Goodbye Tippu!

Goodbye Tippu!

Wherever you are, I want you to know that I have always been and will always be proud of you, of your love, of your affection, of your company.

I have always been very proud of the fact that you looked totally cute and handsome.

I remember when you first came to us, you were a cute little snowball, so cute and white with two small black spots for your eyes and an adorable snout with a black button for your nose. And you (ate so much) and grew up so quick and fast.


I've always wondered why you were perenially hungry; I have always wondered if your tummy was just an endless pit of hunger.


I've always been amused by the fact that you were scared and shy when it came to loud noises, lightining, strange people.

I will never forget the day when you scared off a thief by simply barking at him, even when you were shit scared yourself.

You drove me crazy and (very) angry when you did not obey me, when you licked and swallowed all the soap/shampoo while you were being bathed, when you did not let me brush your coat properly, when you stayed ugly and smelly, when you vomitted your food right after you ate it.

I've been in awe of you, when you held your bladder for hours together and not spoil the place and patiently (though not silently) waited for us to wake up (in the middle of the night) to let you loose.

I hated the fact that you ate MUD.

I hated it even more when you fought violently with Tim and ended up injuring yourself and him.

I adored it when you wildly and crazily wagged your tail when you spotted any of us. I always knew at such moments that I would never get such unadulterated, passionate, selfless love and affection from any other creature, but my dogs.

You must know that there were times when I intentionally ignored you, when I acted cruel to you, when I thought you were being plain lazy. But there have also been times when I indulged you, when I was extremely sweet to you.

No Tippu, you were not a perfect dog. And I was never a perfect human to you either.

And I am sorry you weren't my favourite one here.

But I know we loved and adored each other. And  I miss you sorely. I miss your barks. I miss being woken up at night by you. You do know that Timmy is not quite the barker, dont you? Oh, did you know that we brought you home, back in 2000, because he wouldnt bark at all? And after you came, it has been a loud household. Now it has become suddenly quieter. It was difficult the first night after your death. Now we are all getting used to it.

You must know that Timmy misses you and feels very lonely here. Chedathi misses feeding you and fretting over you. And Amma - she is the one who misses you the most. You must also know that you made her do a lot of work - cleaning up your vomit every single day and night, spending so much time feeding you the right way so that your food would go properly down. She took such good care of you. She was your real mistress, you must know - the one who did all the work without seeking anything in return. The rest of us, just gloated on her behalf. Without you, she has a lot of free time now, but still, she misses you very much. Achan misses you - though you had always been too lazy to go walking with him. Chettai misses you. I always thought you were his favourite dog. I havent asked. I dont want to ask now.

You must also know that the day you died, I didnt believe you were gone. Yes, I wanted you to die soon, I didnt want you to suffer for long. But it was beyond me when I actually saw you dead. And then suddenly I realised that, in the end, my weak hearted, scared boy, who always wanted to be in our midst and hated being left alone, died all alone, and that he died a very lonely, very painful death. When I realised that, I was overcome by grief and guilt, and I fainted right next to you. Twice.

I hope you ate the biscuit I left for you in your grave. I am sorry Dad didnt let you take your black collar with you. You looked very smart and cute, with it on your neck. He said you would love to be free, at last. He threw it over the railway track, I just didnt want to see it again.

I dont know Tippu. I love you. And I miss you. That's all I want you to know.

I dont want you to miss any of us. I want you to be happy and free and merry. And eat all that you want, as much as you want.