Rani.

Dogs are considered to be a man's best friend. And very much true to this they are the most faithful creatures a man could ever tame. Once you take a dog under your care, he'll go miles with you...... all the way. He'll be with you day and night, he'll guard you with all his ferocity, he'll play with you as long as you like, he'll fetch a stick if you want to, he'll catch a ball if you make him, he'll even jump in a well if you do or if you want him to. That's a dog for you. Amazing thing is that man uses 'dog' or 'bitch' as a derogatory and accusatory term !!! Thats mankind for you.

Anyway, I remember the bitch (here I mean to say female dog) on my grandpa's farm. She was a cross breed alsatian. A great dog (ok, ok, bitch.) she was. Her name was 'Rani'. Annoyingly, she used to step her paws on the front of my shirt and wag her tail like crazy. It was her norm when someone familiar came to the farm after a long time. Then she went around circles around you till you finally gave her a gentle pat on her head. Later on, when we used to sit outside (in the front yard.), she used to come sniffing......tickling your feet with her dirty nose. Then she used to look up expectantly at each of the people sitting there, in turns. Expectantly for what? Then, when you would gently pat her head and she would lazily close her eyes, enjoying it. I used to pull her ears just for fun. She used to enjoy munching on a biscuit we call as 'butter'

In the summers she used to enjoy the shade of a particular neem tree which was planted in the front yard of the farm house. Like all dogs and me, she particularly enjoyed snoozing at any time of the day. She was as fierce when any cattle strayed off in our farmland. Its quite something to see big creatures like cows being chased of by comparatively pint sized creatures like dogs!!! She used to accompany any of us when we roamed around in the farmlands. There was a time when my grandpa was roaming around in the field. He stopped to look around.....as he looked up front he saw her clawing around at something slithering. She had actually saved grandpa's life by scaring off a snake which had crawled near grandpa's feet !!!

Later on she gave birth to a litter of puppies, two of which were kept on the farm....Rest were sold off. The puppies live on, have grown quite a lot now.
Rani died a couple of years ago, living to a ripe old age. The neem tree in the farmhouse frontyard was hit by lightning that very year and fell.