Ruffles died last night.
The last time I saw him was when I went over to my cousin's house for one of those family lunches that happens whenever any one of us girls comes back to Bangalore. He seemed his usual self, a little less frisky than usual, but mostly he had the same happy shiny feeling that dogs seem to get whenever they're surrounded by the people they love.
Ruffles was a fantastic dog. The first time he saw rain, he was standing in the middle of my cousin's huge grassy lawn and after about 30 seconds of going through what I can only assume is the doggie equivalent of a WTF, he ran yelping into the house. One time he stuck his head into an anthill and came into the house with a face that was about 5 times as big as the rest of him. Also he was absolutely terrified of Pepperoni (my dog). Let me clarify why this is funny. Pepperoni is a Fox Terrier who is at the best of times about as tall as the middle of my calf, and about as big as Ruffles' entire Golden Retriever face (when it has not been stuck into an anthill).
Ruffles and I have done lots of fun things together, but the story I remember most vividly is the day that Ruffles got his lame left leg. It was just another hot afternoon, during some set of summer holidays. Mostly everyone in the house was sleeping after lunch, I was reading in bed because at that time I hadn't yet discovered the unbridled joy of an afternoon nap. Suddenly I hear Ruff yelping from the garden, so I leapt out of bed and ran to see what had happened. I thought maybe some boys had come to steal mangoes again. But when I got to him, he was just sitting in a pile of mud with his left leg in a funny position yelping. For the next half a day we sedated him, and I remember holding his hurting paw and petting him till both of us fell asleep on his blanket. We don't to this day know what happened to him, but his leg had been broken somehow. The vet said that somebody hit him with a heavy stick or something, and he always limped a little after that, but it didn't make him any less beautiful to any of us. Now, if a human being had been rendered lame by another animal, would anyone grudge him or her the right to be resentful and mistrusting for the rest of his/her life? I probably would be, and I'd damn well expect everyone else around me to be apologetic for it. But there could not have been a sweeter tempered dog. None of us can remember Ruff so much as snapping at a fly. He didn't even bite this one annoying child of some guests that came over, who actually bit him. Yes, the child. Bit. The dog.
I'm sure people who don't have dogs don't quite understand what it means to lose a dog. Just like people who don't have siblings (like me) don't know what its like to even have one. Suffice it to say, that it is no less painful than losing a human member of your family. I'm just glad he's not in pain any more, and that I was lucky enough to meet a character like him. Goodbye Ruffles, I love you.