My fur babies

I never thought of myself as someone who would love or have pets. Growing up in India, its not uncommon. As a young girl, I was sometimes chasen by street dogs and that memory has petrified me even when I saw friendly dogs anywhere else. I remember being rude to owners of dogs who let their pets in park without leashes. I was that petrified! After failing in attempts to convince me of dogs, Uday and Maya got two love birds couple of years ago. They promised they would clean, feed etc, but invariably failed. Me and Karthik took care of the feeding food and water, but cleaning always fell on me (SURPRISE!!). After 3 months, I wasnt able to do it anymore, nor were the kids playing with it. So one fine day, I gave them away to people who would take care of them better. And for a year, we were pet free. Whenever the topic of dogs raised, I said, we couldnt manage couple of birds inside a cage, how do we manage a dog going around everywhere! That was my stand, for a very long time, until Feb 2021, when it all changed Covid changed a lot of things. In a way, the more time we got to spend at home, we were thinking whether it was a good time we got a dog so we can be home for their initial growing up years. All of a sudden, one day morning we saw an ad and drove 4 hrs and got Lucky. She is a chocolate labrador - she is unbelievably affectionate, but it is true that she petrified me and Karthik initially. She still has anxiety issues, gets all jumpy and wants to lick us all the time. Then 6 months down the lane, we felt, Lucky was so lonely and is always stalking us and got Simba, my lovely yellow boy! I have to be honest, he had the stinkiest wee's of all time for the initial month he stayed in the bathroom upstairs. He quickly graduated to staying in his pen at garage and started being with Lucky. She plays rough with him and initially we had to play referee and protect him. Now he is bigger than her and he can take care of himself So coming to why I decided to write about them - yesterday, after Udays continous request to stay out for 10 mins, I went out to be with the fur babies. I am constantly busy and for some reason I dont really play-play with them at all. Maya and Karthik joined and as usual, I was hurrying up to go inside - dinner - reading - sleeping routine. Uday grabbed me not to go and all of a sudden, Simba leaps at him with a small growl thinking he is hurting me. I didnt realise it first. Then he is lying down, Uday goes near, he does nothing, I go near, his tail wags way too much and starts licking me. We thought we will see what he does when Uday is pretend hurting me and did it for another couple of times. Every time, simba comes near defending me! I knew dogs were loyal, they possibly love the lady of the house more etc. But it was unexplicable happiness when I saw that he wanted to defend me against his master himself. I wouldnt have thought I would say this couple of years ago, but I love my fur babies way too much. A little less than Maya and Karthik I must say. Their love and loyalty, nothing can ever match it. All that extra work and money is so worth it!