Born on 31st March, 2002, coincidentally Easter Sunday, Minnie is the eldest of five beautiful Easter bunnies gifted by my angelic Suki (who is no more). To see my Dachshund transform into a whale during her two-month gestation period and to witness the miracle of birth is an experience I will always treasure. However, looking at the palm-sized sausages peacefully sleeping in the cardboard box-cum-maternity ward, my family and I were least aware of the terror hiding behind those sleeping dragons.

‘This baby is such a handful’. Well, try saying this five times over and you can only begin to imagine what our ‘hum paanch’ proved to be. Erratic sleeping and eating timings, ‘rock-a-bye-babys’ throughout the night, waking up to the warm sensation of puppy pee on your feet, looking at the little angels fast asleep, watching them scrambling for mother’s milk, and so much more was how the months progressed.

Ever since Suki was a pup, her peculiar habit of sneaking into and hiding at the back of my closet (always mine), never died out, only to be passed on from mother to daughter; the most notorious of the lot, Minnie. Her size being the inspiration behind her name, it’s easy to walk past without noticing the brown ball of fur sitting nearby.

One fine day, her decision to embark on an adventure left my mother, sister and I frantically running around the house, the building, the street, and every nook and corner we could think of. The search intensified once worst-case scenarios set in and like most super sleuths, we decided to search the entire world rather than look under our noses. Finally, in a less than hopeful attempt, my sister opened my closet door only to find a pair of round black eyes staring innocently back at her, from behind a muddle of clothes. One look at that face made it hard to reprimand, let alone fathom how this tiny creature could bring such anxiety.

Fortunately for her, the comfort and joy at not having our worst fears come to life overruled the urge to ‘whack-whack’, and the story ends with a confused and grumpy Minnie; after all, she was woken from her cozy mid-morning nap!

This article was published in MAD Gallery, Dogs & More, Jul-Aug 2012, and is used here with prior permission from the publisher.  

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