A dog's life

Disclaimer: This piece is written without any trace of intention to make fun of, hurt or otherwise cause harm to anyone in or outside vista. Despite this, if someone is offended, my sincere apologies.
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Jan 4, 2010

I was having my evening cuppa, listening to Lalgudi Jayaraman, when my wife conspiratorially whispered to me `look at this!'. I peeked out of the window at the back lawn of Badri and Geetha (V 181) and lo and behold - what I saw was a dog, white with black patches, prancing around, trying to catch a butterfly. I knew my neighbours did not have a pet dog, so turned to Praneeta for clarification and also wondering why a dog should arouse such curiosity. Was told in a hushed tone (the wife was thinking ahead, she did not want the dog to bolt, hearing the voices) that was the same dog, which nonchalantly has eluded the chases by some 50 different security personnel of Vista at different times and sighted by 100+ villa owners (bless them) during the past 6 months or more (remember those messages reading `Yes, I also saw the black and white dog near villa 43 at 11hrs22mins43secs. Wonder why the Maintenance is not catching this dog' or `I thought it
was a black dog with white patches, saw it rummaging the dustbin in front of V 16X at 11.23.01, so it couldnt have been near villa 43 at the time mentioned' or something similar in content). Well, since we were observing the dog having fun, without being under any
pressure of a chase, we got more than a fleeting look at the dog and can confirm that the white on the dog was more prevalent, so it is a white dog with black patches. Only, if you want to take my word for that - then one controversy can be closed as resolved!

Now, my wife has seen her (I dont believe a `he-dog' can ever have the intelligence, speed, skill and tenacity to evade the dragnet for so long and live to play with butterlfies! Hence the conclusion that it was a she-dog) walking gracefully on the wall dividing our villa from the property behind. My admiration for her (the dog, I mean - not the wife) scaled new heights, because that wall was about 12 feet tall. Then came the depressing notification from the MC that there was a dump on the other side, which made it easier for her to climb to the top of the wall; that made the scales fall from my eyes insofaras her leaping prowess was concerned. Nevertheless, the grace and the elegance with which she balanced herself on the wall (one more proof; most he-dogs have problem walking straight on the road, even when they are not drunk!) before jumping over to our side, meant my residual respect for her is significant. I dont think the daunting blue plastic
sheets which went up on the barbed wire on the compound wall deterred the dog for long. Here she was, responding to the catch-me-if-you-can fly-about by a butterfly.

I am sure we would all agree (just a very rhetorical, optimistic statement - dont take it too literally and start another email chain as to why you dont. Let us at least pretend this once we agree) that this dog is special. We have collectively spent more time in sighting, tracking, reporting, devising plans to catch and repatriate this dog than we have spent on speed-breakers, guests-only policy and dog-poop put together in 2009. And that is saying something!! And the time spent in hot-pursuit of the dog by personnel gives a healthy heft to that number. Considering this, I propose the following:

-- that we give the dog `resident' status. That would automatically reduce the amount of time and resources spent in following the dog (who is interested in an ordinary resident?).

-- the other advantage is once it is a resident, the dog can participate in a lot of activities. Like cricket. There are a couple of old men, who, despite their age-bordering-on-senility, pretend to be active cricketers but are unable to physically cope with the speed of the others. This dog can be a substitute runner for such old men. Or squash. Being a resident for the better part of 2009 also means, the dog qualifies easily to get games like any of us, without interpretational issues creeping in.

-- more importantly, it looks like despite its much humbler upbringing and lesser grooming, this one has not bitten (or otherwise seriously offended) anyone yet, causing uproarious exchanges in high decibel email communication. Which means lesser visits to the dictionary to check the meaning of specific words to find out whether they were offensive or marginally abusive or whatever.

-- the dog is also useful to find out which villas keep their dustbins outside overnight. Sooner or later, we would have hired a specialist firm to do this for us, right??

Now, for the denoume of the recent sighting; Praneeta continued in her whisper `keep an eye on the dog, let me call the security to tell them she is here'. She did call and a battalion was being readied, no doubt, but this is what happened. The sagacious dog pricked her ears up, as if she was listening to something (her antenna received some signals I am sure), cocked its face towards our window, bared her teeth a bit (I swear, it seemed like she was laughing at us), sauntered towards the front of villa 181, FRONT - believe me, and strode out on the main road, as if challenging the prospective chasers to undertake one more futile effort!! If that does not deserve residency in Vista, nothing does.

Varad