TDWS | E8: Where Houses Are Hunted

The Dog We Stole is the definitive biography of Her Majesty Begum Pathumma. Read earlier episodes of the series on the TDWS page.

But Pathu’s joy was short-lived. While all of us feasted on an entire slab of ice cream later in the evening, to Pathu’s utter dismay, we were informed that Echo had also done us proud. He had peed against the staircase on the ground floor. A pulsating waterfall of pee had fallen head-first onto step number one of the staircase. On impact some of it had transformed into a rainbow-inducing vapour of ammonia and sprayed onto the doormat that lived outside apartment 103. The remaining urine had formed a river of peaceful protesters and proceeded to walk down the stairs to the basement in single file. Within the hour, the lobby to our building smelt like a public toilet. Echo had managed a more public and visible token of dissent. The excuse of ‘she’s a pup’ that we had used for the earlier incident, did not stand for this large adult male dog. The association decided to take his anarchist act rather seriously.

Miffed as she was about not being taken seriously, Pathu was not one to back down. She waited for an opportunity to take revenge on her humans. 

To Pathu’s mind, their protests were against the RWA for having added a byelaw that required us and other dog owners to pay an unofficial ‘pet fee’ in addition to the monthly maintenance. As young professionals who live happily in a bubble, we valued our peace of mind more than money. We were willing to pay a fee if it meant we could avoid confrontation. But once we paid up, our landlord decided to sell the flat and informed us that we would have to move out. We had never left Echo or Pathu alone at home but now it seemed unavoidable. Thus began a season of house hunting.  

On the first house hunt, our target was merely 200 metres away. We shut the door behind us, waited outside the door nervously and then took the lift to the ground floor. From her hyperactivity when she saw us get ready to step out, we assumed that Pathu would bark and make a scene. We walked to the gate sending our ears up to look for a sign of distress. But not a peep was heard.

He stared at us as if we were crazy to doubt our angelic catholic-school attending dogs.

We informed the watchman that we would not take more than half an hour and to call us if the dogs barked. He stared at us as if we were crazy to doubt our angelic catholic-school attending dogs. Them? Bark? Never! His expression told us off. Just to be sure, we waited outside the building for another five minutes. Eventually, proud that our parenting had worked wonders on our wards, we shuffled our feet away from home.

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Next Episode | E9: Pathu’s Pee Protest