Three Squirrels And My Spiritual Friendship With Them

                                                       Spiritual Friendship Series - I

LOCO, POCO & MAYO

Ever since I have shifted in my home the best part of life has been mornings and evenings in my balcony a place to meet all my spiritual friends. While shifting to this flat the broker advised me to fix a grid all over the balcony in order to cover it for safety reasons, but I couldn’t afford as my wallet was already suffocating due to heavy relocation & security expenses. It’s been almost five years in the same flat, and my huge balcony without a grid became the resting point, swimming pool, and bathing bar for most of them and a permanent abode for some of them. They all are my buddies and have reasonably great bonding with me and hubby. Life is fun with them.    

I call it "SPRITUAL FRIENDSHIP" a term I learned long back while reading a book on Buddhism and today I strongly feel that spiritual friendship can help us connect with anyone be it an animal, a plant, river, wind anything with an energy flow. We can talk to a plant or an animal and we immediately start exchanging energy and here itself the process starts towards spiritual bonding which ends up establishing Spiritual Friendship.

Now coming back to my Friends.. When it comes to introduce all of my friends, just one post will not be able to do justice and as such I have plans to create a series of "stories and videos" on my "Spiritual Friendship" which I will post one by one. Our bond is so strong that we exchange our feeling so well. At times they knock door and ask to fill the earthen pot with water by their unique expressions, they come in front of the balcony door and call us for food and some of them trust me to an extent to take the feed right from my hand.

As a preface of the upcoming Series on my "Spiritual Friendship" - I would love to give a brief of all of them.

1. The Crow family first. The head of the family is the "GRANDPA CROW" who has been visiting us for last 3 years and now brings his three generations along to consume the egg yolks which are the leftovers of the breakfast. He waits silently only till 8 pm and then starts indicating that he is getting late for the breakfast followed by his entire family.
2. A naughty gang of squirrels.
3. A stupid and dumb looking crowd of pigeons who fight a lot and give ample opportunity to the smart squirrels to consume the biggest chunk of food.
4. A team of sparrows who have super table etiquettes and ultra-super bonding with each other.
5. A tiny comb of vespids hanging from the empty bottle of floor cleaner, which should have gone  ideally to the scrap long back, but still being retained just because of the comb.
6. A family of black birds which is growing with every spring season passed. 
7. A woodpecker who visits often but not that frequently. 

Some are friendly and some of them are super friendly such as the Naughty Squirrels.

One can watch them for hours as they are so lively and chirpy that one just can’t ignore them. They enjoy the luxuries of a multistory apartment with a park facing balcony that too without even sharing any rent with me. In each of my bathroom’s window three squirrels have knitted their nest hanging from the grill with the support of the window door. They are fantastically good in knitting using a wide range of row material right from feathers, dry grass to small stems and soft leafs. To my surprise I have also seen these little monsters stealing woolen threads from from winter outfits and fiber stuffing of my sofa cushions which I kept out in the balcony to be dried in the sunlight. And of course my kitchen towel - has a history of disappearing each out of three. The thief caught red handed and the mystery got revealed one morning, when I saw her climbing on three of her legs while my pink kitchen towel clenched in her mouth and holding it with one of her hand in order to manage its length which was almost triple of her size. I must say she managed well to run away along with the towel and ended inside her nest. I sort of knew it and as a result I quickly went inside my bathroom to see what next. She almost dragged the huge towel inside her nest and started shredding it amazingly fast. Another 30 minutes and my lovely towel turned into a pile of cuttings to be used as the bedding for the new borns coming soon. (Loco, Poco and Mayo - watch the video)  My pain of losing the new towel faded against this fantastic experience which me and hubby witnessed together from my bathroom window for days after the three little ones arrived and enjoyed winters inside their cozy bedding.

Many a times I played prank with my tiny friend to check her intelligence and she has surprised me every single time with her wit. I still remember me putting a bread piece and a walnut together on my balcony wall and wait until she comes and react. And my little fellow always carries the walnut first to her nest and keep it inside in the safe custody and then comes back to enjoy the bread ensuring she doesn’t loose anything.

I have seen her getting in to fights very often with the crow family and now I am going to share the rarest seen of my life – My little soldier slapped a pigeon intruder right in front of me. That fatso was sharing food with her and as usual trying to impress the female pigeon by dancing in circles and puffing off the fur around his neck to show his power. While doing all this he was constantly cooing as oh-oo-oor - oh-oo-oor completely disturbing my friend’s momentum, getting into her space and scattering the feed all over the wall. How can you share food with a fellow who has just no table manners? I don’t blame her for doing all this and I wanted to say even BRAVO… but hey where is she? she was not there... She gave a tight slap and ran away… ha ha ha. Smart one.. The pigeon was still in shock for getting slapped by a squirrel which I am sure must not have happened to any of his at least seven generations and more than that happing in front of his "hot prospected girlfriend". Which he must have lost forever. My little monster returned a while after the fight to check whether her victim still dares to stay there. Fortunately he left by then. Lucky you are Fatso... :)

Courtesy her no plant has survived in my balcony in last four years as she has a great taste for saplings except one indoor plant with various stems different size and shapes. This is the only survival as this one was a mature plant which I carried along when we shifted to this house. She climbs onto the pot and swing holding the lower stems of it and I just love this scene. To make her do so I keep a cashew nut on the pot and I get what I want… . She swings by one hand and another engaged tasting the cashew. Swinging while Eating…. Amazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing. (wish I could have captured this for you) 

Although she tastes everything, she is smart enough not to taste cheese ball which carried paprika powder inside. I purposely did this to see her reaction and height of my surprise, cheese being one of her favorite she didn’t even took a bite. Then  she created some unusual funny voice for more then 20 times, must be some kind of alarm after which -  leave aside the squirrels no body look at the cheese be it crow, sparrows, black bird not even the black aunts. What a synchronized chemistry of all folks.

This tale could go as long as the never-ending surprises my little monster gives me with each coming day but to end this story I would say we all should try to understand these coexistents as end of the day everything that has an energy flow can connect and communicate. The medium of connection may different… Mine is Spiritual Friendship…. Wanna try.. Go Ahead…

Sia...

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Patchy the Pirate...



Patchy today - a dairy owner..

                Patchy The Pirate…

Patchy named "PATCHY" because of the dark brown patches all over his body. I love to call him a pirate because of his "Pirate looks". He has got a funny face, partly white and partly black. Its not only the color of his fur, but his skin too. A funny black nose with a big white patch.One eye typically white and another with a black circle around it ... a perfect pirate look.

Patchy when rescued - (1) with a plaster in his left leg (2) Patchy in Full attention mode (3)Patchy sitting at kitcehn's door (4) His banana leaf ears.

Patchy came home with a plaster to support his broken leg and a hernia. He was around 3 months old when I rescued him from a local market near to my place. He was hibernating beneath  a Tandoor with an open wound having pus and maggots and with a fracture in his left leg.  He looked starved as if hadn't had anything for last last so many days and as a result of it food became his ultimate passion. He could do anything with food - Eating food, smelling food, thinking food, gazing food and so on...

 He remained super exited (I think hogging could be a right word instead of super exited but still I would use the latter. Please don't think that I am trying to cover his Janglipan by saying "SUPER EXITED". I would surely not like to hide the real spirit of patchy because it's  his "JANGALIPAN" only which along with his looks makes him a real pirate ) for food in the initial couple of days in my house, and was always ready to gulp everything right from raw potato, green peas to Maggi, kadhi chawal and fruits like banana and oranges (forgot to mention he liked fruits even more with chat masala sprinkled over them). He is the only puppy I have ever seen in my life that equally enjoyed sour / bitter medicines as eggs and pedigree food. His First love in our house was hubby's shoe brush which he carried with him almost everywhere. In his leisure time - OK now let me explain what is called a leisure time for Patchy.

When...
    
      1. He is not having food.

2. He is not thinking of having food.

3. He is not spying us to check whether we are having some food secretly which we have not offered to him.

4. Something is not happening in the house in which "fridge" is being used. Yes... his another love was Fridge.The moment you open the door you will find him next to you peeping deep inside the fridge to check what all he can eat. Rest aside the idea of having food from the fridge , he never missed a single opportunity to come as closer as possible (to the open fridge) and breath as deep as possible to have the aroma of the food inside and wagging his thin tweaked tail at least 30 times in a minute as an apology for doing all this.

5. He is there in balcony with his head stuck in the criss cross design of the wall and screaming (here screaming works same as your ringtone in ascending order with a vibration on - it starts with a"Koon Koon - by using only throat" with no vibrations then "teyaoon teyaoon" with movements and then long and loud "kain kain" with shaking his whole body) to alarm us that he has got stuck and calling us for help.

6. He is Not after the crow family, squirrels, sparrows and pigeons who visit my balcony every morning and evening for breakfast & dinner. In summers for having bath also.

7. He is not trying to seduce the "security guard" with his pirate looks, who sits at the back entrance gate of my apartment. Every single time he turns his head to our balcony he finds Patchy gazing him with his banana leaf sized ears, stretched straight upwards paying full attention as if he is from the bomb squared wing and trying to scan the guard with a possibility that he could be a terrorist.

8. He has done either pee or poo in the balcony and trying to escape from us.


You may call him (JANGLI) after knowing all this and he looked like a true Jnagalee, but I never consider Patchy as an ill mannered puppy because this is the beauty of being Patchy and makes him unique.  

I still remember the day when my mom was about to visit my place. She had been listing about this rescue for last couple of days. I also told her that I am planning to give patchy a permanent shelter incase I don't find foster parents for him. Having said this she was real curious to see Mr. Patchy. She reached when patchy was away for a visit to his doctor and was sitting in the living room when he returned. Her reaction after having a look at Patchy was "you sure you want to keep him? his face has got something wrong? and what's wrong with his eyes? oh its not only the face & eyes it has got a fracture also. Amazing….didn’t you find something better to have around”

I said not only this mom - he has got hernia also for which he is getting treated. Still I love him. His beauty lies in his ugliness. He is so ugly ... that's why he is so different. While I was still trying to convince mom and before I could have even convinced her a little, Patchy started with his haunted hauls mixed with small barks while his “banana leaf sized” ears fully stretched.... standing straight.  He continued with his barks for another 3-4 minutes until we realized that he is not comfortable with mom & dad putting up their luggage in the same room where his bedding was placed in a corner for last couple of days. He was angry because 

1- His room was hijacked by some unwanted people who were making his life nuts with their presence.

2- His couch was shifted to the bathroom where he hated to stay.

He kept on barking for a couple of minutes, ran across all the rooms, tried to enter into the kitchen and Poojaghar where he was not allowed to enter. He was angry to an extent that he did pee on the balcony wall twice. He even barked at the guard as if saying " go to hell " I have no interest in you even if you are a terrorist. And finally after sulking for an hour he slept in anger but… of course after having his supper.  

Patchy used to bark in full volume in the nights as if we are holding the keys of a treasure and he is the one guarding it. At times he used to bark for no reason that is also for long. Every-night comes with fearful thoughts whether he will let us sleep or not. Hubby started avoiding neighbors while using the lifts and in the garden area assuming they may ask if we own that ugly dog which has made their peaceful nights a nightmare.

I am sure patchy was loud enough to disturb God;s sleep also and that’s why he quickly arranged a shelter for him. It was the dairy owner near to my place who agreed to adopt Patchy after my one hour counseling session explaining how patchy can save him Rs. 3000 per month. Patchy can guard his shop in the nights when he is away, and he can easily get rid off his lazy "chaukidar" who sleeps all through the nights and charges 3000 a month. It got simpler for me to convince him as he had already witnessed Patchy's howls & barks when we chained him in the backside balcony last week so that people in the opposite tower can have a peaceful sleep.

Finally the day arrived when Patchy got his new shelter. I groomed him with a shampoo and combed his fur after which I swear he looked a real pirate. I was happy because he is going to be around and I can go & meet him anytime. I was also happy because his shelter is a dairy and he will be having all the milk products he can think off. I was extremely happy because the dairy has got a huge fridge which is required to be opened every now and then, and Patchy can peep inside as much as he wants to and breath as deep as he can....

I was so so so happy for Patchy and so was he.....

We still meet on weekends. He comes to drop me till the backside gate of my apartment with his Girlfriend Soniya. 

Love you patchy.. May god bless you both with good health and long life...

Wishing you a happy Life ….

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The story of Bingo....

BINGO THE UNTAMED..

One of my most challenging rescue experiences when I found a tiny (around 15 days old) white & Black puppy inside a poly bag which was knotted tightly to suffocate the little one towards a silent death. He was so small that his eyes were even completely sealed (generally it takes at least 22 days for a puppy to get the eyes fully open). I brought him home and named BINGO. It started from the doctor’s visit to feeding him and cleaning his SUSU POTTY and it went on and on and on. It was actually a challenge to help the rat size creature survive as he was not even able to suck the liquids. However we succeeded helping him survive and he became a part of our life. 

As he required a full time attention hubby managed to work from home as much as possible and at times even I used to take him along to my office and kept secretly in the store room keeping the office boy in confidence. We used to set alarms in the night to maintain his feeding schedule at 12:30am & 3 am. As a result of our hard work Bingo Survived. Finally with a heavy heart we gave BINGO to one of my office colleague who was very very keen to take a susu potty trained handsome smart fellow home.  It’s been almost three years now and he is very much happy in his family who love him like anything… 

Love you Bingo.. and we still Miss you.. 

Around a month and 10 days

Around a month and 10 days

A month old

An ever wagging tale

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