Anisha is active and entertaining and yes, naughty too! Ordinary days are filled with action when she is around. Anisha’s brother Atul is six years older than her and she has a sister named Shaina who is four years younger than her. However, Anisha believes that both of them are too “boring” to play with or talk to and she considers herself an only child.
“I think I need a pet,” said Anisha.
“But you play with Dino, the neighbour’s dog, all the time,” said Dad.
Anisha stuck out her lower lip. “I want a pet of my own,” she said. “For myself. In my room.”
“Oh, you mean a pet for yourself so you can give your pet its food and a bath, take it for a walk, and clean up when it brings mud into the house…”
“Oh,” said Anisha with her hand on her chin. “I don’t want to do that. That can be Atul’s job since he is my big brother and he has to look after all of us.”
Atul was on the veranda and he snapped at her. “Suddenly I’m the indispensable big brother? You want a pet, you clean up after your pet!”
Anisha made a face at him and then turned to her father. “He’s so rude!” she exclaimed indignantly. Dad didn’t respond and he didn’t say anything more about getting a pet for Anisha. But a few weeks later, he returned from work with what looked like a picnic basket in his hands.
“Are we going for a picnic?” cried Anisha, running up to him and putting her arms around his waist. “Can I take my bear with me?”
“We’re not going for a picnic and I’ve brought you something a lot more fun than a toy!”
Bundle of energy
Dad put the basket in Anisha’s arms. She looked inside and saw something small and brown with enormous eyes looking at her. “Oooooh!” she cried. “A puppy!”
She opened the basket to take out the puppy and cuddle it but to her astonishment, it jumped out and ran into the garden. She tried to follow it, but it had disappeared behind some potted plants.
“I didn’t know puppies could run so fast!” exclaimed Anisha when she got back to where Dad was standing.
“Oh, Pablo is not a puppy. He’s a full grown dog. He’s two years old.”
“But he’s so tiny!” said Anisha.
Dad nodded. “He’s a Chihuahua. They’re tiny dogs and they can be carried everywhere.”
“Oh, I’m going to carry him everywhere!” said Anisha. She ran back into the garden. “Come here, Pablo! We’re going to have so much fun!”
But Anisha couldn’t see Pablo among the flower pots. And then she heard Dino the neighbour’s dog barking loudly as he squeezed through the hedge and ran into their garden.
“Oh, Dino will swallow Pablo if he finds him!” cried Anisha.
But even though Dino raced round and round the garden, sniffing and barking, he didn’t find Pablo and neither did Anisha. Finally, she went inside and Dino returned to his house next door.
“I can’t leave my dog outside…” said Anisha.
“Pablo is not your dog or my dog or anyone’s dog in this house,” said Dad. “He belongs to a friend of mine who’s on a foreign assignment for six months. We...okay, you...will be looking after him during that time.”
Almost as if he understood every word that had been spoken, suddenly Pablo appeared between Anisha’s feet. At once, Anisha picked him up to keep him on her lap, but he wriggled free and headed into the bedrooms to explore.
But Anisha didn’t give up. Over the next week, every time she saw Pablo (and since he slept in the basket in her room, she saw him a lot), she picked him up. And every time she did, he squirmed out of her grasp and ran out of sight.
“He wants to be independent,” said Dad.
“Maybe he just doesn’t like to be carried,” said Mom.
Anisha was about to agree when suddenly Dino came running in from next door. There was no mad barking this time and Pablo didn’t run away and hide.
Instead, like it was the most normal thing in the world and he had been doing it all his life, Pablo jumped onto Dino’s back and allowed himself to be carried out of the house and into the garden!
