Pawprints on my Heart

Hindi Words of the Week:

            दोस्त Dost (dh-oh-sst) – friend

          अलविदा Alvida (ull-vih-the) – goodbye

We buried his ashes next to the others. All our family’s dogs are in one place in the garden. He wasn’t mine; I don’t mean “mine” as in ownership, although he was the family dog and technically, I did own him in a sense. I didn’t train him; I wasn’t there for the bad days when he chewed everything up or the triumphant days when he learned a new obedience behavior, but I was there when he came home the first time. I was there for a quarter of his beautiful, if short, life. I know he wasn’t my dog, but he was my friend.

I remember when he came home for the first time. I was spending my vacation time from India back here at home. He was so tiny. A small little spindly boxer, brown with dark stripes in a brindle pattern flowing along his body. He had a handsome mask of white on his face, which flowed tuxedo like down his chest and circled his ankles giving him white feet. He was so small. My niece has a shih-tzu poodle mix and full grown, that dog’s the size of a red brick – no joke! He was the same size as her when he came; he barely reached up to the middle of my calf.

The next time I came home for vacation, he was tall enough that his head was at my waist. I forgot how fast dogs grow. I had already missed the puppy days. However, if any of you have ever met a boxer, you know that they still have some puppy-like characteristics as adults. When I finally moved back to the states in June, he was huge. His head was the size of my niece’s dog and what growth he didn’t achieve in height he more than made up for in muscle and brawn. He was a big goofball.

He had that stereotypical boxer butt-wiggle when he got too happy, that annoying drool that got everywhere and made it next to impossible to wear black pants. Sometimes on bad days, I slept with him on the floor. He was great at cuddling, minus that horrid breath. Haha. I miss him. This morning it was brisk, not as cold as the forecast is predicting for the next few days and not as cold as it was the last few days. I had on just a sweater and I went out to the part of our garden where his ashes are buried. I was actually walking my niece’s dog. I knelt down to just touch the mulch on top. I do that sometimes; it brings me peace. It’s like a spiritual hug. I felt something wet hit my hand; I reached up and realized it was a tear.

If you are someone who loves animals and cares about the welfare and health of our four-legged friends then you could maybe jump in right away. Montgomery college has a great veterinarian assistant program consisting of 5 non-credit courses with 150 hours of training. You can find more information here. And if you want to become a full-fledged veterinarian, Montgomery College actually has online resources that are simple and easy to access regarding prerequisite courses and veterinary colleges nationwide. You can access it here. Cherish your four-legged friends Raptors.

In Loving Memory of Moksha Sharma (07/06/2014 – 10/27/2018)