The Spark in my life

I remember growing up with a love for animals. I recall pestering my dad to get home an elephant or a tiger or a horse, and he'd patiently explain that it would be difficult to keep such animals at home. So I settled for a dog. And dad shrewdly ensured that I did well each year at school promising me a dog which never came. I got smart and started bringing home stray pups that I'd find. I'd bathe the pup with my expensive shampoo; line its basket with my old clothes. When I'd get back from school/college and in later years from work, I'd find that the pup had mysteriously disappeared from home. But I never gave up hoping that one day I'd bring my family around to my school of thought. My dream was shattered however when my brother married and we got to know that my sis in law was petrified of pups leave alone dogs. I wondered if I'd ever realize my dream, and then came 'Sparky'.

A year back my neighbor Conan in the opposite building chanced upon an abandoned pup at a petrol station and the lil tyke was so mischievous that he adopted it. Here was a dream come true, somehow Sparky and I got along like a house on fire. And at last I had a dog of my own without having to own one. When I get back from work and my auto is at the gate, Sparky doesn't even wait for me to alight. He's into the auto nudging me out and joyfully welcoming me. I just have to whistle and Sparky wherever he is comes running up home. He's of course not allowed in when sis in law is home, but otherwise he believes he's as much a part of the household as we are.

It's amazing to see the love that an animal can have for his owner/s. Sparks loves to play and literally pounces on you to get you to gambol around with him. Sometimes when I get back from work and am too tired to play with Sparks or take him for a walk, he quietly sits down beside me and I'm stunned to see how astute he is to my moods. When I'm down or have had a rough day at work, he invariably manages to cheer me up no matter what.

I must be blessed, to have a pet that I'd always dreamed off and that too without having to go through the pains of bringing up one. Indeed he's a spark in my life.

Sparky patiently waiting for a tidbit.