A perfect Gift!!!

Since retiring to this moment, my dad, and I have seen deer, monkeys and a lot of dogs as well— but nothing capable of making the bizarre noise that was coming from outside. I dropped my studying and flew to the window. “It’s a dog! A little white, cute dog.”

Dad came running, and I glanced back outside. The small beast looked up at me with squinty doggy eyes while munching my shocks. “Stop that!” I ordered, rapping on the glass.

We puzzled about where this small li’l puppy had come from. Then we remembered: The Banerjees’ teens were raising two dogs. I tapped in their number, but the phone rang and rang. Maybe we could lure it home with food.

My rural Murshidabad childhood had taught me that who love in living beings, can open the door of heaven, so I was in a rash for anything to give, but the closest we had was cornflakes. Being desperate, we dumped the cereal in a small pail and hurried outside.

Dad held the bucket and shouted, “Here dog, here dog, here!” The puppy eyeballed the pail, grunted and waddled closer. Dad slowly backed up. Doggy took three small steps and stopped. Dad pushed the pail closer.

The dog shoved its snout deep inside and snuffled around in the cornflakes. Instead of eating, however, it pulled back, gave a small snort and trotted back to my flower bed.

Maybe we could lasso it? Dad got a rope from the garage and, summoning his inner cowboy, fashioned a rope, which he swung around over his head. Sadly, Dad is not an actual cowboy. After countless failed attempts at doggy roping, he finally just walked up to the dog and placed the loop over its head.

“Come on, dog,” Dad said. “Time to go home.” He tugged the rope. The dog squealed and took off in the opposite direction. Across the lawn went dog and Dad, sometimes Dad pulling the dog, but most times it resisted, zigzagging toward the neighbors’ house. The houses’ people and passerby corralled there pricked up their ears, galloped over to the fence and lined up like spectators at a rodeo.

The dog, startled, stopped and stared back. Dad snatched the opportunity and tied the rope around a fence post. The dog pulled and pulled, but the post wouldn’t budge. A little spotted kid slipped between two men and yell softly to the dog. At last, doggy slept.

Late that afternoon, Banerjees came, we went to them and enquired about it. They said, for a certain reason, they need to shift their base, & an unfortunate thing is, the other, means the parent dogs they had, are been sold to others. We came to a great surprise, that how did it slipped from the hand of them & ran towards our house. After listening every bit of discussion, I came up with request to my dad & Banerjee uncle, that “I think she chose me, (actually it’s a bitch!) & it would be quite great if I also do the same”. I demanded my father for that gift! which by seeing everything, he couldn’t deny.  He untied the rope, scratched his dog’s snout & back, and said, “Come on, Marshmallow. Time to go home.” It trotted along behind me, catching the tiny white marshmallows Dad tossed our way as we walked home together…