My Little Lion – Part 1

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My Little Lion – Cheri

Human beings can learn the art of selfless love from a dog. Dog knows well who loves him the most and reciprocates with him in the same way.

My son brought four months old a tiny dog of a Pekingese breed 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 from the basket and gave him milk to drink. After drinking milk, he started running. It was an incredible sight.

Whether human or animal or a 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, two hundred kilometers from Bhopal.

We fed milk to our little cotton ball like a puppy. He remained running around inside our rooms, and we were enjoying his movements. It was fascinating; it was something out of this world for us.

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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 as a puppy to a veterinary doctor at Ghoradongri.

The veterinary doctor examined him and said, “He has a fever, and he is an uncommon breed of a 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 medicine shop and fed kid’s doses by dropper to our dog.

Tandsi is forty-five kilometers away from Ghoradongri. We reached Tandsi after feeding medicine to our cotton ball-like puppy. 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. mouth was flat but of black color and nose was in that black color, as the small flat design. His hair below his chin was like a giant lion’s hair, more significant than other hair and tail was like a small bundle of a cotton ball pasted on top of his hind body, which appeared like an erected antenna swaying in the left and right direction whenever he was walking.

He loved most of the time sitting on the carpet. Rarely did he sit on the floor. While sitting, he kept his back legs in the backward direction on the floor and front legs in the forward movement. He was holding his face in 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

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Cheri was often becoming sick. We took him to the dog’s doctor at Chhindwara. He said, “It is a different breed of a dog, and I cannot treat him properly. I will 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.”

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Dog’s 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 loin on his desk. He was intently listening to his talks as if he understood every word of him. The doctor played with him then told; it was a Pekingese, a rare dog breed. He got his vaccination card prepared and advised us to give Cheri rabies injection once a year and seven in one every six months and suggested maintaining his vaccination card properly. He also gave a prescription for medicines, given to Cheri in different problems, when required.

We gave medicines prescribed by a doctor to Cheri, and Cheri became fit and fine. He ate bread and omelets, boiled chicken and chicken bones, ate bread and milk mixed in the mixer. He ate that mixture with a spoon only. 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 bonnet of the car, watching all around for hours.

Cheri was about twenty-two-inch-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.

Colours of Life (Excerpt-1)

My Little Lion – Cheri

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 most favorite biscuit was Marie gold. He kept his cookie and chicken bones in his house. He was eating old stuff whenever he wished. If ever we tried to stop him from eating that old stuff, he was becoming very ferocious. We were throwing out his old stuff from his house in his absence. Sometimes he was hiding 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 cough. My kid’s school was closed, and my wife had gone to her mother’s house with the kids.

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, which was 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 and 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 extra 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 for a while with Cheri, I used to 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 a busy downstairs cooking meal, Cheri would sit near her as if he was giving 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 till I would stand for walking 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 become angry and bark in a different voice on her to show his anger. Then my wife would tell Cheri, “Bring sahib for dinner.”

He would come running to me to take me down for dinner.

                                                                     From Colours of Life

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