throw the toy and ask him to fetch it. He begins running even before I throw it and sometimes, I cheat him by throwing in the opposite direction. After some time, when he is gasping for breath, he used to hold the toy tightly in his mount, wag the tail and make loud growl when I try to snatch it away from him. In the evening from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., he likes to spend time with my wife who chants a lot. Sometimes, I used to think he would be a recluse in his next life. If it is 6 p.m., he will begin knocking my home office door asking me to finish my work and get out. The next one hour is time for him to hang out with me in my chair in the family room. If he is hungry, he will always run to my office and walk close to my feet indicating he is hungry. If he needs to go out, he will start intensely looking at me or sit on his back indicating he needs a favor from me.

This grandpa is the worst enemy for a few hours after he returns from his vet once in six months. He loves taking his monthly flee and worm medication as it is mixed with his favorite wet food. His regular food is a strict diet as advised by his vet. However, our heart breaks when he literally asks us to give our table food to him. Once, he snatched away a nice sandwich I had made for myself. I tried my best to take it out of his mouth but I could only remove the portion that was outside of his mouth. He ate the rest.

My favorite activity is to talk to him one word at a time close to his ears. It is such a fun to watch how his ears go up every time I utter a world. Some time, I intentionally talk with low voice so that he would bend his neck to listen carefully. My playful act is to suddenly move only my mouth without uttering any words. His facial expression at those times would be funny. After patiently waiting for good 15-30 seconds, he would bark loudly telling me that he couldn’t hear me. He won’t be happy until I clearly say a few words after he barked.

Whenever I bring groceries inside the house, he always thinks all bagful of groceries are for him and he goes and smells everything to find out what we bought for him. Everyone who goes out, when they come in and meet Orion with his wagging tail will have to give him a treat to eat (my wife calls it as “toll”). I have a routine to take him out before I go to sleep every night, but he would be fast asleep by then. Therefore, I must physically carry him out and wife and mother-in-law used to make fun of him for being carried like a baby. My son calls him walking vacuum cleaner as he is always looking for dropped table food. He doesn’t eat it immediately. He will hide the food some place else and when he is reminded of where he had hidden, he would go and begin eating. Most of the time, he would get caught because of the loud noise coming from his teeth. We struggle to open his mouth and remove the table food out of his mouth. Sometimes, I feel my spiritual ascension happens by his state of bliss, feel how he expresses his unconditional love and watch his only expectation is love (other than food and water).

 

I lost my mom and on my way to Chennai. I will respond a few weeks from now.

 

Thank you @SunPa and @Sunburst.

 

Thank you for your kind words, Syamala.

Viswa