So I hope you read my previous post on how Robin was born. Some might say it felt like a Greek tragedy, but what mattered was how Dobby became the loving father of a child, sired between his girlfriend and sworn enemy.
Say hello to Robin.
So here's a small confession.
When Lalani sent Dobby to Mizoram to live with me at my farm, my mom was happy because she thought we were going to have an actual farm dog who would be roaming outside our farmhouse, especially during the night, protecting us from predators or intruders, and hunting for rodents and creepy-crawlies.
But achshully... no! :D
Dobby became my spoilt little dotting son. He would cuddle up with me in my bed under the blanket in the night. That was not what mom had in mind at all, lolz.
No matter how many times mom tried to make me let Dobby sleep outside the farmhouse (whenever she visited me at the farm), I wouldn't budge. My Dobby was my leetul doggo. He was my world, my everything. He belonged right under the blanket with me at night time, not out at night risking his life for us. :D
And so finally when Teii gave birth to a litter of puppies, by which time our new farmhand and family had moved in, my mom bought two of the puppies. She realised that I was never going to make Dobby live outside our farmhouse. She paid Pi Thuami ₹1500 each for the two puppies.
The puppies were going to be our farmhand's dogs, solely looked after by him. They would be the ones who would actually be vigilant during the night (the role that Dobby was supposed to play, lolz).
And so on 24th Feb 2022, two months after they were born, my farmhand and I went down to Pi Thuami's farm to collect our two new puppies.
Since our new farmhand was going to be the owner of the new puppies, we gave him the honour of naming the two puppies. He came up with the names "Robin" and "Tiger".
Say hello to Robin and Tiger.
Robin and Tiger stayed at our farmhand's quarter.
Initially, they didn't venture out, but slowly they started becoming more curious about the world around them. Eventually, they started venturing outside their new house.
Meanwhile, Dobby was keeping a watchful eye over them.
Encounter of the Robin and the Dobby, lolz.
Tiger and Robin always huddled together, hesitant to approach Dobby...
They must have missed their mom, but unlike the neighbouring farms who bought one puppy each, we bought two so that they would have each other's company and not feel lonely. Just look at how cute they both were.
In the next few days, they started roaming around our farmhouse vicinity, sniffing the ground everywhere with their cute little puppy noses.
I didn't want to get involved because I knew how possessive Dobby could be, and so I kept my distance from them. But slowly, curiosity got the better of them and they started approaching me.
The moment they came near my leg, that would be when Dobby got into action and growled at them immediately. They would shriek and yelp with all their might when that happened as if they were going through great agonising pain, even though Dobby didn't even touch them. Ahhh such little drama queens! :D
But slowly, they started picking up more courage to approach Dobby. He was still eyeing them with suspicion. I guess he was conflicted. On one hand, they were the sons of his beloved girlfriend Teii, but on the other hand, they were also the sons of his sworn enemy Toshi. :D
This one time, my dear cousin Mimi Hrahsel and her husband C-a visited me at the farm. Mom was also staying with me then. Just look at the photo below and see where Robin and Tiger were. :)
So when mom and C-a went to a spot for a possible chicken coop, the curious puppies followed mom, and when mom and C-a started discussing how the coop should be constructed, the type of food to feed, the structure of the henhouse etc., the puppies got bored and fell asleep. Since it was sunny, they slept in mom's shadow, and if mom moved a bit, they too would move a bit to remain in her shadow! :D
Soon, after two weeks, Robin and Tiger finally built enough courage to slowly walk into our farmhouse! :D Tren tren table lamp...
Surprisingly, Dobby was cool with it! He even allowed them to eat his leftovers! I felt so proud as a dog dad right then. Parenting done right, woohooo!
But of course, bigggggg mistake to let them eat Dobby's leftover. They tasted meat for the first time! After that day, they no longer wanted to eat the food our farmhand was making for them, and they would come to my farmhouse every day waiting for Dobby's leftover food.
Oh nos, what have I done, lolz.
Just look at Robin's judgemental smirk. He was probably thinking, "You call this a secure gate? Look at me, I can get in and out anytime I want, bwahaha. What useless security is it providing?" :D
And so eventually, I ended up making food for them every day, lolz. It was hopeless trying to make them eat at our farmhand's quarter. I made two plates every morning and evening, one for Dobby and the other one shared by Robin and Tiger.
As they all bonded more, Robin and Tiger started following Dobby wherever he went.
They became his kid number 1 and kid number 2 (which is a funny phrase in Mizo).
This one time we burnt some patches of our land (not to be confused with jhum cultivation, this is different, we do this in the summer when forest fires happen easily and so these patches of burnt land stop the fire from spreading to the entire farm). Robin and Tiger followed Dobby there and had an amazing time playing in the ashes, lolz.
But on 15th March 2022, three weeks after Robin and Tiger started living with us, something undesirable happened.
Mom had already gone back to the city and I was working on my computer late in the night when suddenly I heard the sound of pots and kitchenware crashing on the floor and people shouting. Dobby too woke up immediately.
I grabbed my torchlight and ran to our farmhand's quarter and kicked their door open, where I found our farmhand and his wife, both pissed drunk, arguing! I mean he wasn't physically being violent, but they were both screaming at each other and throwing things on the floor. I was super mad!
I shouted at them both and they both profusely apologised. I looked under their bed and both Robin and Tiger were huddled together, extremely terrified with the noise. I told my farmhand and his wife to sleep immediately and that we would talk about this incident the next morning, and I also told them I was taking Robin and Tiger back with me at the farmhouse as this was not a suitable environment for them.
And so I bought Robin and Tiger back to my farmhouse. That was the first night they spent at my farmhouse.
Look at Dobby eyeing them above :D And just look at how cute Tiger and Robin were below.
Awweee.
Dobby too eventually went to sleep. That was also the first night Dobby didn't come up to the bed to sleep with me! :D He probably didn't want the puppies to know that behind that mask of terror and alpha ferocity is a timid little dog who still sleeps with his papa, lolzz.
The next morning, my farmhand and his wife came to apologise again, and I gave them a real last final warning, as I had caught them drunk on two previous occasions as well. Don't get me wrong, they were doing great work on the farm and were excellent in looking after Robin and Tiger, and loving them, but they just couldn't handle their drink.
I was planning to return Robin and Tiger to them the next day, but they kept running back to my farmhouse, and so I ended up keeping them. :D
They ate good food, from chicken broth rice to milk and other treats.
My mom too realised this might be better as they would grow up faster because of the healthy food and then we could finally give them back to our farmhand.
But of course, right then, they were still so tiny. :)
The funniest thing was, mom who had never been fond of dogs, would occasionally pick up Robin or Tiger and cradle them to sleep in her arms! :D
But of course, she had to tread carefully as they were always sleeping around her leg. :)
The thing is, they didn't have much place to move around as they were afraid of getting into Dobby's space. They completely avoided his bed in case he would get angry.
I mean, come on, look at how cute they were :)
The downside to having them in my farmhouse was the occasional poop, as they weren't completely toilet-trained yet to poop outside. :D
But I think you know, it's worth it :)
And then around 3-4 days into living with us, something wild happened! Tiger and Robin occupied Dobby's bed! Lolz.
So much guts, lolzzzz. And they even slept peacefully on it.
Night time. The acid test. Will Dobby continue to allow them to sleep on his bed or not? The suspense!
Dobby was... I guess okay with them sleeping on his bed. And anyway, he slept with me on my bed, so it was kinda pointless of him to have his own bed in the first place :)
Just look at him stubbornly trying to sleep on his bed, lolzzz. But Robin wouldn't budge, bwahahahaha! :D
Eventually, he gave up and came up to bed next to me! :D
"Screw this!" he said, as he surrendered his bed to them, and then shamelessly took over mine. :)
A moment to rejoice for Robin and Tiger as they now had their own bed.
Yayyy, so cosy, much warmth, such comfort!
They're probably thinking, "Now that we have conquered his bed, what next?" :D
But of course, once they had the bed, like all humans who no longer want things they already own, I found them randomly sleeping on the floor afterwards. :D
I also gave them their first bath, fulfilling the role of a perfect dad. :) You can see Robin below not very excited about the idea of being washed.
But both of them responded really well to the bath.
Meanwhile, Dobby of course wasn't liking it, lolz. He was like, "Now they're invading our special bath time moment too!!??? This was our personal thing, how could you do this to me?" :D
In fact, you can see below that he was clearly not happy and didn't even look at my camera properly when it was time to take our ceremonial selfie together every time we took a bath. :D
The after-bath special treats too were there, and Dobby told the dripping puppies to wait their turn while he went through the snacks. :)
So fresh and clean now. :)
For a brief moment, it felt like I was living in the perfect world here at my farm.
But then something extremely terrible happened on 26th March 2022, just barely a month since we bought Robin and Tiger from Pi Thuami.
I still remember that day so clearly, because it was so impactful.
On the 26th morning, everything was fine. We woke up, I opened the farmhouse gate, the dogs ran out, welcoming the morning sun. Later Robin and Tiger fought cutely on their bed and I even took a video of it. Everything was normal and all three of them were having fun outside... until Tiger came back inside the farmhouse alone in the afternoon and just lay down on the bed.
At first, I thought Tiger must be feeling a bit tired. Robin would run into the farmhouse many times, beckoning his bro to play with him outside, but Tiger wouldn't budge. He just smiled at his brother and went back to sleep.
By evening, he was still in bed and that's when I started worrying a bit. Once it was dark, Dobby and Robin came inside and then Robin just lay next to Tiger like a dutiful brother.
That night, Tiger didn't eat dinner. Again, I wasn't panicking yet because there had been times when Dobby wouldn't eat dinner too, when he had some stomach issues. But he was always back to eating on the next meal time.
We all went to sleep after that.
27th March, 2022. The next morning, I woke up to find both Robin and Tiger sleeping like this. So cute.
I thought Tiger was okay, but he still didn't run outside with Dobby and Robin.
And then when it was breakfast time, Tiger didn't eat again. I finally started worrying, and I called up Lalani who told me to feed Tiger some electrolyte solution. I felt a bit relieved when Tiger drank some of it.
That night, it looked like he was recovering, as Tiger seemed to be sleeping in his usual normal position. I said good night to them again.
28th March, 2022. I woke up in the morning in horror. Tiger had puked and shat inside the farmhouse and it looked like blood!
I called up Lalani again, who suspected it might be parvo but Robin was perfectly fine, so we brushed that off for the time being. She told me to take him to the vet as soon as possible. Since I lived in a very remote place, it wasn't possible to arrange a vehicle that day, but I was able to book a cab for the next morning.
Tiger remained in bed the whole day and Robin would come inside the farmhouse just to spend some time next to his brother.
I was still feeling positive because of the vet appointment the next day.
That night, Robin lay next to his brother very gently and lovingly. I just realised after putting this photo that you can still see some blood in the photos below which I must have missed cleaning... :(
29th March, 2022. I woke up to more blood inside the farmhouse. And then I heard some extremely disturbing news that morning.
All the other siblings of Robin and Tiger were ALL sick! All the other farms below ours, like Pi Ju-i, Pi Zuii, Pu Huma, Pu Muanpuia etc had all taken one puppy each. There had been 3 or 4 occasions when some of the puppies came to our farm and they all played together. That's probably how they must have infected each other.
Lalani was now 90% sure it was parvo, or Canine Parvovirus as we call it. It is a highly contagious virus that mostly affects unvaccinated dogs, and puppies that are younger than four months old are said to be at the highest risk of contracting this virus.
My cab finally arrived and we took Tiger to my friend Dr. Mahminga's clinic at Bawngkawn, who confirmed that it was indeed parvo! Tiger was put on a drip immediately and we spent the whole afternoon at his clinic.
Dr. Mahminga told us to bring him back the next day for another round of drip.
On our way back, I visited the other farms below us and learnt that Pi Ju-i's puppy and Pu Huma's puppy had passed away that afternoon!
Back at the farmhouse, I moved Tiger's bed to our farmhand's quarter as it was very important to separate Robin and Dobby from Tiger. Tiger would be sleeping at our farmhand's quarter again.
That evening, Tiger went missing three times! We found him lying down hidden among a tall patch of grass, inside a small hole below my farmhouse, and behind the farmhand's toilet between the septic tank and wall. All three times we were frantically searching for him and shouting his name, but he didn't respond to any of our calls. It was as if he just wanted to die someplace in isolation without burdening us. My heart broke. Just look at his face.
30th March, 2022. As soon as I woke up, I ran to our farmhand's quarter. There were small puddles of blood everywhere inside their quarter. I took photos but will not be posting them.
Tiger was lying in my farmhand's arms, extremely weak. His wife told me that he had been holding Tiger like that the entire night, except when Tiger went to shit blood or puke blood. :(
Our cab was about to arrive soon at 8 AM and I went back to my farmhouse to get ready.
And then it happened. At around 8AM just before our cab arrived, our farmhand came to my farmhouse with tears rolling down his cheeks and told me Tiger was no more. I ran back to their quarter and cried on seeing his lifeless body.
While I was extremely sad, I wasn't in the right frame of mind to think about it because Robin had just started showing signs of the same symptoms that morning too!
When my cab arrived, I told the driver to wait for an hour or two while my farmhand and I dug a small grave for Tiger.
My farmhand was even more sad than me because I became attached to them only for about 10 days while he had been looking after them for three weeks.
We placed Tiger inside his permanent home...
I still couldn't believe how fast everything happened. From 26th to 30th - Just four days and Tiger was gone.
Once we buried Tiger and said a short prayer, my farmhand took Robin to Dr. Mahminga again using the same cab (that was supposed to take Tiger). I just didn't have the energy and emotional capacity to go back and forth because I was afraid I would lose Robin too. At the clinic, Robin too was put on a drip.
That day, I got the sad news that Pu Muanpuia's puppy and Pi Zuii's puppy had died as well.
But Robin was surprisingly showing a good recovery! He wasn't as bad as Tiger, and even when he puked, there was no blood. My farmhand took Robin every day to Dr. Mahminga's clinic. And on the fourth day since Tiger's demise, Dr. Mahminga told me the extremely good news that Robin had completely recovered!
Awwee just look at Robin's small legs where he was receiving the intravenous fluids.
Though Robin recovered, you can still see the sadness in his eyes because Tiger was no longer with us... :(
The irony in all this is that, whenever all the puppies came to my farm and played together and ran together, Robin was ALWAYS the last! The rest of the pack would be way ahead while cute little Robin with his short tail was always a few meters behind. We thought he was the budelh, a Mizo term we use in livestock where one sibling is weaker than the rest, and sort of handicapped.
Robin's brothers and sisters were much more fit and faster than him. And yet, they all died, while he was the only one who survived the dreaded parvo. Ironic indeed.
The next few days, Robin didn't play with Dobby or go outside. He stayed in the farmhouse the whole day next to me.
Even when I was working on the computer, he would coil up next to my feet.
And when I went to the toilet to take a dump, he would follow me there as well. :D
This reminded me of what Dobby used to do two years ago when he first came to live with me at the farm. :D
Back when Tiger was around, Robin had never followed me this much. I could truly understand how much he was missing Tiger.
And Dobby too had completely toned down and was in a solemn mood during this entire saga. He definitely understood what had happened.
Suddenly, the bed seemed too big for just Robin, and you can see that in his eyes too.
Shhh... He's dreaming about his brother...
Sometimes I would find him sleeping outside the bed, and I would assume he couldn't sleep in the same bed where his brother had once slept...
Eventually, Dobby started playing with Robin again, which finally distracted him from his brother.
The bond between Dobby and Robin became stronger due to the loss, and Dobby started teaching Robin everything he knew.
Which also included how to beg for food whenever my mom would visit. :D
Robin basically just copied everything Dobby was doing. :D
Here's another gem. I took a photo of the CCTV screen. That's Dobby's favourite spot, and Robin too lay right next to him with the exact same pose, lolz.
Eventually, Robin was growing up fast.
I ordered a new bed from Amazon for Robin because the one he's using is actually Dobby's bed, while Dobby continued using my bed as his. :D
Eventually, Robin was big enough to climb up to my bed. Which was a problem because Dobby didn't like that. He was like, "You've already occupied my first bed, you're not gonna come and occupy this too!"
And so I had to build a barricade between them in the night so that Robin couldn't climb on the bed.
Hehe, cute :)
Ahhh the drama that took place every night. :)
Eventually, they would both go off to sleep.
And then when it was time for me to sleep, I would gently move the boxes down on the floor and slide in next to Dobby.
I ordered their own customised dog tags from Amazon, with their names and my contact details.
The inscription means, "If I am lost, please phone my owner's number"
I also ordered these super cute "Good Boy 1" and "Good Boy 2" jerseys for them. :D
My good bois. :)
Sleeping good bois.
And of course, my superdog and batdog. :)
This post became longer than I intended, lolz. 100+ photos, damnnn.
Anyway, I'll stop here now. Thanks for reading till the end, and hope you visit again for more updates. Though the loss of Tiger was sad, hope the cuteness of Robin and Dobby cheered you up.
My mom of course was disappointed because Robin eventually became another farmhouse pampered dog just like Dobby and not the one she was expecting that would be roaming outside in the night, lolz. After this, she never attempted to get another dog again who would play that role because she knew it would be futile.
By the way, this wasn't Robin's only near-death experience, in fact, he had two other near-death experiences, which I hope to write about someday.
So here's wishing you a great weekend. Cheers, and lots of love to you from Robin and Dobby.