My Little Lion – Cheri
From my book Colours of Life
Human beings can learn the art of selfless love from a dog. The dog knows well who loves him most and reciprocates.
My son brought a four-month-old Pekingese dog from St. Petersburg. We knew nothing about dog keeping. We went with that little fluffy doll-like puppy to Neha’s residence. Neha took it out of the basket and gave him milk to drink. After drinking milk, he started running. It was an incredible sight.
Whether human, animal, or deadly snake, children look delightful to watch because they are yet to learn the art of survival in this world.
The next day, we brought that fluffy doll to Tandsi, which is 200 kilometers from Bhopal.
We fed milk to our little cotton ball like a puppy. He continued running around inside our rooms, and we enjoyed watching him. It was fascinating; it was something out of this world for us.
Veterinary Doctor at Ghoradongri
Suddenly, he fell ill. He stopped taking milk, and he could not even walk. We felt terrible for him, so we took our little toy puppy to a veterinarian in Ghoradongri.
The veterinary doctor examined him and said, “He has a fever, and he is an uncommon breed of dog. Please take him to the dog’s doctor, but, in the meantime, you can give him medicine for fever, which is given to a child.”
We purchased medicine from the pharmacy and fed our dog the kids’ doses using a dropper.
Tandsi is forty-five kilometers away from Ghoradongri. We reached Tandsi after giving our cotton-ball-like puppy medicine. He drank milk and, after some time, started running into our rooms. We were happy to see him running. We kept his name, “Cheri. “
Cheri was like a small bundle of fluffy cotton toys. His eyes were round and big, like a small round glass ball. The mouth was flat and black, and the nose was black, with a small, flat design. His hair below his chin was like a giant lion’s hair, more significant than other hair, and his tail was like a small bundle of cotton balls pasted on top of his hind body, which appeared like an erected antenna swaying in both directions whenever he was walking.
He loved sitting on the carpet most of the time. Rarely did he sit on the floor. While sitting, he kept his back legs backward on the floor and his front legs forward. He was holding his face between his front paws on the floor. He looked like a cotton-filled doll, like a stuffed toy. In his other sitting style, he sat like a lion, a small lion.
Veterinary Doctor at Chhindwara
Cheri often became sick. We took him to the dog’s doctor at Chhindwara. He said, “It is a different breed of dog, and I cannot treat him properly. I recommend you take him to Bhopal, where there is a hospital for dogs. They will advise you about your puppy and give him proper treatment.”
Dog Hospital Bhopal
We took Cheri to Bhopal’s dog hospital. There were people with their dogs. When they saw Cheri, they gathered around him. When the junior doctor saw him, he advised us to take him to the head of this hospital. We took Cheri to the medical superintendent. He became pleased to see Cheri. He placed him on his table and started talking to him. Cheri sat like a lion on his desk. He was intently listening to his talk as if he understood every word. The doctor played with him, then told him it was a Pekingese, a rare dog breed. He prepared his vaccination card and advised us to give Cheri a rabies injection once a year and a seven-in-one injection every six months and to keep his vaccination card up to date. He also gave Cheri prescriptions for medicines for various problems when required.
We gave medicines prescribed by a doctor to Cheri, and Cheri became fit and fine. He ate bread and omelets and boiled chicken and chicken bones and ate bread and milk mixed in the mixer. He ate that mixture only with a spoon. Cheri also loved eating chicken-flavored dog food. He ate food from his plate and slept on his bed. He loved to sit on the hood of the car, watching all around for hours.
Cheri was about twenty-two inches long, sixteen inches in height, and about four kilograms in weight. He was fond of traveling in the car. Whenever he saw someone going out with the car key, he would run after him. When the garage door was opened, Cheri would stand near the other side of the driver’s door. When his side door was open, he would jump on the seat next to the driver
My Little Lion
Cheri never liked to live alone. He always wanted to be near somebody.
Once, we prepared a small cardboard house for him. It became a toy for him. He was pulling it here and there. His favorite biscuit was Marie Gold. He kept his cookie and chicken bones in his house. He was eating old stuff whenever he wished. If we ever tried to stop him from eating that old stuff, he was becoming very ferocious.
We were throwing out his old stuff from his house while he was away. Sometimes he would hide his things in our garden beneath the soil. It was astonishing to see that he never forgot the place where he buried his stuff.
Once I had a cold and a cough. My kids’ school was closed, and my wife had taken the kids to her mother’s house.
duplex apartment.
Our house was a duplex apartment.
There were two bedrooms on the top floor and one bedroom on the ground floor. I used to sleep in my bedroom on the top floor, but in the morning, I came down and opened the door for the maid. That day I opened the door and brushed my teeth, but suddenly I started coughing. Cheri came running, held my feet with his tiny feet, and looked at me. When my coughing subsided, I told Cheri, “Cheri, I am ok.”
Then he left my legs. This expression of love and care won my heart, and I developed an even greater love and attachment for him.
In the evening, after coming from the office, I used to sit on the carpet in my drawing room. Cheri would come running to me and play with me. After playing with Cheri for a while, I would go up, wash my face, change my clothes, and watch the news on TV while having tea. Cheri would come upstairs after hearing the TV’s sound. He will eat his Marie Gold biscuit and watch TV with me as if he understood everything.
Whenever my wife was busy downstairs cooking a meal, Cheri would sit near her as if to give her company; otherwise, he would sit near me, watching TV most of the time.
While putting dinner on the table, my wife would tell Cheri, “Cheri, call sahib for dinner.”
Cheri would come to me and bark until I would stand to walk with him. He used to bark in a strange voice. When I used to stand, Cheri would walk ahead of me and see that I was behind him until I would reach the dinner table.
Whenever my wife called me for dinner, Cheri would grow angry and bark at her in a different voice to show his displeasure. Then my wife would tell Cheri, “Bring sahib for dinner.”
He would come running to me to take me down for dinner.
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