Joy -An Episode Of Love

JOY- AN EPISODE OF LOVE

(Title credits to Rutu -my colleague)

30^th Oct evening when I saw “joy” first time. He was fragile, delicate fearful and weak. I took him in my arms and didn't want to leave him forever. He smelled me all over and after a while was absolutely comfortable.

He was meant to meet me. Yes I strongly believe so.Joy (baby Labrador dog) who made me learn many things with just a weeks stay with me.

Joy's episode started when I got to know that joy was actually a birthday present to someone and they couldn't keep it in their house because of the dog aversion by the rest of the family members. Since I have been a great dog lover I was called to take up joys responsibility but alas the scene at my in laws place was even worst. I missed my mum’s home so much and called them up in the tragic situation, my mother was really excited and quickly decided to adopt joy, but she lived in a different city. Major problem of transporting little joy safely to a different city but till then what?

I still couldn’t resist and went to pick joy from there and made a temporary arrangement to keep him at one of my colleagues place for a couple of days (Many thanks to her and her family for supporting me with whatever and however they could) We shifted joy the same night to her place with a plan of taking him to mumys place in my car on the weekend.

The next day was worst, joys health deteriorated, he had bad upset stomach and stopped eating anything , he went weak to weakest. My colleague’s family was skeptical to keep him even for a day more. I rushed with my office mates to veterinary  doctor. i roamed around holding him in my hands, i brought him to my office during hours, sat at vet clinic for 2 hours:-(. I ended up in a situation where I was left alone with tiny joy in my arms, and we both homeless. Joy became my sole responsibility to hand it over to its real masters( my moms place)

We (Abhishek and me) requested  for one last time to keep him with us just for couple of days but the shelter for poor joy was denied. we pre-ponded our plan and finally decided to leave the next morning with joy by car. The night became heavy on me as to where I should go with joy??

But it is truly said “A friend in need is a friend indeed”. One of my friend accepted my request and gave shelter to me and joy for a night. Abhishek was right beside me experiencing all the things I was undergoing,  he was in fact pleasantly surprised to see me so genuinely worried for  a small little puppy. I think he thought I was right and supported me in every step I was taking (Lucky me ;-)) I finally slept outside my home that night which is considered as a taboo for a married female in our culture. There were many things said , told , cribbed  about but somehow nothing mattered to me more then joy and his health, I had a strong feeling I was not doing anything wrong and i was somewhere sure my god is with me on this.

The next day I was ready to be picked up by abhishek and started out road trip with joy towards Udaipur. The on road journey with him was exciting and full of unexpected situations. I  got down at one place holding joy in my one hand to free him for a while and ended up falling into a muddy land because of disillusionment of it being a bareen land.i was all wrapped up in black mud till my waist... but somehow i could save joy lol... i yelled and abhishek pulled me out of the muddy place with lot of effort.. We were confused to laugh , cry  or be sad:-} It took me half an hour to clean the mud around my body.

The another place i got down with joy again had something in store... joy was all happy to feel free in open after continuous 2 hours journey in a closed car.i left him in a open garden of a resort on highway keeping a watch on his safety from bigger local dogs. it shocked me when joy kept going inside a leafy bush and started sniffing a huge dog sleeping there, the moment i caught him doing this i rushed and picked him up! the dog got up and started barking furiously. i again breathed , that i saved him. Later we got to know that he was the most dangerous dog of the area.. oppps!!

With so many different sweet /sour experiences little joy was also discovering both of us as we were also giving him his daily medical dose, food, getting down with him for his releases and all on the way and he gradually became comfortable in our company.The most pleasant surprise for me was watching abhishek being equally worried about joy and acting so sensitively towards him. We didn't talk it out but occasionally we were looking in each others eyes and experiencing same feeling as of handling a little baby, we were enjoying this feeling of being temporary parents of joy.

Finally after a 5 hours journey we reached Udaipur (It took longer because of joy) I was finally relieved to get him a permanent home, caring people, proper care , food and endless love.

I stayed back for couple of days to make joy comfortable with his new family and make them understand his routine and medical care, he was still ill. Joy started recognizing my voice and smell very well, and would respond to my voice and presence like a baby to its mother. He used to run with his small delicate paws to catch me, played with me and  cuddle me endlessly. Little joy would go restless if he didn’t see me for while and as soon as he used to see me, I could see the abundance love in his cute eyes. I never felt so much wanted, he made me feel special.

A week with joy flew like seconds, the hardest day came when I had to leave him and return to my home, my work.

Like a baby my eyes were filling up with tears again and again with even the thought of leaving him. i bid  goodbye to my family this time I was not sad for leaving them but was sad to leave joy behind.

I gave my mother thousand instruction before sitting in the car to take care of him. It’s impossible to explain the feeling I experienced, a heavy heart and eyes,i  kissed joy endlessly.

We drove off, tears rolling down my eyes, thinking the lessons this little creature taught me .I experienced motherhood, value of kindness, faced criticism, became strong, felt proud and content, experienced a different closeness with abhishek, discovered his amazing quality, his unshakable support, realized the priorities in life and to stand by them if you believe you are right and many more things…I got a call from my mother stating that joy was searching me , he was disappointed  to feel my absence at home , he was habituated of me, the active joy suddenly felt lonely and depressed. I never felt so special. On the way back to ahmedabad , we (Me and abhishek) both were silent but still talking on the same line inside our minds and heart.

“A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water log stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if you’re rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?” (Something from Movie “Marley and me” which was so true and I was literally exriencing that.)

Thank you Joy! Love -J