A Pawfect Life The Chronicles of Señor Sting

Sting was a gorgeous pug puppy that I gifted myself on our silver anniversary. We were fairly new in Venezuela, and a friend recommended Carlos, a Colombian interior decorator, to get the tables and other nitty gritty to entertain our new Venezuelan friends and fellow diplomats in Quinta Bharat or India House for the party. Carlos had one look at the gardens and said Senora, you’re missing a dog. “Tengo tres cachorros poog” (I have three pug puppies), and I couldn’t resist acquiring one of them.

Tail and Tale of Travel and Toast

From the first day that Sting came to live with us, he gave up dog food and ate fresh chapatis with all types of meats and vegetables. Sting loved fruit and would look for mangoes under the mango tree in the garden. Soon, the mango skin would be on one side while the seed would be licked clean on the other. Sting had some strange idiosyncrasies which I’d rather gloss over…. all in all, he was a lovable soul.

Sting’s Wag-tastic Journey

My husband was posted back to HQ from Caracas, and we had quite a time travelling to New York from Caracas since it was imperative for Senor Sting to travel in the cabin with us, he being a short-snouted canine. The luggage hold would not have worked for him. We landed in Miami after a short flight from Caracas without any untoward incident. However, in Miami, the pet counter woman decided that Sting was too big for the dog bag that he’d travelled in and that the airlines wouldn’t let him on the flight. I was in tears and pleaded with her but to no avail. We had to run to another airline. Finally, my husband and pooch flew to New York on a different flight.

New York is one of my favourite cities which we’d lived in for almost four years but Senor Sting hated it!  He’d never walked on concrete sidewalks and his puggy paws couldn’t stand the August heat and humidity in The Big Apple.

It was now time to fly to Delhi. That week in Manhattan was a bit of a nightmare for all of us! The flight to Delhi was via Frankfurt, and Sting was treated like royalty by the Air India staff in the first-class cabin. The best airline to travel with pets has to be Air India.

The Pug Who Loved and Was Loved

Sting loved the time we spent in Delhi socializing with other children and pets. After four years, we moved to Sri Lanka, which was lush and gorgeous. I could see that Sting was listless and depressed since our children were not with us, and he was lonely. Now, what would any pet mum do under these circumstances? Along came little Sammy, another little pug boy with an interesting divergent squint. Both the pugs were happy in the beautiful lawns, and they loved to meet all the dignitaries, including the Sri Lankan PM and his wife, who were our neighbours and very dog friendly.

After a wonderful stay in Colombo husband was posted to London. Senor Sting, who was nine plus years by that time, had just about survived a dreadful virus which caused muscular dystrophy. He could walk by the time we had to move, but there was no way that I was flying to London with my babies in the hold and putting them in quarantine for a month. How we reached British shores with the dodgy boys is quite a tale.

Adventures of a Jet-Setting Pug

We flew Air India (of course) from Colombo to Delhi. Stopped over for a couple of hours and caught the flight to Paris. Our furry boys were with us in the cabin, of course. After spending the night with the ambassadors at India House, Paris, we embarked on our journey to London. It was bitterly cold in early December since it had snowed. Poor Sammy stood in complete shock when he stepped out into the Parisian air. My Sri Lankan baby had never experienced the cold. We drove to Calais, did our immigration there, rode the ferry to Dover, and then drove to 9 Kensington Palace, which was to be our home for the next couple of years. No fanfare for the High Commissioner!

After getting to the residence, it took me a couple of days to realise that poor Sting was almost blind. He knew his way about the Colombo house, and we never figured out that he couldn’t see. He learnt to go from floor to floor in the lift and hardly ever bumped into anything. Sammy knew what was going on and would guide him, at times pulling him by the leg. Our cook Hari and I would take both the doggos to walk in Kensington Palace Gardens behind our residence. Sting was as friendly as ever and socialized with all manner of creatures, two-legged and four. The ducks in the Round Pond would gather around him, children loved him, he’d even get petted by the Royals, Princes William and Harry, when they had friends over on Sunday morning for archery. One target was placed on our fence, and they would pet the pugs through the bars of our fence.

After London we moved back to Delhi and my husband was given a post-retirement assignment by the government in the Central Information Commission which gave us a nice bungalow in Lodhi Estate. Lucky! With a nice big garden, our furry friends and us, were happy. Sting got used to the new home and was the darling of the children and adults who lived in the quarters. By now he was twelve plus and would be hand fed.

A Gentle Goodbye

On that fateful day I fed him in my lap and he had a nap. At 1 pm he stepped out of the kitchen door, walked around to the front garden and lay down in front of where I was busy on the computer and breathed his last. Quietly, no fuss, peacefully. Oh! Sting we miss you even four years down the line.

When pets go, they leave a void that can never be filled. All that’s left is to remember him with a smile for all the memories etched in our hearts!