Vector - My Home - The New World

I did not get even one full day with Pop. I had just got over the loss of my mother and thought I would be under the protection of my Pop when I got the message that I am being picked up!!! Just after his sermon about my work and the great life I can expect in the future, I was told that I am leaving again. My Pop had ensured that I was well groomed by licking my hair flat and asked me to perk up those oversized ears of mine. He was Black and Tan all over and I was all Black. His ears were nicely shaped and stood up like the antenna of a radar and try as hard as I may, mine drooped over my sad eyes. I was wondering whether I really belonged to him at all. I was sad. So when I was picked up and placed in small cardboard carton with a strange strong smell (later I got to know it was a carton with the foul smelling liquid called Rum) filled with lots of paper and a wooly blanket, I curled up whining and closed my eyes…. I didn’t want anything to do with this world I had come into.

I was jerked out of my slumber with loud squeals of delight. The guy who had brought me from my mother’s place picked me up from my cozy box and through my sleepy eyes I saw three bright pairs of eyes peering at me. The Oohs and Aahs were too much. What were they oohing and aahing at me for? What I did not know was that this was the family with whom my nomadic life was to start.  The guy passed me over to a man whom I would get to know as Appa, the man whose house I was to work in. The other two creatures  (The Girl and The Boy) were much smaller than the man. They seemed so excited to see me and kept patting me softly over my head. Yeah, initially I felt that my privacy was being invaded but I sort of liked it too. After a while I was placed into my box and I tried going back to sleep again. 

Suddenly I felt as if I was flying. Yes! I was lifted along with my box into the air and taken out. It was so hot, I thought I was going to be tortured in the depths of hell. I was dumped into another big box with wheels and the Girl and the Boy got in with me. The whole box started moving. My little teeth were clicking against each other as we bumped along for some time. I tried looking up but all I saw was the adoring eyes of the girl and boy. I settled back with a whine. The big box stopped after some time and again I was lifted with my small home into the torture chamber of bright and hot light. Oh they were going to kill me, I thought but luckily I saw around me everything cool and kind of dark. The squeals of happiness increased and then I looked up into the kindest pair of eyes I had ever seen. Only my mother’s eyes were like that. I whined and I was picked up gently. The lady whom I would refer as Amma henceforth cooed at me and held me close. It was so nice and comfortable. I was already liking the whole feeling. Then I was slowly placed on the floor and what do I see.  One huge dark cool room, filled with strange stuff and even stranger smells. Oh this was the place that my Pop had told me about. A place I would be owning and protecting. I felt good. So I stumbled towards the nearest wall and did what my ancestors have been doing to mark what I have decided is mine – I peed……

Everyone screamed. I recoiled with horror. What had I done? I saw Amma telling the boy in some jibberish pointing her finger somewhere. The Boy ran and came back with some paper and placed it over the mess I had made. Ok, if that was the game they wanted to play, I was game for it too. I walked a bit further and let go another small squirt. Screams, Boy rushing with the paper and wiping the mess, walk ahead…. Oh! the game continued. And that was when I heard the first words which I heard a zillion times over the years – “NO”. That signalled that what I was doing was not right. So who was to know what was right. I learnt it too… the hard way in the coming days.

I went around the big house which became my home, smelt stuff, knew what was where, places to go and where not to, what to bite into and what not. The place was big and I was tired soon. I found a nice cool corner and decided that this is where I would rest myself. I curled up and let out a loud sigh and closed my eyes. 

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I was Home at last!!!