Jaani

This story is not about a pet dog. This story is about more than a pet dog.

Nearly 35-40 years ago, I was in in 5th or 6th Grade school. We used to live in a rented house. Our house was located in a small two storied building. All tenants of the building were from middle class family. There were nearly 10 – 12 children to play around and those were obviously my friends.

Since childhood I was much fond of pets especially dogs and aquarium fishes but we were not in a position that we could afford the expenses of a pet dog. To somehow satisfy my hobby I had kept 2-3 tiny aquarium fishes in a big glass jar at home.

That time there used to be lot many stray dogs around our house premises. Occasionally my parents used to feed them.

Amongst those stray dogs, there was a female dog who used to come to our home regularly since she was finding our place comfortable away from the crowd of other stray dogs. We used to call her Champi. Champi was very decent female dog. She was not very aggressive. Rather she was very humble.

Every year Champi used to give birth to five to six puppies but most of her puppies used to die may be due to some infection or malnutrition. In one such year, Champi gave birth to four puppies out of which three died after some days and one was alright. This puppy was very playful. It used to play with us very joyously. Day by day this puppy grew up with us. It was a male dog. We started calling him Jaani.

Day by day Jaani became the favorite of my parents. My mother used to feed him regularly. During hot summer Jaani's place was reserved at our home below a fast revolving ceiling fan. My dad used keep the ceiling fan at full speed especially to provide comfort to Jaani in very hot summer. Day by day Jaani became the most pampered dog in our family. He used wait for me till I return from my school. Jaani was not a dog. He used to behave like a human only. No intruder could dare to enter our compound till Jaani was there. Sometimes there used to be a big fight amongst other stray dogs. Jaani used to give his opinion barking from our first floor's balcony. He used to put his front legs on the balcony wall and stare at the situation outside. As I mentioned above that Jaani was different than other stray dogs, he never used to join the quarrel of other dogs. Whenever we used to discuss something at our home, Jaani always used to behave as attention seeker, he always wanted to be a part of our family discussion.

One day there were some new stray dogs had entered our locality and there was a big fight amongst all the dogs in our locality. As I said Jaani never used to participate in any fight, but on that day, I don’t know how he jumped into that big fight, a big dog fight in a real sense. Jaani was brutally attacked by those new dogs. To rescue himself, Jaani ran away far off but he was chased by other dogs then. He was bitten, fought a lot. He had no other way but to run. Jaani chose to run. We waited for him but Jaani did not return home that day. We thought he might have hidden himself somewhere and will come back after some time. But Jaani did not return. We searched a lot, we searched everywhere but, alas, we could not find Jaani. We searched him for nearly a month. We did not leave any stone unturned to search for Jaani but was of no use.

It was very difficult for us to accept the truth that now Jaani will not return. What could we do?

Every day while having our lunch – dinner we used to remember him whether he may have had some food or he might be hungry, starving, craving for food.

Now nearly two years are completed, Jaani did not return home. All our hopes were diminished.

One day one of our neighbors named Raju had some work at another side of our village, nearly 4-5 km away from our locality. Raju reached his desired destination and was having some discussion with some other people there. While discussing Raju observed that somebody was pulling his shirt from the backside. He turned around and to his great surprise what was there? It was Jaani. Even after a big gap of two years Jaani recognized Raju and was pulling his shirt to grab his attention towards him. Raju immediately hugged Jaani and started patting, pampering him. On the way back home, Jaani followed Raju and after a walk of nearly 5 km, both Jaani and Raju reached our locality. When Jaani entered our home premises, he had literally gone mad by the love of people. Jaani was jumping nearly on everybody to hug him or her. He was very desperate to meet and love everybody. Jaani was making a very different sound to express his love. He was overwhelmed to meet all of us after a big gap of nearly two years. Throughout my life, I could not forget the day when we and Jaani reunited. So such was Jaani.

Days were passing; Jaani was also growing old day by day. Now Jaani was not daring to even step out of our gate. He had that fear of getting lost again so he always used to be at our home.

One day may be due to old age Jaani fell sick. He was not having his food. My mom and dad tried a lot but Jaani was not taking any food. He was just lying down lazily. We all were quite disturbed due to this Jaani's health condition. We consulted a veterinary doctor regarding Jaani's health. He prescribed some medicines. After that Jaani started showing some improvement. At least he started walking up to the gate. We were also happy to see Jaani's improvement.

On one morning Jaani did not get up. We thought he was just lying like that. But even after an hour, there was no movement. We were calling Jaani to get up but there was no response. We tried hard to get him up but it was of no use. Jaani had left all of us. Jaani was no more. It was a great shock for all of us. Our best family friend, a family member had left us forever.

We still can't forget Jaani and his unconditional love. And I just can't forget the day when Jaani and all of us got reunited after a gap of two years. Such is love! Pet's unconditional love!! Jaani's unconditional love!!!