A thing of beauty

The first day of Covid-19 lockdown started with the appearance of a beauty in our backyard. The spoon full of rice I kept for crows was suddenly gulped by this black canine beauty. From then, as soon as we opened the back door blew a shrill whistle; there she comes with soft steps, neither running nor walking but trotting like a horse.

Some days, she gets biscuits and some days exclusively made hot dosa or idly. Whatever the food, she picks it in a unique way, as she had lost her canines in a fight with other dogs in the neighbourhood. Our neighbour would often guess that she does not have proper vision, which was why she ate like that. All our theories were disproved when we saw her chasing low flying swallows and other birds. Even during the nights, we saw her catch jumping frogs and toads in our garden.

A couple of weeks in, I guessed that she was pregnant after seeing her engorged teats. My husband argued that without a bulged abdomen, how on earth could she be pregnant? During the lockdown, it was not even possible to get her scanned. The whole first phase of the lockdown passed like this, watching the many charismatic pranks of our slender beauty.

One day, our beauty disappeared and to our dismay, we did not spot her for more than 48 hours. Our neighbour said that she had littered in the bushes and the shrill sounds of puppies could be heard near the far corner of a weed-infested field beside their house.

I jumped and proclaimed that my second guess had become true, our beauty had become a mom. However, sadly the pups did not seem to be seen, but their mother was spotted roaming here and there, searching for her pups. The puppies may have died naturally or might have been preyed by other animals.

In a matter of a day or two, she forgot her grief and returned to my house, eagerly waiting for some eatables from us. She got everything from milk, curd, hot beverages in an exclusive glass cup that was left over the tank lid that looked like a dining table for her.

All that we ate for breakfast, lunch or dinner, a share was reserved for her. By the lockdown 3.0, she started glowing with smooth skin because of all the nourishments she got. Still, she retained her tucked abdomen and characteristic rhythmic walking style of Mudhol hound, the pride of Karnataka.