#KathmanduDiaries – Having a Pet Dog for a short while

We don’t have any pets in my home. As a kid, we’re told not to touch a street dog regarding the neatness quotient. We still don’t as they, as the reason comes knowingly, can be dirty. That is not their fault. They are homeless. As any other dogs (or, animal), they have a soul, they are good and they are voiceless. For me, any sort of torture against them is cruelty.

Chelsea - My First Pet Dog

Back in 2011, there was a dog, which was ‘street dog’ for others but like a pet in the house where I stay. She always lived here. She gave birth to six puppies out of which only one is left now, and he stills lives here. He doesn’t have a name. Unlike earlier, he has stopped following us.

I think it was after watching Hachiko, in 2013 that this big love for dogs had seeded in me. It was only the matter of leftovers, otherwise, that we used to feed to dogs. To be honest, I still don’t feed him (nameless doggie) on regular basis. He wanders everywhere around and I’m out of the house all day. But I’ve some care for him. He doesn’t stay here regularly now. Like I said earlier, although he was not a pet dog, he was like one in here.

As far as I can remember about dogs, I had a ‘jumping’ puppy toy back in my childhood. First encounter with a dog, perhaps! Ha-ha… I remember because that toy is still in my home. Then it was just a few years ago that I realized I loved dogs. By now, I’m very much sure that I’m gonna own one after a while, anyhow.

It is Chelsea - the dog, whom I still remember sometimes. (The name was given by my elder brother) She was my pet for fifteen days, only! She was left unwanted by somebody outside my aunt’s shop. It was around December of 2013. I felt so bad to see her shivering in cold that I decided to take her home. She was only a few weeks old. But as nervous as I used to be, I couldn’t carry her. I would lift her up, and then soon place her down. My younger brother (cousin) brought her to my room. I fed her milk and placed her in a cartoon box with some clothes around.

Back then in 2011, I once had to carry a puppy back to his mother in home when I saw him lost in the road at night while I was returning from dinner. My parents told me to carry him, and I was afraid!! I always feel it nervous to carry babies; they’re too soft and delicate. I lifted him up, he started to move around, then I got nervous and I placed him down. I struggled a little to lead him to home that night.

I could finally hold the pup in my arms

It was in night, when I felt clueless about what to do. Chelsea wouldn’t stop crying, she got out of the box, she pooped and pissed on my carpet, on my brother’s carpet, on passage, in kitchen….! I talked to my friend who had a pet dog, and he told me that it might take a couple of days for her to adjust in new place. She took exactly two days indeed.

Struggle continued on her caressing. The hardest part was to clean her shits!

During daytime when nobody used to be in house, I left her at my aunt’s shop. She used to stay there all day. Brother loved her much as well, and he used to feed her everyday as soon as he returned from school. And in night, she was back in the house.

My mom had come in valley about same time. Since she doesn’t like dogs and is kind of allergic, I had to put Chelsea outside the flat, in a small cartoon box-kennel in an open space below the stairs. She had stopped crying at nights. And she was growing up, fast, I felt it was fast.

my younger brother's way of playing with Chelsea

Hard time was also when we cleaned her up. I didn’t know that puppies should not be bathed often. We (we, because it was my friend and brother rather than me, who did her bathe) bathed her two times in about ten days. She had started teething, so she would just bite anything. She’d started eating biscuits too.

I think it’s because she used to be alone all day that she didn’t get as friendly as we had expected. She would often hide behind the stacked pipes below the stairs. But she was playful anyway, or we made her so! Later, she started playing with the dog (nameless one) but he wouldn’t give a damn about that poor puppy!

I liked it when she used to follow me whenever I got out of the gate. But she would just come a couple of meters away from house and then return back, no matter how much we called her. This cute little pup was the first pet we had and I was kinda obsessed. Some said, "you pet a street dog’s pup? No matter what, street dogs will turn out to be the same". I doubted too. But I didn’t care as I thought it would turn out the way we bring it up. Nevertheless, I loved the cuteness of my first pet.

All these things were just a matter of about two weeks. This affection and closeness increased just as she grew up a little bigger than she first came, in just fifteen days. Then one day, as I return to my room, I see her nowhere around. By then, I had stopped placing her at shop in daytime, thinking that she wouldn’t get going with other dirty dogs. I didn’t like to chain her as well. She used to stay within the house perimeter anyway. But that day, she was nowhere to be found. My younger brother and I went in search around places nearby, but she was lost, just lost, like a smoke in an air.

I didn’t pet another one as I was out of valley for a job. I still can’t afford one now as I’ve got it that it takes time and sheer attention to properly pet a dog. I’m in office all day, so not much time! Plus, there wouldn’t be a proper place to keep her. But I will definitely pet one when I feel the time is suitable enough. And I don’t think I’ll name her Chelsea. ‘Chelsea’ was for that poor little pup, which I still miss sometimes around.

A short clip of Chelsea playing around

(Sorry for the low video quality)