Lucky in our lives!!

For me a house or an apartment becomes a home when you add one set of four legs, a happy tail, and that indescribable measure of love we call a dog.- Roger Caras

My husband has always been very fond of dogs and wanted one since his childhood. His mom to avoid the issue told him that he could have one, the day he had his own house. I guess, he took it pretty seriously and got Lucky just the day after we moved in our very own apartment. Lucky is a labrador retriever and true to their traits, a very affectionate dog with a very happy tail, which keeps wagging and hitting everybody around like a whip and knocking things off the floor. Whoever said labs are lazy, should think twice coz here is a hyperactive, very energetic and playful dog, always ready to show his toys to the guests and coaxing them to play with him coz according to him, how can they not play with somebody so cute and adorable!

With Lucky around, every moment is memorable and every day adventurous! He was just 6 months old when we got him on 18th July 2010. To be frank, I was a little scared because of his size and his hyper energy. The first few months were a challenge with him peeing all around the house. Also, we dreaded coming back home coz we knew that something would be torn or broken. We used to keep him in a room with the balcony door open for him to see out and we had removed all the furnishings from that room. However, at the cost of 3 mattresses, 2 pillows, a few magazines, etc. Lucky grew up and thank God stopped chewing on anything and everything at his hand.

He wakes us up at 5 am as that is his breakfast and morning walk time. I was glad that my husband will finally get some exercise. However, the great manager that he is, he delegated the job to my bro, who is so much in love with Lucky that whether he himself eats or not, he never forgets to feed Lucky, though he himself used to get up at 9 am, he gets up early at 5 just to take Lucky out for a walk. He is hopelessly in love with Lucky and Lucky knows that. Both of them can't do without each other. The brother can't see Lucky sleeping, he will wake him up just to play with him and Lucky can't see the brother at ease, he will start climbing, jumping, biting, etc. the moment he sees him doing something else. I haven't seen anybody else as happy at the sight of a shirt or jeans torn because of a dog's bite than my brother. He comes beaming to show me his torn shirt and as if showing a report card with 90% marks tells me see what Lucky did..and you can see it in his eyes that he is trying to say "isn't he cute!" That's how blind his love is for Lucky :)

After his breakfast, Lucky takes it upon himself to wake us up. Thus, my bro decided to keep him in his room till we come looking for him, which is mostly between 8 - 8:30 am. Lucky would be nicely perched on his feet, above his blanket. Well, Lucky doesn't like the blanket on top, he loves sitting on top of the blanket. It is Lucky's ritual to sit and groan near the dining table till we are ready and sit for breakfast. He sits next to my chair and eats bread pieces from my plate. If the gap between 2 pieces is long according to his standard, he starts nudging me with his head, forever drooling on my dress :)

When we leave the house for work, he comes to the balcony as if to say bye and looks at us with those droopy eyes as if saying "why don't you take me along!". Yesterday, while I was packing my bag to go to work, he sensed that I was going to leave and came and sat on my lap, all 30 kgs of him and put his head inside the bag to stop me from packing. If he sees us wearing shoes, he starts jumping on us, pulling the shoes and tries to hide them. He is so adorable. If he knows that he has done something wrong, he goes and sits in his corner with that guilty look and if we scold him, he will give his hand to shake as if trying to make up.

When I come back from work, he welcomes me at the door by jumping on me and then grabs my hand and takes me to the couch. Once I sit down, he sits on my lap and we talk for a few mins. If in those few mins., somebody interrupts our conversation by calling my phone, Lucky gets furious and the possessive soul that he is, starts whining as if he is scolding me for taking the call and interrupting our quality time together :) When I go in the kitchen to make chapatis for him, he sits outside the kitchen, waiting for his food. He keeps making the peculiar sounds till his food is served. Then he goes for his evening walk. After his walk, he is hyper active and wants to play frisbee. He loves playing with me coz I guess that makes him feel superior ;) It's difficult for me to catch him. I chase him and he challenges me by coming near me and then the moment I think I have grabbed him, he manages to wriggle out of my hold.

At night, if he is sleepy and I am still trying to finish my chores, he again grabs my hand and takes me to bed :P He loves lying on top of my blanket with his weight on my ankles. In between, if he gets a bad dream (that's what I think) he comes and sleeps between both of us with his head hidden around my tummy, he curls up. Also, as I said earlier, Lucky is quite a possessive soul. If he sees me and my husband dancing together or even hugging each other, he tries to hug me and sit on my lap and pushes my husband away..:)

Lucky is an year old now and for his birthday, we took him to Naturals for an ice cream treat. Though, he is not very used to travelling, he is a little scared while in the car but I guess his love for ice cream is more over powering than his fear of travel!

I thank Lucky for being in our lives, for increasing our patience and tolerance levels, for loving us unconditionally and for making us better human beings!

Somebody has rightly said.. "To err is human, to forgive is canine!"