"a tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure." charlie chaplin
this is AVC the bear. he wanted to try on the bowler hat, too! i forgot exactly what AVC stands for, but that was also the name of a puppy we had in 1975 back in the old country. this story came to mind this afternoon while commenting on someone's post about their pets. i think it was dixie's
@pandorasecho post but i can't recall now.
anyway, a few months after my mother died, my older brother brought home a puppy, about a week old. his girlfriend's (who is now my sister-in-law) dog had babies and she had wanted to give them away. my brother thought it would be a good distraction for our three younger siblings. when i arrived from school in the evening, the young ones were still up along with the neighbourhood children and they were just going gaga over this cute little puppy which was just trying to avoid everyone. but when he saw me, he wagged his tail and walked beside me. "don't let him come near me or i'll throw him out of the window" was all i said to my brother. after i ate my supper, i sat down in the living room and read the newspaper. the pup just jumped up and settled on my lap. i was in a panic even though the children were quite amused that the puppy liked me. they took turn taking him off my lap but every time he would just come back and snuggle on my lap. finally, i gave up, since he wasn't licking me or anything, he was just curled and calmly stared at everyone.
in the morning, they found him sitting on the first step of the stairs looking up. everyone was already downstairs having breakfast, but AVC wouldn't leave. AVC were the initials of my brother's boss who was a miser. when i was about to go down, AVC tried to climb the steps but he was a young pup and the steps were quite far apart. i sat down for breakfast and the pup sat on my lap but this time his fore paws were on my chest as if he was trying to tell me something. so i said, "do what you want to do, don't disturb me."
suddenly he jumped off and made his way through the living room and out the door. we thought i had offended him so much he decided to leave. i went out to see where he was going. he went to the backyard, and in a little discreet corner, he dug a small hole and did his business. before he could see me, i ran back inside. to be honest, i was quite impressed. first morning and he knew what to do and where. and that was the morning routine. he never went out of the house except to do his business at the back. in the evening, he would stand by the door and wag his tail when i was a few houses away.
this phenom happened for two weeks. one morning when almost everyone's left for school and work, my youngest sister was the only one left and she was quite late. now the pup had a habit of bundling himself in an old shirt that my sisters used to wipe the floor with. when my youngest sister dashed out, she accidentally stepped on the pup bundled up on the floor. when my youngest brother who was about 12 at the time came home from school, he found the puppy dead by the door. when the neighbourhood children came and found what happened, they all cried.
i came home early and halfway down the street, i was greeted by a group of children hysterically telling me that AVC had died. when i reached home, my siblings together with a few neighbourhood children were on their knees in the front yeard, where they had buried AVC. one of the older children even made a cross out of sticks and they all gathered flowers from neighbour's pots to decorate AVC's makeshift grave. my youngest sister who had stepped on the puppy was beside herself with grief.
a few days later, AVC's brother came to live with us, but it was just not the same.
-o0o-
you read this far?!?! you're so sweet. thank you for your kind visit and comments; know that i appreciate them a lot.
Secondly an amazing story, this must be the only dog you ever let near you, so sweet and such a sad tale.