Cats or dogs? Both, if you please.

People don't believe it now, but originally I was a dog person. Probably because there are many more pet dogs in Calcutta than pet cats, or it maybe because I loved to have a pet with whom I could play and interact... just like the pictures in my Nat Geo kids books. The German shepherd that Whitney was playing with, or the Collie whom the girl on the cover picture was hugging..they were my dream pets.

That I have two cats, or just because I foster cats doesn't mean that I am a cat person, I am in general an animal person. I love all animals, cats, dogs, fish, birds, horses... anything. (Well, not really snakes and stuff, but I still don't want to harm them. I don't use leather products because they kill snakes and crocs.) So I am not really a "some animal" person but I have found that people hardly ever understand cats. Dogs are easy to understand and it's quite simple to train them. I mean there can be "hard-to-train" dogs, but there are still well experimented rules and more or less all dog parents know how to teach their dogs basic commands. The most important thing is that a dog wants to please you (which a cat never thinks about in his/her wildest dreams). I am not into teaching animals tricks or exhibiting them at shows so I would not say anything about that here.

People say that cats are not faithful or that they don't care about their owners. Could be. But the fact is I am not Mota or May's owner, I am their mom. So things are a little different here. I have seen May turn into a decent pretty lady from the matted overweight snappy cat that she was. It's true that she never runs around the house following me, but I can feel how much she trusts me when she plops down on my lap and dozes off in a minute. Mota is terribly possessive. Why would a cat (or for that matter anyone) be possessive if he/she doesn't love you? Cats are awesome. Just plain awesome. They are smart and they don't want to hang around you all the time. But that never means that they don't love us.

Anyway, I got diverted in talking about cats. I wanted to talk about Bebe, our new adopted girl. After waiting for 28 years (yes, all my life), I finally adopted this eight month old Beagle-Corgi mix yesterday. My main concern was how she'd interact with cats, but we found out that May is completely ignoring her and even though there's somewhat chasing, it is Mota who is chasing the dog who is bigger than him and not the other way round. Mota also ate some of Bebe's food! The dog is way too gentle and trying to please us. She has already got the idea that in the household, it's mom and dad, then the cats and finally it's her. That would be great for us. She doesn't yet know any commands, but she was quite okay with "wait", "let's go" and a short sharp "leave it" during our walk with the pet sitter today. I am beginning to think that she has got the most desired characteristics of her parent breeds. She isn't so much of a sniffer as a Beagle, but got the brown eyes and tail of one. On the other hand, her being so responsive to my call is definitely a Corgi trait. Her body is of Corgi shape and her ears are pointed like a Corgi, but then half of it flaps down like a Beagle! She is a great "Bergi"!

This is my first interaction with dogs. I can see why they are so amazing...they live in the moment. Don't brood about stuff, love humans and, well and the great big brown puppy eyes. The way Bebe was looking at me made me feel like I am an angel, descended from heaven. I have never looked at myself with so much respect and appreciation. If that can't change people, I wonder what can?