In Memoriam: Buddy

Yesterday was not a good day. We got news that Buddy passed away. He had been successfully recovering from a virulent urinary tract infection that had plagued him for the last month or so, but yesterday, his heart suddenly gave way and he collapsed. (For those of you who haven't been reading this blog for a long time, Buddy and Beanz were two miniature dachshunds who came to us a couple of years before Ayaan was born. They later went to live with my mother.)

My first memory of Buddy is from when I went to pick him up from the breeder's place in Ajmer. I was just sitting down when a red-haired bundle of energy came charging into the room, bounded up to me and put his front paws up on my thigh. He tried to clamber on but his diminutive stature failed him and he was soon stranded mid-air - his front paws still on my leg, his back paws hanging. That was Buddy in a nutshell. If there was food or affection to be had, he'd rush in regardless of whether his innate abilities would support him in the situation.

He was a beautiful dog. He had a gorgeous reddish-brown coat that looked especially stunning when he was soaking up the sun, which happened to be one of his favourite pastimes. Even my vet in Mumbai never failed to mention his lovely colour. As he grew older, his appetite, combined with his ability to stare down the most hardened soul into feeding him some scraps, ensured that he lost the lean look he has in this early picture but his roly-poly avatar only served to make him more adorable than before.

Both he and Beanz were quick to settle down in my mother's house in Jaipur but Buddy is the one who really came into his element. Living up to his name, he charmed and befriended everyone who came his way - the maids, the gardener, the driver - they all fell prey to his charm and put aside at least some time to give him the loving pats he craved. My mother tells me the current gardener would first spend some quality time petting him every morning before he got on with his duties for the day.

He was a beggar by heart. It was unthinkable that any human being in the house should get to eat anything without sharing at least part of the bounty with him. He would stare, whine and even bark to get their attention. His favourite human foods were makhana and papad, though he was game for pretty much anything that came out of a human's plate - his own food, not so much. Here's a really old picture of Buddy and Beanz begging for food.

But for all his eagerness for food and love, he was an old lazy bones at heart. As I look through all the pictures I have of him, he is lying flat on a bed, sofa or mat in a majority of them. This one is pretty typical, not to mention cute.

Much before we got Angel, my kids got to practice on Buddy. Beanz is not the most child-friendly dog and he would snap at them if they got too near. But Buddy meekly tolerated their attentions, often with a pained expression on his face. We often joked that he bore a faintly traumatised look by the end of our visit. If you think I might be exaggerating, here's a picture of a long-suffering Buddy decked up by Ayaan using Tarana's bonnet and a few well-placed rose petals. 

He didn't have much of a thing for chew toys but he had this well-worn, much-loved sheet that he liked to play with. Every night, he would clamber on to the bed with it and expect a rambunctious game of tug of war. Ayaan was more than happy to oblige.

One of my big regrets is that I don't have many photographs of Tarana with Buddy. I did have a few pictures from my last couple of visits to Jaipur, along with an adorable video of the two of them playing, but I lost them all when I dropped my iPhone recently. All I can find is this disappointing picture from two years ago.

Buddy lived with us for just two short years and spend eight years, the vast majority of his life, with my mother. So obviously, she is far more upset that I am but I have walked around with a weight on my heart since I heard the news yesterday. My mother was in Hyderabad when it happened and she left last night to go back to Jaipur to complete his last rites, so I feel doubly bereft. Mostly, I dread the thought of going to Jaipur and walking into a Buddy-less house.

Goodbye, Buddy. You have, and will always have, a special place in my heart. You will be missed.