Quality time with Rowdy Ranga
Whenever Ranga and i are on the terrace, we find ourselves in a weird dilemma. He follows whoever climbs up the stairs from our apartment. As long as they are alone. If there are 2–3 people, he stays put at his spot because he has bad memories from last year when three of us conspired to give him a royal bath on the terrace. Nonetheless, whenever he and i are under the open sky, he automatically expects me to frolic around like a maniac. Why maniac? Because people from neighbouring buildings won’t be able to see this four-legged moron in front of/behind me because of his short stature. Observing me run here and there, they will definitely assume that i’ve lost it way too early! To avoid that nightmare, i sit down on the water pipes as soon as we get to the terrace. Ranga will earnestly stare at me hoping i’ll chase him in circles or something. But nope. That’s not happening. I got him a tiny rubber ball some months ago. I threw it at him and he headed it off the parapet. That was his first and last touch. To be frank, it was a sight to behold. He jumped high enough—i don’t know, maybe 3–4 feet — to snout the ball right out of our limited periphery onto the street. I didn’t even bother to fetch the toy back. Since then, there has been no play. Only talks. I tell him stuff, expecting him to pay attention. So far, he has been consistent in his outlook towards me. He either wants to be scratched or petted or both since seek-and-seek is out of question. As for our one-sided conversations, he simply doesn’t care and makes wheezing noises to indicate his displeasure at how things are turning out. On to top of that, he has an upper hand in our relationship. He walks away nonchalantly whenever the chat gets too much for his tolerance of rubbish.
