The Guest and More!

A new member came to join our family about 2 years back. He came in as a guest and now he rules the house. At the outset when he came to our place he was totally shattered, heartbroken and scared. With nowhere to go and without any belongings, he looked disillusioned and hopeless. “Only for a week… 2 weeks tops”, I warned my husband. But that kept extending and I finally came around, started to have a soft corner for him. As he recuperated so did he gain his self esteem back and we started to share a rapport which moved from me being the caregiver to a more equal footing and started spending considerable amount of time together. I thought this might create rifts between my husband and me, with me getting so close to someone else and all, but the effect was the opposite. It was amazing just having him around, sometimes we just looked at each other and both knew what the other wanted. He became best buddies with my husband too. Going for walks, watching movies while he lazed around on the sofa, two guys hanging around. Sometimes when my husband was not around, he would get all protective about me and fussed every time I was away from the house for too long. He made me feel guilty about staying out too late, I felt like the kid who was dreading to be grounded. And as it turned out, we had become dependent on him.

Then came a time when we had to move, we had almost decided to sit him down and give him our reasons for leaving him stranded again. I couldn’t get myself to do that and was banking on my husband to break the news to him. Ofcourse, we knew the inevitable outcome- initially he would not react, just stare at us, then he would try to accuse us, throw tantrums and eventually beg us not to go. Just thinking of all these possible reactions and situations made me guilty.

One day I was just sharing my apprehensions with my Mom and the lifesaver that she is, she said “Why, he can come and stay with us! That way he won’t feel bad and you both can also keep meeting him when you drop in.” I jumped with joy at the thought, but it was short-lived as another disturbing thought came to my head. “What about dad, he will hate it. You know how he detests ‘those kinds’?” “Yes but we can’t leave him in the lurch again, and he’s so nice, I was not sure too initially but he’s such a charmer and keeps the mood alive, I would love to have him around, he’s just who we need to have around at this stage. I’ll handle the task of convincing dad”.

It’s been over a year that he moved in with my parents. He’s much older now and his relationship with my parents is even better than us and he’s even more comfortable at their place. He literally rules the house! His protective nature is still intact when it comes to my Mom. As for Dad, the unbelievable has occurred. The Man who hated them and was so rude and shouty each time ‘his kind’ came even into our bungalow, now cannot live without him. Infact the house- helps keep joking among themselves that ‘Sir is hardly bothered about his own food but there has to be enough food for this new guy’.

And that’s how Gyppie, the dog (whose original name’s Gypsie, true to his name, has changed many houses but Mom decided to change it to Gyppie as she doesn’t want him to go anywhere now) has swept the Som household off their feet. He’s my father’s lifeline and they literally feed on each other’s love. When dad goes out on an errand, Gyppie doesn’t budge from the window awaiting his arrival.

Just utter the word ‘pussycat’  and you’ll see a black line of fur just zipping past you. He is so black that it’s difficult to distinguish his feature in photographs. When he sleeps next to me, his breath makes me aware about my own breathing. He’s our baby and like every parent we feel that he’s the best in the world!!

We feel grateful and blessed that Gyppie came into our lives and chose our family to live with.