For Sasha

At one point in our lives, we realize that there are some instances which change its course forever. There are miracles, there are phenomenons and there are pets. There was Sasha.

India is one country where animals are loathed upon. Till date I haven’t been able to understand why. Animals have are more understanding and affectionate than most humans are. I have yet to encounter a human being who can love me as much as Sasha did. Sometimes I wonder why there love is so selfless. And here I don’t talk about dogs alone, I talk about all kinds of animals.

Sasha was a blessing in disguise for us. She came to us when she was a few days old, a white albino Dalmatian. Why is it that I call her white Dalmatian? Because she never got the black spots they have. She had a pink nose with a black dot in the center, her cutest and most lovable feature.

She was always on the go. Alive and kicking as they call it. We called her out princess! Princess Sasha. She was one picky dog, she never had her food without papaya. Most people wondered why we fed fruits to her when they fed their dogs with milk and chapattis. My answer was why not? Doesn’t she have a right to decide what she wants to have? Most of my friends considered me cynical to be possessive for a dog but she was much more than that, she was my life.

I still remember the sweltering days of July, when we didn’t have papaya at home and she refused to east her lunch. My mother went out in the heat and got it for her. We could not see her hungry. God! How she made us worry, but at the end it was worth it to see her full and sleeping on my bed unaware of everything happening around.

Sometimes I wonder why God made her like that. I can’t remember a day she kept well. She had a tumor at the top of her head which no vet was able to diagnose. That part of head never had fur. People used to ask us why we had kept such a dog and needless to say, they always had to face the wrath of my tongue.

When she was a few months old, she fell sick with a viral infection. The doctor told us she will not survive and we told the doctor that we will make her live. And we did, we fed her glucose again and again. The fifth day of her infection, she was comatose and we were crying. I could not lose her and she had to live. The next morning, she had the biscuit my dad used to keep on her bed everyday. She had not left us. She had made it. God had protected her.

In the next monsoons, her tumor became full of blood. The vet removed the blood and said there is nothing to worry, she will become okay. She stayed with us for 4 years and every monsoon the tumor filled with blood which the vet used to remove. I don’t understand why he never told us that it was a tumor. He was never able to diagnose it.

Then dawned the worst morning of my life. I was sleeping and was unaware of it till evening. Dad had taken her out for a morning walk when a car ran over her. The driver was sleeping on the wheel.

We took her to the doctor, she was paralyzed from the waist down. I looked at her and she didn’t wag her tail because that part of her body was dead. We took her to various doctors. The last vet said she will become okay but it will take time. Everyday, we used to hope she would get up and running but she did not. She stopped eating and would just drag herself to her water bowl and drink endless amounts of water. I could see she was scared.

Then came December 12, 2005. I was home and I was helping dad to clean up her bed. We had to change her bed three times a day because she used to urinated and excrete on it. We never had a problem doing it, because you would do it for your child too. She was very pale that day and was urinating endlessly. It did not stop. Mom and Dad took her to the doctor and brought back a dead body.

I could not believe it. She could not die, she could not leave us. Death is something which happens and we cannot control it, but it is so difficult to accept. Sasha went and left us only with memories.

Sometimes, it feels so empty but then, for the 4 years she was with us she filled our lives with happiness. I don’t have the courage to keep another pet because I can’t go through the pain again. My love for animals will always be there and I will always volunteer to any animal welfare organization but there cannot be another Sasha.