Twelve pairs of slippers, seven charging cables, a couch, a bed, and a lampshade. That’s the casualty count at the Ray residence in DB Block. And Timtim the Golden Retriever is behind it all. Well, with a sliver of help from Labrador Puchkai.
“We named him Timtim as he makes our head go ‘timtim’. He’s so naughty he gives us a headache,” laughs Shiven Ray. “Puchkai is much calmer in comparison.”
Puchkai, the older of the two, is a rescued dog. Shiven had picked him up from the street after he was abandoned as a puppy. “He’s very affectionate. If you stop patting him, he’ll paw you for more. And he’s intelligent too. He follows all instructions,” Shiven says.
Cut to Timtim, who the family has given up trying to train. “An entire large packet of biscuits will finish but Timtim won’t learn to shake his paw,” laughs Shiven’s mom Sangeeta, who incidentally is a teacher.
Sangeeta’s students have a rollicking time whenever they come over for classes. “The first thing they do is play with the dogs. And they play so much that my mom literally has to drag them away, towards the study table,” says Shiven, an advocate.
The family has a strong feeling that Timtim is in fact Leo, their previous dog, who has returned to them. “They have uncanny similarities in the way they sit and behave. When food is being taken out, Timtim circles you in excitement, he plays with cola bottles and tissues rolls much like Leo would. Puchaki does not share these traits,” Shiven notes.
Puchkai had grown up with Leo and was very upset when the latter passed away. “We grieved bitterly when he passed. Vets have become so selfish these days that no one even came over to treat him at the end,” he says, adding how badly the township needs emergency vet services. “But when Timtim came, Puchkai played big brother to the hilt. The little one would hide behind him whenever he got a scolding.”
If ever Shiven’s mother rings him up during work hours, he knows what it’s about even before receiving the call. “It’ll be about their latest antics,” he says. Timtim, particularly, has chewed up Shiven’s airpods, his mom’s flowers, and even the original paperwork of one of his clients. “Thankfully, the legal work was complete before the shredding,” says the hapless man.
But nothing beats the time his mom rang him up and asked him to rush home. “It was raining that day and the dogs had escaped into the garden. They tossed about in the mud and then ran all over the house staining everything they crossed,” Shiven shakes his head, recalling.
“When Shiven came home and saw the mess, for once, even the lawyer had no words!” laughs his mother.
