I love Lucy

I have always been extremely fond of dogs and have always wanted to have one as a pet.But it just so happens that neither were my parents too keen on the prospect of having a dog running loose in their house nor is M.

I was around 5 years old when my parents and I moved to this small but cozy rented house in Basaveshwaranagar.The owners of the house lived right next door and were really nice folks who happened to be quite fond of me.I vividly remember that back then,I used to love watching the "I love Lucy" show and was a huge fan of Lucille Ball.One afternoon,there was lot of commotion at our owner's house and surprisingly the entire family of 4 were home and seemed to be very excited about something.After a while,their son Balu called out to me from their living room window(which was almost adjacent to our verandah) and said that he had a surprise for me.That was enough for me to dash out and run over to their house and what I saw there brought a huge smile on my face!

That was the very first time I laid my eyes on this cutest little ball of brown fur!They had actually brought home this adorable little Alsatian puppy and Balu wanted me to name her.Now,as far as the trend in naming dogs goes,you hear of names like
"Timmy" , "Piinky", "Fluffy" or "Tommy".Even as a 5 year old child,I knew that these names were as clichéd as can be!So I named her "Lucy" after my favorite TV personality and at that very moment I fell in love with my new friend.

Lucy soon grew into this humongous creature with a thick bushy tail.I would help Balu give her a nice bath and would be so amused when Lucy would promptly go over the rose bushes in the garden, the very next instant and roll around in the mud!And this would annoy Balu every single time!I also loved to feed Lucy and see her lap up her food in no time.For us,Lucy was a member of our family and we spoke to her in Kannada and addressed her as "Hoge" "Baare".Uncle wanted her to be a typical watch-dog so they trained her to be ferocious and unfriendly to strangers.If some one would as much as even look in the direction of our houses, that was enough to set her off.She would bark and growl and gnaw her big scary teeth until the poor soul ran for cover!Lucy was very fond of coming over to our house for "breakfast" at sharp 8.30 am almost every morning!That was when I would leave for school and the rascal knew that my mother would be laying out the table for breakfast for my father!So she would come to our doorstep and her tail would go thump thump thump against the door and as soon as I opened the door,she would run (most of the times,over me) into our house and go looking for my mother and coax my mother to feed her!

We moved to BSK to our own house after a few years and it became increasingly difficult to go visit the owner-family and Lucy.And then the inevitable happened.About 8 years ago,Balu called us and informed us of Lucy's passing away.I was so heartbroken that day.She was buried in the very same rose garden in that house.I miss you friend and I will always love you.

Someday if I ever get to own a pet dog,I already know what I am going to call her...