Pet topic!

I've long wanted to write something about children and pets. Wanted to make it a good one, too, because the topic is near to my heart. What just reminded me of this- my daughter is chasing our dog with a feather duster this very minute, to dust her off. The dog is making futile attempts to hide skulking behind our dining table, between furniture, by the door, and generally looking embarrassed as hell. Just another day in our lively household!

Before I had my daughter, I became pet mommy to a 12-week-old golden fur ball, half Lab, half Golden retriever named Maya. She was “Kendra” at the shelter, but we didn’t want our pet named after a Playboy Bunny J. Even remember the date- October 21, 2006. After several months of searching for the perfect pooch on Petfinder.com, visiting a couple of shelters, and fuming through a 3-week, longish delay stuck in Canada due to visa issues. The night before my visa appointment I was surfing through Petfinder.com, not able to sleep, when I see this post with a picture of 4 tiny puppies- 2 black, 2 golden that somebody had dropped off at a suburban shelter. The very weekend after my return to Michigan, we checked them out on what was one of the happiest days of my life. A week later, Maya came home.

Maya has changed 2 countries and shared 5 homes with us. She has terrorized several maids (all bark no bite), 2 cooks, converted about 45 non-dog people into dog lovers or at least, “likers”, precipitated the addition of another Lab, Buddy, to my in-laws’ home, and has a fan following of at least a hundred- including our family, friends, friends of friends, neighbors, pensioners, trekkers and even slum children. She has been a constant companion through some of the toughest phases of our lives. She single-handedly awakened my maternal instinct. I still remember the first visit to the vet to get her shots, the first night alone with her, dealing with separation anxiety, bathing, feeding, potty training, socialization et al! Couldn’t ask for a better warm-up for motherhood.

I walked her daily almost up to the 8^th month of my pregnancy. On these walks, we coolly returned glances at my huge belly, and pooh-poohed well-intentioned but frankly clueless advice about how my dog will be detrimental to my health and my baby’s. Maya was beside me right up to the night I was admitted in the hospital to deliver my daughter. She was so careful around the baby…in fact it was my daughter who made the first move by crawling up to her and patting her on the nose. I have albums full of pictures of the two; perusing it will be cuteness overload.

Maya totally destroyed the dog hate campaign being run by some un-enlightened individuals in our Bangalore apartment complex. In response to some mail about “fierce dogs” on the society forum, my husband simply shared a video of my 10-month-old bouncing up and down on Maya and friendly neighborhood Golden Retriever Leia, peering into their mouths, grabbing their ears and toddling about trying to decide which dog to sit on, while the dogs lie there all benign and only attempt to kiss her!

Parents, letting your children grow up with a dog is one of the best things you can do for them. If you have any doubts, feel free to leave a comment. I’m a fount of information on this topic!