Shadow 's death saddens everyone

We brought him home when he was a one month old puppy. He was all black. The brown colour on his legs had not appeared yet. It was February and nights were shivering cold. I had put his cage in the tv lounge. It was his first night away from his parents and siblings.

One month old swag

His mother and father were German shepherds and the size of their clutch was 6. Missing his parents and siblings, he started barking at odd hours of the night. Our TV lounge has doors to all the rooms on the ground floor. Sensing how uncomfortable the sleep would be for the family, I brought him upstairs in my study room. He inspected my room and liked it. When he had gotten tried of roaming in the room and sniffing books lying on the floor, he nestled between my feet. I went to my bed and he came and again slept with my black shoes. It dawned on me that he is missing his siblings and mistaking my shoes as his other puppies. I felt cruel for separating him from his family so early. I kept my shoes in his cage and he slept peacefully whole night.

Since he had not spent much time with other puppies, he developed a habit of biting us. The puppies which spend first three months with the parents and clutch, learn it by instinct that biting is not a good behavior. When he bites other puppies, they make a displeasuring bark, telling the biting puppy that this is not a good behavior. We solved the problem by making a short high pitched cry noise whenever it tried to bite us. He forgot the habit quite soon.

Bonding!

We named him Shadow the next day. He became the best friend and play mate of the children in the family. My son Shafay would go and check on him many times during the day. In the evening we would unleash Shadow and he would happily chase the kids for hours. He also liked the kids more than the adults, because the former would sneak toffees, candies and biscuits to him.

My younger brother Moid was his keeper. He remained like a dotting owner. Giving him food in the morning and evening and often giving him an afternoon snack. 

After becoming part of every family moment during last 6 months. Shadow breathed his last on 10th July 2017. He stopped eating and our folk pet wisdom suspected that its because of very warm weather. We took him to a vet, then admitted him in a veterinary hospital, gave him saline drips, but he died. Shadow’s death brought a shadow of sadness on the whole family and the kids stopped playing in the lawn in the evening.

Weeks before his death!

PS: The parvo virus is preventable. Prima Dog is the name of vaccine which is available in Pakistan. We gave him one dose when he was 3 months old, but were not advised to give another dose. The second dose could have saved his life. Symptoms of parvo are that dog looses appetite, develops diarrhea with blood. 

Dear departed: Masi Fateh Bi

Masi Fateh Be started working as a house maid in our house in 1994. My youngest sister, now a student of third year in a medical college, had just born when Masi joined us. She worked for almost two decades in our house. She was more like a family member. We would call her Masi (aunt) or Masi Fateh Be. We would sometimes call her Aunty

Conqueror.

In those twenty years, no coin was found missing, jewellery remained untouched, no food was stolen. Such was her level of honesty. Masi lived near our house. She was a poor relative of a family friend, who recommended her name to my mother. Masi had a son and a daughter. Despite having a growing daughter, Masi was never tempted to steal even a hair pin from our house. My mother paid her in time and also supplemented the salary with seasonal clothes and cash bonuses on festivals.

Little was known about Masi’s husband. When we were young, we only knew that he was a wanderer who passed his time on tombs and shrines. He would desert Masi for months. One such desertion was so long that Masi had all the reasons to believe that he had died. Masi borrowed money from my mother and arranged for her husband’s Qul. She bought clothes for the local Maulvi and also donated some money to the mullah so that he prays for the departed soul of her husband. After just two months of the Qul ritual, her husband reappeared in her life.

The next desertion was so long that Masi forgot her husband’s earlier desertion, Qul and reappearance; and again spent a good deal of money on the second Qul. Masi’s husband again reappeared. After that Masi never bothered to arrange for the eternal peace of her ‘departed’ husband.

When Masi became too old to work, my mother retired her with a monthly pension of half of her pay. Masi would also get seasonal clothes and cash money on festivals.

My mother promised her gold earings on my wedding. She was offered to take the gold jewellery or its equivalent price. Masi preferred bling bling.

She remained loyal to our family through our good times and bad times. She breathed her last a week before this Eid. Everyone in the house was sad. My aunts, who live abroad, called my mother and offered their condolences. Masi is survived by her son, a barber with a large number of kids and her daughter with two kids.