I fell in love with this adorable little, black pup with limpid honey-brown, almond-shaped eyes, rimmed with black, as if lined with kohl. It rubbed its wet nose into my neck as I stroked its head and we began to bond.
My daschund was a lazy, little fellow who loved to curl into a ball in his basket and sleep. All his needs were catered to by doting family members and so mum named him Lord. She said we treated him like a king and he seemed to be ruling the roost more than her.
As a puppy, Lord's long ears used to flop into his bowl as he greedily gobbled down his food. We had to wait, sponge in hand, while he watched us from the corner of his eye. The minute he was done, he'd try and make a dash for it on his short, stubby legs as we pounced on him and scooped him up to wipe his ears. The whole object of this exercise was to avoid an ear infection.
Lord loved going for car rides and jumped in the minute we opened the door. He'd stick his face out of the back window - his ears flapping about in the breeze.
He got on famously with our pet parrot - Preacher the screecher. Preacher would call out, "Oh Lord" and Lord would respond by barking incessantly. For a small dog he sure had a loud bark! Preacher would sing "There's a rat in my kitchen what am I going to do?" and Lord would come rushing into the kitchen with his nose to the ground ready to sniff out the rat. Daschunds are excellent rat-catchers. Often he'd explore holes in the garden for rats and come in, muddy nosed, leaving a trail of dirty paw prints for us to clean.
We were forced to leave Lord and Preacher in our maid Laxmi's care when the family had to attend a wedding in Mysore. Laxmi stayed in a small outhouse in our big compound. Having fed our pets she locked the house for the night.
Around midnight, a thief broke in. He cracked open the lock on the front door and walked in stealthily, torch in hand. As he was picking up the music player, Preacher said, "The Lord is watching you". Startled, the thief turned to see it was only a parrot and continued to stuff our silverware into his gunny bag. Once again Preacher proclaimed in a serious tone, "The Lord is watching you!"
Irritated the thief turned round and said "Ok. What's your name wise-Alec?" "Preacher", replied the parrot promptly. "What kind of people name their parrot Preacher?" asked the thief. "The one's that call their dog Lord", replied Preacher. The robber turned around just as Lord attacked him, growling with hackles raised and teeth bared. He nipped the crook's ankles. A sharp pain shot through the robber's leg as he lashed out with a kick, sending poor Lord flying. But Daschunds are brave to the point of recklessness and Lord went for him again.
This time the thief grabbed his bag and turned tail, heading out of the door. As he ran through the garden with Lord snapping at his heels, Lord turned on the sprinklers accidentally, drenching the crook. He stepped on a rake lying in the garden, which hit him in the crotch and he doubled over in pain. Hobbling as best as he could he opened the driver's door of our car and turned the ignition key. Lord jumped into the car, onto the driver's seat and pressed his paw against the horn. The blaring horn and non-stop barking prompted the neighbours to rush out of their homes to see what was happening.
Imagine their surprise to see Lord with his paw on the horn. They nabbed the soaking wet crook, who tried to make a run for it, but couldn't go far with his painful ankles.
They all lauded Lord for his bravery saying "My Lord! This time you've truly caught a big rat!"
When we got home Laxmi told us what had transpired. We spoilt Lord even more thereafter. Mum realized that our lazy little dog (the Lord of the house), although small in size had a big, brave heart.