The mother who had no name.

Sunday, 22 Nov, 2009, Chennai.

She was always a mother since I moved into "Arumugam Oni" my Mogappair house in April'09. She was sheepishly wagging her tail the day I first saw her. Her two daughters shying away. We had no plans for the little family, but seeing us being kind to them, mother let her daughters come close to us but maintaining a distance herself. The kids seemed to grow quick and we already began making long term plans. Fate had other plans though.

The weaker among the two daughters was found dead one morning on the road in front of our house, she was hit by some vehicle in the early hours. I helplessly watched it, my sister gathered enough courage to place her away. May be we should not have let the daughters out of home, may be tying them up was a good idea. The mother seemed to move on with life, but with extra attention to the remaining daughter.

We took extra care of the only daughter, now gaining weight and height quickly. Again fate had it's own ways of unravelling its ruthlessness. The little one which otherwise would run to greet us even if we were a 100 mts away, didn't seem to turn up to my calls. She was under my car, seemed frantically scared of something. The mother knew it soon that the little one needed no help. I tried calling the daughter, but her snarls were fierce enough to scare me off. I thought the mother would have scared her off in an attempt to drive her away, but that was not the case. The daughter was out of sight the next day. I was way too happy to see it in my garden the following morning. She was just too weak to even stand. I fed her some water and milk, it managed to sip a bit but could not take more than couple of strides before falling down. Mother didn't seem to near the daughter, may be she wanted to stay away from the sickness the daughter might inflict upon her. An hour later I found the daughter dead in my front porch, but not before she put up a mighty struggle to reach the 20 meter distance. This time I took the daughter away from home. Mother was nowhere to be seen. I could hear her weeping howls every night thereafter.

The mother turned its affection on us, and we on her. She would follow my bike or car till the end of the road. She would welcome my sister and me with a song every evening when we returned home from work. A couple of month ago we realised she was pregnant, we were glad we would be getting a new set of pets and we planned to retain a couple atleast. Finally on 7th Nov 2009, mother gave birth to 4 beautiful small puppies, 2 boys and 2 girls. We ensured the mother and kids were fine in the Chennai monsoon by giving it special make-shift shelter and regular supply of food. Again fate unravelled something unexpected.

Mother hasn't eaten anything for 3 days now, and lost weight to the extent she is all bones now. She would occassionally cuddle with her kids only to walk away to the grass for sometime. She would not eat or drink anything we offer. At 4:00 pm today, she requested me to open the gate for her and I obliged. May be she didn't want to pass on her sickness to her kids, instead closing her eyes and bidding us a good-bye far away from home. She has not returned home since and it's midnight already. May be she never would. Christening her was just a formality, she was a part of our family anyway, so we never considered that. I am still willing to go out and search for her in the dark not knowing what to call her, after all she was the mother who had no name.

(Epilogue: I managed to leave the 4 puppies at Blue Cross, Chennai on 24-Nov-2009. Felt it needed some expert care for now. The mother never returned.)