Love, sadness

Messi has grown. Ninad has flown the nest. Most of you must have lost the flow in my blog stories. It has indeed been a long time since I last wrote. My inertia overpowers my desire to write but Eff seems to be capable of coaxing this inertia to depart, even if temporarily. Yes Eff is here.

This year seemed to throw multiple tragedies. Eff is in mourning for her mother and I, for Judy. Nasiur's mother was taken to another realm a week after my 10 year gap-ped meeting with him. Despite of the losses, and the inability to shake of the feeling that they still remain -somewhere -everywhere, all of them were released from their physical bodies after prolonged periods of suffering. We know they are in better places, and thankful for that. I know they will be around for eternity. This knowledge somewhat releases us from the overwhelming sadness.

Time heals.

Messi and the immense tender love his mere thought envelopes us with helped with healing. My original baby, Ninad, comes back and forth in sudden randomly timed 'whatsapp' messages and keeps me and Jumi informed about the state of his mind with brown to black emojis of facial expressions and fingers in different positions. The photos of him that I have placed around my house fiercely bring back the same tender love I feel for Messi now.

Ninad, my human born and Messi, my adopted cocker spaniel are my babies and any attempt to mess with them will likely unveil that side of me that occasionally turns up somewhat akin to a mauled tiger. This realisation came to me at different points of time. Ninad brought it out a few years back and Messi brought it out a few months back.

Dogs, like humans, communicate very well. The language is a mystery to us, like so many other things that modern science has yet to be to able demystify, but despite that they can still make us understand what they want, and it is amazing. Messi being an only dog-child, has made a few stray friend from his walks for his daily ablutions. The girl-dogs give out coy barks and try to make shy contacts.

Being an alpha male, Messi makes most males flee when they try to inform him that he is bypassing their territory. Messi refuses to pee or poo inside the house or the boundaries of the apartment complex. When you beg him to once do it inside the house because you are too groggy or cosily tucked into the laptop, he knows what will get you out. His whining and gentle taps soon turn to scratchy ones and small nips till you get up and change your shameful clothes to modest ones to take him out of the house. If you push him out of the room and shut the door inside, he will scratch and scratch and scratch till the same result is achieved.

He knows Mama needs to exercise and lose weight. I think.

I wish I could get him a dog-girlfriend in season, I know he wants one. There is a furry soft toy that I own and I have often seen him look with tender love/lust at it when I put it out of the way. He seems to think of it as a she-dog. It is fear of the domestic help threatening to quit which is preventing me from getting a girl-dog.

Sigh! Life is tough.