I remember the day I brought her home. She was really scared. We went to get her from a village and brought her home in our car. I was sitting behind and holding her. She was really frightened and hid behind my back all the way home. Barkas was a 2 and a half-month-old Labrador Pup. She was jet black in colour.

When we finally reached home I had to lift her and take her inside. She was feeling insecure and so was shivering all the way. I tried my level best to calm her down. She was such an understanding dog that she never barked a bit on the way home. Once I put her down she went all around the house smelling the nooks and corners of the house. She came back towards me and for the first time started barking. She was asking us, "where have you brought me? Why did you take me away from my mother?" She was wondering where she was. It was night by the time we all settled down. I had arranged a lovely corner of my room for her. But that day she just wanted to sleep under the fan. She just would not budge. So I allowed her to sleep there. Since it was the first night I kept watching her and I couldn’t sleep much thinking she would not get sleep or that she would be homesick. But she slept very well. The day I brought her home she started enjoying herself and was very naughty at times so we named her Barkas (In Gujarati i.e. my mother tongue, Barkas means naughty).

I started getting used to her routine. She used to wake me up very very early. If I did not get up she would dirty the house. I had to take her in the garden for her daily chores four times a day. Things were going on fine. I was enjoying every moment I spent with her. Whenever I felt lazy to get up she would climb on the bed and start licking my face as if to say, " Hey! Come on, the sun has got up and so should you".

She loved me whistling to her and whistling became our code word. Whenever I did, she would come running to me. She had a very funny habit of putting her two front paws up. This indicated that she wanted you to take her in your lap. Whenever I sat on the floor she would cuddle up like a baby and sit in my lap. Labs seem to have a peculiar manner of sitting, by putting their head between the two front legs and stretching their hind legs too. Well when she did this, she looked very cute.

I used to take her out for a walk many a times. She used to love eating mud and stones. Of course I asked the vet and he told us she had deficiency of certain vitamins. So we started giving her the required vitamins. As soon as we returned home I used to remove her leach at the front door and she would head off to my room at 150miles per hour. Gosh -that was a sight!

Whenever she used to be very naughty I used to scold her. She used to feel very bad and would go and sit between my mother’s legs in the Kitchen as if telling my mother "see she is shouting at me -tell her I am sorry". My mother used to wear a gown so when she used to sit between her legs the gown used to fall on her head and she used to look very cute. Then I used to feel very guilty and immediately go and hug her. I am sure she must be thinking -what a weird person I am for one minute she loves me and the other she scolds me, when I have hardly done a thing!

Whenever she was hungry she used to get her bowl, in which we gave her food, right into the kitchen and keep making noise till someone heard her. Mostly my mother gave her food so she used to keep following my mother wherever she went. The moment my mother took the bowl from the floor she used to become hyperactive and keep jumping on my mother. In turn, my mother kept shouting for help. So every one used to come to my mother’s rescue. It used to be a tough time holding her. I had to literally hold her with my hands and legs, as she used to go beserk. Finally when the food arrived no one was supposed to be in her way as she used to go 150 miles an hour to the bowl. If she was hungry, she eat really fast so that in no time, her food used to be over.

She used to love playing with the dustbin. She used to remove all the papers in the bin and scatter them all over the place and make very small bits of them. I never knew this. One day when I came home from school, I entered my room to find a mess all around me. Then from that day I found a new place to keep the bin. I tied it to a string and like a wall hanging I hung it on a hook on the wall. It used to look very funny but I did not mind. But one advantage was that my room was very, very clean in those days. If any thing used to remain on the bed, then that thing never saw the light of day!

My study table had shelves below the table-top. So she used to love nosing around removing papers, books or anything that was within her reach and used to make them into tatters. So I had to add special protection to my things. I placed some cardboards and some old compass boxes in front of the shelves so that she could not get hold of any books that were behind. But once she did manage to get hold of a textbook of mine and tore it into pieces. Luckily it was of a previous grade which I had kept as a reference. I believe it was my mistake since I had kept her in my room all alone that day. I lost my temper and for the first time tied her up. But then for the first time I also saw tears in her eyes! I felt very hurt that day and even cried with her and we again became friends.

Once I had to give her a bath. It was really tough. When she had her collar on, it used to be very easy to catch her. But while I had to give her a bath I had to remove her collar. So I had to hold her with the help of my hands and also my legs. She got really scared when I poured water on her and she started running all over the bathroom. Finally I managed to give her a bath. Then I had to brush her back she just refused that and so I had to hold all her legs and brush her.

My mother never liked dogs but once she accidently and unknowingly happened to agree to a pet since I had shown a strong keenness to take vetinary science. The moment she said yes to get a pup, my father and I lost no time in getting it and that’s how Barkas landed in our house. We had just brought her for a couple of days to see if we could handle a dog. But things were getting out of hand. I used to be in school the whole day and my parents used to go for work. So the responsibility of her used to go on my grand- parents. It became very difficult for them to handle her. So they all agreed to give her away. I knew this was to happen and I told my parents not to give her away. I kept crying all day. Whenever I used to go to school I used to say goodbye to her leave with a heavy heart. Once I was sitting on a chair crying and at that time she came and put her paws on my knee and started liking my tears, which fell from my eyes. Then she started barking as if telling me why are you crying? What is the matter? Tell me? As if I could tell her how I was feeling. Those days went really bad. I never knew when she would have to go back. But every time I returned from school to find her in my home, I thanked God for all those extra days he gave me to spend with her.

That fateful day before going to school I had told Barkas that as soon as I came home we would play a lot. I had forgotten that she was not yet my own –my very own dog and that she had to go away some time. I don’t know what God had in mind but I never told her the last goodbye. I was delayed in school as I was the prefect and it happened to be the end of our tenure. We had to hand over the post to the next batch. I will never in my life forget that day -never. My parents came to pick me up from school. My school is not far from my home just a 3-minute walk. I was surprised. I asked them what happened but they were very grim and refused to tell me. At once I knew that Barkas has been taken. I remember when I went home, I was beyond control. For me it was as if the whole sky had fallen. I did not feel like doing a thing. I kept crying as if some one was dead in the house, felt as if I was alone and did not feel like living. I felt very lonely. I had got so used to her and she had to leave. More than that it was as if the first time and the first person who had understood me. I had no other friends except her. But those 15 days were and will be the best days of my life. But I knew that I had to live without her. That day was a tough day in my life. Well I have got over it now. I keep myself very busy so that I don’t remember that sad day.

Written by- Maitreyi Doshi