One one things

I’ve never been a big fan of arranged marriages, particularly the whole horoscope part of it. Yesterday however I had to dabble in the fine art myself (minus horoscopes). My dog just celebrated her 2nd b’day, and is now 28 in human years, so it is high time she settled down. We never really wanted to have pups, our devil is a handful in her own right and I wasn’t too keen on being woken up at 4am by a fistful of pups barking for food. But a couple of months ago Uzbeq (one of her many nicknames) ran into a few problems. She had become very vocal, attention seeking (more than normal) and had started to dig up the garden. Things became more peculiar when she began to bite my pillows and try to dig up my bed as well. It came to a point where I couldn’t look away from her for more than 10 seconds without her whimpering and giving me a look of pure pathos. We still didn’t think it was much of a big deal until she started to carry around her little pink, smelly soft toy around everywhere she went. She’d take it in her mouth and whimper with a distressed look on her face. We decided to call the vet, and I had my first suspicions of a pseudo-pregnancy. The vet confirmed this when we said that she had her last heat about 2 months ago, her 2nd heat. Her body was telling her to expect a puppy, and so she had been digging the garden and my bed as a nesting place. The pink soft toy was her baby in her eyes. Naturally everyone in the house went ga-ga, teq was going through psychological stress so more attention was to be showered upon her. She remained highly distressed out for another week or so but then she recovered to her normal crazy self. But we were warned, if she isn’t crossed on her third heat, she’d have a far more severe pseudo-pregnancy including false contractions. Not part of the plan.

So her heat is due in December, and we had to act quite fast to find a potential mate. Everyone was keeping half an eye open for a healthy looking male lab. Fellow inde sq dog walkers were told about the requirements, family, friends and pretty much anyone who dropped into our house. There were a couple of options available, a 6 year old lab who was later deemed too big, a one year old liver coloured guy who was too young and another 3 year old who lived too far away. And then some excellent luck. We found out that there was a black male lab living, next door! (well three doors down to be precise). They had moved in recently and everyone was very excited by the prospect. Discrete inquiries were made from the security guys; “how’s the family? how old is he? How come he doesn’t go for walks? what’s his name? is he friendly?” and so on. To see his name is Sam, 6 years old, and belongs to an Indian family. So on Sunday ammi and I walked up and knocked on the door, the family was out so we asked them to give us a call when they’re back. The lady of the house calls us later that evening and says to come by the next evening, with Teq.

I rushed back from work that evening, tried to spruce teq up a bit, gave her a small pep talk and off we went. As usual her behaviour was horrendous in anticipation of a walk, jumping up and down and looking like a foosa. But as we approached their gate Sam began to bark, and Teq seemed to get a bit nervous. I was worried bc she’s never been good with other dogs. Whenever we try to socialize her she’d ignore the other dog after two sniffs and go greet the owner instead. So we were hoping that with the heat she’d conjure up some good hormones and get horny. We rang the bell and out came Sam and the owner, she seemed very nice and friendly and was very happy with the idea of love thy neighbour - canine chapter. The dogs were a bit apprehensive at first, separated by the gate, Sam barked to confirm that it was his terrain, and uzbeq stuck her tail between her legs and sat behind me. In the mean time we chatted about how we should proceed and gave indications of our basic concerns, ie. no fleas, hope your bugger is clean etc. Teq soon lost her shy girl/playing hard to get attitude and strutted up to the gate and began to bark away as well. I have no idea what they were telling each other but both were wagging their tails, and didn’t seem aggressive. Sam soon began to whimper and prance a bit; the female had clearly established the initial underlying power relations. That’s my girl!

So the first meeting was a success. They didn’t hate one another, and the humans concerned got along too. We walked back home and Teq seemed quite pleased with herself, waddling along, wagging her tail and smiling with her ears back, much like a girl after a good date. (At least in the movies). We had a house meeting soon after and everyone was informed of the developments while Teq sat aside with her tongue out. We’ve already started discussing puppy names, and I thankfully have veto power bc the suggestions so far have been atrocious. Teq still feels like a puppy to me, and I couldn’t for my life imagine her as a mother. She still acts like a baby, running around with her toys and chasing after imaginery cats. But Sam seems lovely, and at 6 years old he should be a good calming influence. He even has a tinge of a white goatie, much like that chap Amithab Bachan! But the best part is that he lives so close, it feels like things will be more under control bc of that. It promises to be a dramatic couple of months, fingers crossed.