101. People Review | Dodo and Chloe | Most Beautiful Souls

First of all, they are not dogs, they are people and for us, they are our kids. They are my kids and they are treated like kids by everyone in my family. Eleven years back in March, we bought Dodo home from a relative’s house. They got six bull terrier kids with them and we adopted one of them. Thy was born the legend of Dodo. White as snowball with black shiny eyes who could just melt you with his stare and would look at you knowing that these people will take care of him for the rest of his life. I and my brother became his father and we love every moment of it. I have to accept this thought that my brother loves Dodo more than I do. Don’t get it wrong, I love him too. But I think my brother loves him more than I do. If Dodo is getting irritated and doesn’t want anyone around, he bites you, he doesn’t mean it but it is his way of telling you that he needs his privacy. He does it only occasionally, like once or twice in a year. If he does that to me, I would get angry and won’t talk to him but if he tries to pull something like that on my brother, Dada would never get angry with him instead just give him his time, later cuddle him nicely when Dodo is in good mood. He understands him. Once Dodo nearly bit my brother’s hand during one of his bad mood days. My brother didn’t retaliate or gave any reaction. He just went to his bed and resumed his work. Dodo later came after an hour or so to my brother and started licking at the part of his hand he has bitten and it was in his eyes how sorry he was for his sudden retaliation earlier. Dodo is a bull terrier and he is a hunting dog. He can jump more than 20 feet and he is (was, 'is' old now) very energetic. There are countless rats, lizards, cows, stray dogs and other animals that he has killed or injured due to which we have to keep him chained sometimes so that he does not harm other animals but his primal instinct is hunting. He will love you and be loyal to you but he will love only when he wants to love you, he does not care whether you are interested in loving him or not, it is basically when he wants to be loved he will come to you and then he will demand that you leave whatever important work that you are doing and start loving him immediately. He is one selfish dog. Once our family left Dodo when my father was posted at Gaziabad and I was studying at a college in Lucknow. They didn’t tell me about it because they knew I will create ruckus by just listening to the whole proposal. Dodo had been really naughty at that time and it would become tremendously difficult for my family to keep him in control. We are that kind of family who loves dogs enough to not keep them in chains. The walls at our house in Gaziabad were low in height and it was easy for a dog like Dodo to jump on them and escape outside. There had been numerous occasions when my father had to take him out of sewer or ditches because sometimes he would fall into them or sometimes someone would kick him into it. Once Dodo was out of home boundaries, it was impossible to bring him back unless he feels hungry and comes back on his own in the house. So one of our family friends who needed a dog gladly took him to his place. After a week or so those family friends had a party in their house. Dodo was tied in chains outside and it was revealed later that Dodo was tied to the chains all the time and given meals only two times a day. Dodo had stopped eating food and stopped moving since he had shifted from his family. It was evident that they were not taking care of him. After all, he was treated as Prince at our home, never got kicked or beaten and always had his way in our house; he was literally living like a slave in that house. When my parents and brother were going inside, they saw Dodo and tried to smile at him and love him but he didn’t even shake his legs, instead turned his face to another side. He was really sad and gloomy. My family couldn’t tolerate their kid being treated this way. They took him away that very night and since then the thought of Dodo ever going out of our house has never ever crossed our minds. 

In past three years, I have noticed that Dodo has become quite receptive. I don’t know what has happened to him but he has developed so many human emotions. It feels like he understands us. Earlier I could never see anything in his eyes but now I can read his eyes and I immediately know what he is trying to convey. He behaves like a human being and has become very expressive. If I am angry with him he knows it, he will come to me and love me to persuade me to stop being angry with him. He has stopped running after food, not even chicken or anything else because he knows that it will be made sure that he has eaten his food by us. If someday he refuses to eat his food, then my mother will make him sit on her lap and feed him bits of roti dipped in milk one by one and only then he will eat. If he is outside our house and he needs the gate to be opened, then he will keep barking till the gates are opened. He never sleeps on the floor. He either sleeps on a mat or bed or our drawing room sofa and there is nothing we could do about it. He was the sole prince in our house until another angel came to our house.

We didn’t want another dog. We had one kid and we were quite happy with him. But Dodo was getting old and we read somewhere that Life expectancy of bull terrier dog is nearly 10 years. That scared both me and my brother. We love dodo. We don’t know how we will survive if God forbids something happens to him. We couldn't imagine our life without Dodo anymore. We were scared. More than that I was worried what will happen to my mother because she is really attached to Dodo and Dodo has always been treated like a grandkid by her. One odd day I, my brother, my Bhabhi and her sister were just strolling around the city when we decided to visit some pet store just to see what breeds of dogs they have. We googled few places and called them. We decided to meet one which was nearest. It was Sunday and though his shop was closed that day he opened it for us. He showed us the female black Labradors because that was the only thing available at that time. He got one Lab and she was really curious one but she was three months old. We weren’t sure as he told us that she was suffering from few diseases and she hasn’t yet got her prescribed medical injections. We weren’t anyways interested in getting a dog, as of now, we were just window shopping for adoption of our next kid. Then he asked us to see one more puppy. He handed us two months old female Black Labrador. We all had her in our arms. She was beautiful. She had something which the pups earlier we held in our hands didn’t have. She was really naughty and she was really energetic. She was trying to jump from our hands to the ground. She also has this sparkle in her eyes which could make your fall in love with her. Her little mouth and her little mustache were so cute that you can stare into them till eternity. Tiny teeth from which she tried to bite us with her full might had melted our heart and then she would give this look to us as of feeling guilt when she would fail. Don’t even get me started on her paws which were the most beautiful thing you can ever see in this whole world. To me all dogs are beautiful, I love them all and they have a special place in my heart but she had something else. She was special. Every one of us fell in love with her the moment she fell in our hands. I hate dog selling and I will never advocate it but hey, you don’t get good dog breeds on road.

Dodo was my brother’s son and I was more of his uncle and we decided this girl was going to be my daughter. My brother, Dada was responsible for Dodo and I was made responsible for her. I gladly took the responsibility. We brought her home and while coming back to home we stopped at a Dog shop and bought all the nice things for her. Next day we also took her to the vet. My mother was not happy though, seeing the new pup in our house. She was worried about Dodo’s reaction and taking care of a pup while she was growing up because we are boys who don't do much housework and after all, it would become her responsibility to take care of Dogs in the end. I took all the responsibilities till I was at home because I had to rush to Mumbai which is my place of earning my living. I promised Mom that till I am in town I clean all her potty and pee and she won't bother anyone. She would sleep with me in my room. I really felt like a father and she really behaved like a naughty kid. Labrador has a tendency to eat anything without caring whether it is eatable or not. We named her Chloe by the way, because we wanted to name her like a princess and the name was suggested by my Bhabhi, my sister in law. Chloe is very active and her activities would soon exhaust our energies. She would shout at us all the time to get her demands done and rarely we get to hear her bark when she was angry. Soon she became the most loved kid in our family but Dodo never accepted her. Dodo hated her like anything and still hates her. Dodo never cared for our love earlier, he would love us based on his mood. As they say, Karma bites you hehe. He was literally ruling in our house and making us dance to his tunes but now things had changed for him and there was another cute member who was getting equal amounts of love and sometimes more. Yes, we are guilty of that. The vet told us that we should have made them meet somewhere outside our house because the house belonged to Dodo and it was his area but when Chloe came he was it as an invasion of his privacy at home and his loved ones. He couldn't tolerate it and hated her for that. Chloe, on the other hand, was secular and would disturb and play with everyone equally. She never cared about anyone or anything. She was always charged up and she took enormous amounts of advantage of her cute face to manipulate everyone. I was and still am the most frequent victime. She did make my mother angry sometimes, my brother and I too get angry at her because she is highly restless but her cute face always saves her. My father loves when she runs towards him from a distance because her ears are not pointed upward like German Shepherd, they are always fallen down and when she runs her ears flip up and down like bird wings and she looks so beautiful in it that you just want to kiss her.    

To conclude, we love them both and now we try to take care of both's privacy. We try to keep them separate as much as possible because they fight a lot and also because Chloe is growing into a girl now. I am ashamed to admit that I have a little bit more inclination towards Chloe and initially due to which, unknowingly I ignored Dodo sometimes. I know it made him feel sad but now since I have realized that, Dodo often comes to me to get love which earlier he didn’t, on my part I try to divide my love equally among them. There are times when I am in Mumbai and I dream about them, Chloe comes in my dream nearly every day and Dodo too. I miss both of them all the time when I am not with them. I feel like I can’t live without them sometimes. Don’t know why God gave dogs such less life to live. Because of Chloe and Dodo, I have also developed a more sympathetic attitude towards other dogs as well. I feed stray dogs regularly no matter where I am. I have joined NGOs and taken many Dogs from roads who were ill or injured to the vets. I have also started loving other animals and I don’t feel hatred towards other animals even those who are against humans and kill humans. I have realized that there no animal worse than and more dangerous than Human being. To those who haven’t had a pet before, I will request you to adopt a pet today. They will change your life forever. They have changed mine and have help me become a better human being.