Humans go through different emotions and relationships. But have you ever thought about your dog's romantic life?
How must your dog be feeling about new love interests? Or a crush? Or an ex? Or a cheating partner?
Well, sit back and enjoy reading this post, as I take you through the the sad but adorable romantic life of Dobby here at Neihbawih.
I must warn you though, his tail tale is a drama-filled soap opera that would put even Erika Mitchell aka E.L. James to shame. :P
So here we go.
Much like the opening scene of any captivating drama TV series, my farm echoed with the delightful duo of just Dobby and me, running around and leading a happy normal life alone. We were content and happy with each other. But the storyline was about to change.
Enter the female protagonist - Teii.
Teii was Pi Thuami's dog. Pi Thuami looked after my neighbouring farm. She would pass through my farm every morning and return home in the evening.
When Pi Thuami saw that Dobby didn't have any furry playmate, she asked me if she could bring Teii along, instead of locking her up at her house the whole day. There was a possibility that Dobby and Teii could become friends. I agreed.
Initially, of course, there was some tension when Dobby and Teii met for the first time, but just as we hoped, they quickly became friends. That's the beauty about male and female dogs, they don't get territorial.
During the first few days, whenever Pi Thuami reached my farm, Dobby and Teii would spend a few minutes playing together on my farm, and then Teii would follow Pi Thuami to her farm. And then on their way back in the evening, they would play together again, before leaving our farm. Dobby would look forward to their arrival every day.
Eventually, they started playing together the whole day. They would either be on my farm or Pi Thuami's farm, running everywhere or resting under the shade. It was the best couple of months for them both.
Dobby even allowed his girlfriend to eat from his bowl with no hesitation :)
We even spent one night helping Pi Thuami look for Teii. There was a severe thunderstorm and Teii didn't go back home. Pi Thuami came to my farm in the night and Dobby sprang into action as we looked for Teii. Dobby barked and she barked back, and eventually, we found her all coiled up and scared under Pi Thuami's thlam. :)
But like all drama-filled TV shows, there has to be a change in the plot, right? Enter the villain in the storyline - Toshi.
Well, not exactly my villain. Just Dobby's villain. :D
So before Dobby came into my life and changed it forever, I was living alone on my farm. And then this dog called Toshi used to visit me occasionally.
Toshi was from a retreat centre at Neihbawih, and though his place was quite far from my farm (around 45 minutes by walk), this was the time before the Neihbawih Welfare Association had prohibited dogs from venturing out of their place of residence. And so Toshi would roam around everywhere in Neihbawih during the day, and return in the night to his owners.
He even stayed one night at my farm because there was a thunderstorm and he couldn't go home. I made a nice bed for him in our sitting room and fed him dinner as well as breakfast the next morning.
But of course, once Dobby was with me, things had to change.
Dobby was super jealous of Toshi. And much as I pitied Toshi, he had a lot of people looking after him and caring for him, while I was the only one Dobby had. And so I sided with Dobby and told Toshi not to come to my farm anymore.
Here's a photo of Dobby preventing Toshi from entering my farm.
Despite Dobby hating Toshi, Toshi actually helped me save Dobby's life once, and I'll write about that incident in another post.
Dogs are extremely intelligent. To tell Toshi that he shouldn't come to my farm anymore, I didn't have to yell or shout. I simply ignored him or his puppy-affectionate eyes and gave my attention to just Dobby. Toshi understood the message loud and clear, and he never came to our farm again...
...until Teii was on heat.
Ahhh now we have an explicit sex-twist in the storyline. :D
After Dobby and Teii spent many months playing together, Teii was on heat, but my poor Dobby, bless his simple heart, was already neutered. That "department" didn't exactly function for Dobby, you know. Teii wanted the boom boom, but Dobby was like "Sorry hon, I have a headache".
And so... enter Toshi again.
Toshi started following Pi Thuami and Teii, and when they entered our farm, Dobby was full-on angry. He was like, "Bruh, didn't I tell you not to come here anymore? Bauh bauh!"
But Toshi was smart and avoided me, so as not to aggravate the situation further. He focussed only on Teii. Toshi would dare not fight Dobby, especially when he knew I had Dobby's back, but the sexual urge was too hard for him to ignore. You saw what I did there? :P
Eventually, Dobby was okay with Toshi being around at our farm, as long as he never came near me.
And then of course the mating started.
Dobby would watch his girlfriend getting hammered from behind by his sworn enemy, and I think that must be one of the worst feelings a man can feel. Fortunately, Dobby was just a dog. :D
But nevertheless, I did feel really bad for him. I gave him more attention and increased his treats dosage to pull him out of his depression.
Luckily, the mating cycle didn't last long and after a few days, it was over. Teii was no longer on heat and she chased away Toshi. That was the last time I saw Toshi, to this day.
Dobby and Teii were back to playing with each other again, though Teii was pregnant by then.
Once Teii was getting bigger, for her own safety, Pi Thuami locked her in her house again. But Dobby never stopped waiting for Teii to appear every morning. I'm sure you're getting a poignant Hachiko vibe at this moment.
Fortunately, unlike humans, dogs are pregnant for around 2 months only. During that time, Pi Thuami constructed an enclosure, and soon Teii gave birth to a litter of extremely cute and adorable puppies.
That's how I got my next dog, Robin, sired out of the complicated relationship between Dobby, Teii and Toshi. There are a lot of exciting stories to be read on that, and I hope you come back to read my next post about how Robin came into our lives.
You know those popular T-shirts that say "I'm not the stepdad, I'm the dad who stepped up"? Well, Dobby was like that. He became Robin's dad, like it or not, and you'll love their father-and-son relationship saga in my next post.
Sadly though, Pi Thuami had to sell Teii after that. Teii had been suffering from alopecia for a long time, which, in Mizo, we call "tang", and she had spent a large amount of her earnings on Teii's treatments.
By "sell", I hope you all know what it means.
You gotta understand, if you're an animal lover from the city, you may think, why couldn't Pi Thuami just put more effort into Teii's treatment? Well, that's not the reality here in rural areas. A dosage of Teii's treatment meant Pi Thuami didn't have any proper food to eat for a week. Things are different out here, my privileged friends.
I too had just started living with Dobby back then, and with so much farm work and construction going on, my hands were full with just one dog. Had it been how I am right now, well settled and established, I would have definitely bought Teii from Pi Thuami. But back then, the scene was very different.
For a week, Pi Thuami cried every day when she reached my farm as Dobby greeted her and looked everywhere around her for Teii.
Sometimes Dobby and I would just stare at the distant Sihphir town from our farm hilltop in the night to mesmerise about Teii...
And other times we would welcome the break of dawn with a dramatic silhouette of Dobby trying to express his pain...
I really didn't mean to dampen your mood with this sad ending, but I hope the story of Robin will cheer you up next time. Sorry for this dark turn suddenly.
