Little Typhoon in the kennel.

The little Typhoon and the new arrival did not go well together – she was afraid of the puppy and in equal measure the puppy reciprocated the same feeling. She maintained a more than an adequate ‘snapping’ distance and it just closed its eyes as if to wish away her presence, after retreating to a safe corner. The whole affair was based on the Little Typhoon’s misunderstanding of the intention of the dog, a she-puppy. The puppy, rudely separated from its mother was only trying to strike a friendship in trying to come over its melancholy and longing to see its mother. It felt abandoned when its mother did not come searching for her and was sad that the members in the household were not cuddling or fondling her with affection. She even tried to call attention by whimpering or whining – the result was same, inaction and apathy.

As the dog days passed, the pup started taking tours of the front porch, the cluttered space beneath the stair case designated as her kennel or when extremely bored, she just climbed one or two steps on the staircase and simply slept there. Having nothing worthwhile to do (lazy to swat  flies, snap at squirrels or cats) nor any body bothering to teach her ‘sit”, ‘stand’ or ‘shake hand’ the puppy started spending more time on the steps, to loll and doze. Occasionally she took great pleasure in playing with the empty food bowl or bowl filled with water.  The only time she enjoyed human nearness.

The step became the lying-in-wait trouble spot for me and the Little Typhoon. She had to use the stairs to meet me and whenever an attempt was made, the puppy eagerly advanced to meet her half-way. Misunderstanding the gesture of friendship as aggressive posturing, Little Typhoon lets out a shriek shaking the very foundation of the building. Hurrying down, I rescue her by pulling away the dog by its scruff. The same drama had to be repeated, in the reverse trip down the steps. Both of us got a little exercise in the bargain – my legs and her vocal cords. Whatever tricks I tried, she chose to retain her canine phobia.

Slowly and ever slowly, shedding innocence she had started asserting her own way with things – animals and objects. Questioning, grasping the phenomenon explained and coming up with ‘out of box logic’ (her version of what she wanted to say). To put it in a nut shell - the sessions were, A to Z of entertainment. Ever looking for an opportunity to teach some thing more or difficult, for her age, I took her through the process of single digit, double digit or three digit additions of numerals. For a kid of about three years, when we met, the learning curve was on a supersonic flight.

Little Typhoon understood the significance of ‘zero’ placed before a number or after a number, - with out realising the trouble I was going to get in to - at a future date. This hind sight of mine is troubling you, is it not? Bear with me for a while; you will come to know the story.

Might be coincidence or not – the puppy, started acting as bridge in developing our friendship – on a build, operate and transfer basis. Who needed the friendship is beside the point and the passing years proved it to be mutually beneficial.

Typhoon climbed a rung in her academic ladder (1st standard) and by this time the puppy had grown into a dog stature. Little Typhoon slowly got used to the hulking doggy and understood that their pet dog does not even care to bark at strangers leave alone biting one. With this new found revelation, she started doing callisthenics (bending and hopping) in around the vicinity of the dog which continued to watch with out taking any active part – needless to say the dog as more inertia now! The dog’s exercise was limited to carrying the weight of the metal leash around her neck and shifting physically from one location to another for resting. She had never enjoyed the joy of catching a fly, snapping at butterflies or chasing a squirrel or a sparrow.

For once the members of the household showed a little concern for the doggy - to find a male suitor for her and allow her to attain motherhood. Word of mouth spread and on one fine day a kennel owner came forward to offer assistance. His condition was that he has to personally visit and assess the worthiness of the she-dog before admitting her in to his kennel. The girth impressed him and he finalised the affair – the fee shall be one male and one female pups.  I still could not understand how he was so sure that there would be enough new born puppies to leave some for the doggy – might be a clairvoyant!  In due course the she-dog gave birth to 3 male and 4 female puppies.

The birth of the puppies itself was accidentally noticed by the maid servant after seeing a mass of puppies lying beside the doggy. Loosing her faith on the members of the household, she had simply gone ahead and delivered with out even a whimper. The kennel owner took over the task of bringing up the puppies in the right way till they opened their eyes and are able to manage themselves. Diet instructions were handed over in writing after each visit as if he was a medical doctor on house calls. He had his investment to take care of and that he did with out any reservation. The instructions remained stuck on the fridge, gathering dust.

Little Typhoon understood the business end of the deal only after some time and felt sorry for the pack of dogs. By that time she had started to cuddle and fondle the puppies in her spare time (read morning to evenings on holidays and whenever possible on school days). Becoming more confident, she now took it up on herself to teach them whatever she had learnt in school that day. She had eight confused students to cope up with. Most of her students were teetering and swaggering on the porch floor, yet to open their eyes in full, to get a dog’s eye view of their teacher!

Little Typhoon continued her coaching efforts. Every free hour, she sat in front of her pupils with a slate and chalk piece .She wrote a number, said it aloud a few times and not getting any where, wrote the same on the floor. ‘Bigger letters are easier to recognise’ she might have thought. But her pupils were not that keen to say yes or no (1+7) for the shown numeral ‘7’

The she-dog might have forgotten her motherly instincts- too much of negligence and inertia had made her uncaring for the life in this world, chained to a leash. In sleep she turned her bulk over, on one of the puppies and smothered it to death. No whimper over the child lost! The driver of the household made the discovery and buried the dead. The litter came down to two males and four females. Like their mother, the puppies also did not make a sound at meal time. Little Typhoon’s class strength came down to 7 (just 1+6) and was attempting to teach them ‘6’.

Next week, one more of the puppies bid goodbye- death due to starvation, a she-puppy (1+2 +3).

Seeing their plight, the car driver wanted to at least rear one of them but the request was turned down. Undaunted the class teacher spared no efforts to make them familiar with the numeral ‘5’, written on the floor. Neither the she-dog nor the Little Typhoon could understand how such a count-down thing could happen?

The schooling for kennel population went on for some more time with a steady attendance- the puppies simply refused to attend the call of death. The numeral ‘5’ was found written every where- on the floor, steps and even on the walls.

This part of the story I was not aware of, as the subject of dog or the puppies never came up in our discussions – quite unusual! Not only the pack but I have also misunderstood the significance of the numerals, in the descending order. I have been seeing them but not taking note of them.

The kid with whom I had a reasonable rapport has suddenly started to speak in a foreign tongue. I had been away for nearly two months and a lot of things must have happened, including the frequency difference, along with her thinking process.

Again, I had the same feeling (call it hind sight, once more!) -the doggy and her puppies are going to trouble me one day or the other. Little did I realise that, ‘that’ some day will be one day in the next few days?

In a breathless voice she asked ‘why they are not learning and how many times do I have to teach’. Was this a question or a statement? I was confused. Gently I asked her to tell me the matter. Instead of answering me she again repeated the same thing but added ’I am disappointed and getting irritated. ‘No’ answer is the right answer; unless it is right.’ Still not knowing on whom and over what, I told her unless you tell me the whole story, how can I help.

For the first time, she narrated her teaching experience in the kennel and informed about the subjects troubling her. Then the significance of the descending numerals struck me like a truncheon. What eluded me was the way - she was teaching them the numerals, in the descending order!. She explained,” When 7 puppies were there I wanted them to point out the number 7 on the floor; one puppy died and I wrote number 6 on the wall; then one more died and the number to be recognised was 5. Yesterday, the dog-man had come and took two and when I wrote 3 on the floor they just kept looking at me. Will you not get upset if they do like this?”

That little head had these many numerical problems to workout. How to convince her that dogs don’t count!

Based on a quick head count and subsequent deductions, I found that she had not included the she-dog in her reckoning of numbers. Using this opening, I asked her why she had not included the puppies’ mother in counting. I was quietly bemused as confusing thoughts rushed through her mind.

She told me the story heard from her grandmother of ignorant chela's. ‘The guru and his six chela's were trying to cross a river. To keep them thinking and to test them, the guru asked a question. He wanted to know how many of them are travelling together. Each one of his chela's replied ‘six’. Each had omitted to count himself and came to the wrong conclusion’.

Little Typhoon told me ‘the pack in the kennel might be like the chela's. Not to be surprised, I myself taught them to count one number less than the actual’. She demanded to know “why they are not saying anything?” .A brilliant performance to cover up her failure.

Having understood that two of the puppies will soon find themselves in a new kennel, I said,    ”May be the she-dog and the puppies know this. They appeared to be more intelligent than the chela's, in not rushing in with a wrong answer.”

To soften the effect of her failed attempts, I asked, “Why bother so much? Her matter of fact reply revealed her current state of mind – “I am still bothered because she cannot count”

Somehow she got convinced by my counselling and left saying “I will start the classes afresh, when everything has settled down”

Poor dog and the left over puppies! They didn't know what was in store for them.