Fina is Josephine, shortened to Fina by my mother.
She’s an adorable Pomeranian with a petite body and a delicate shade of brown a little like half-baked bread. She’s now two years old and probably in the very prime of her youth.
A man called Luke, who lived in the house adjacent to ours for about two months, walked in one day, introduced himself, befriended my other dog Hero, and said he had seen how good we were with dogs – and so, had decided to gift us a little pup.
In came Josephine or Fina, and out went our sulky disposition.
Ever since Fina became one of our own, there has been not a moment of quiet in the house, except for the hours she sleeps. Right from the first day, she proved to be a laugh-a-minute package.
Her antics and her habits, which I am sure seemed pretty normal to her, would send everyone into splits of laughter. Her comic timing continues to be impeccable.
If she were running through the rooms, you can be sure there would be a trail of toppled chairs and disheveled carpets behind her. If she were eating, you can be sure there would be a circle of ‘unwanted and refused food items’ carefully picked and dropped out of her bowl.
The one who always ends up being on the receiving end of Fina’s antics is our dog Hero, a rather serious chap, with very little energy or inclination for pranks. From the very first day, Fina took a great liking for him. She still loves him dearly and follows him around as if he were her role model!
One day, while on our customary morning walk, I noticed a curious habit Fina had picked up from Hero. She would not urinate in the normal ‘sitting-crouched’ posture in which Hero did, but went on to lift one of her hind legs, taking after her male companion.
It was quite a while before she finally understood that she was a ‘lady’ and not a ‘man’.
But the hero’s woes continue. She still follows him around. When she is in the mood for play, he has a hyperactive dog on his hands that goes for his ears, and his tail, and nibbles him all over. Frankly, I don’t think he minds all the attention, and though he does give her a ‘shouting’ once in a while, he usually deals with her by maintaining a calm and peaceful exterior.
Fina has proven to be quite a handful for us as well. She has inflexible ideas about certain things: she has taken it upon herself to defend all of us from a flower vase (which she thinks is an enemy) and almost everyone attacks it with renewed vengeance, she dislikes children and would snaps at any thatcomese in the vicinity, and all our attempts at ‘socialising her’ have come to nothing.
And yet, children love her. Reason? She sings. Yes, every time I, in my out-of-tune voice, attempt a Hindi number, she joins in with her curious ‘alaap’. And she shifts the scale every time I do!
Fina is still young, and I am sure in the years to come she will mellow down from the spitfire that she is into a more genteel creature, but I will always treasure the joy and the energy she has managed to introduce into our otherwise somber and uptight family.
Fina, Laugh A Minute
