Doberman Pinscher – Ramana's Musings

Nostalgia.

When I wrote last week’s 2 on 1 Friday post, I had concluded with a clip of a song by Nat King Cole. After reading comments received particularly about Nat King Cole, I went on a nostalgia trip about my initiation to Western music and it led me to reminisce about the three following machines that most younger generation people will not recognise.

The first one is this record player for playing vinyl discs of two speeds, 45 and 33 RPMs. You needed another machine to play the 78RPM records. This was usually connected to a Radio and very rarely to an amplifier and speakers.

If you were willing to risk damaging your discs and were also lazy, you upgraded to a Changer like this one where when one disc finished playing, another dropped from above and started to play automatically.

The wealthier ones amongst us went one step further and had Radiograms like the third one in fancy cabinets.

Moving on to other triggers for nostalgia, during my morning sessions in my verandah with my morning mug of tea, I have recently been seeing a young lass walking a frisky Doberman Pinscher the last few days. The lass is usually pulled by the pup and she really has to struggle to guide him around. This has been taking me down memory lane to our own Doberman Pinscher about which I wrote here.

Another trigger was during my rummaging in one of the drawers in my chest of drawers to find a bracelet, I came across a wrist watch that was worn by my late father.

Why this should take me down memory lane is a fascinating story worth a full blog post in itself. I shall write one soon and link to this post. The nostalgia was about the days when wrist watches were luxuries that very few could afford and my first one was a gift that I inherited from an uncle who unfortunately died. That is the Titoni shown here.

A newspaper report in some distant place can trigger nostalgia too as recently happened to me about which I wrote a blog post. In this case, nostalgia led me to reestablishing contact with a friend who I had lost touch with for over forty five years!

A visitor can trigger nostalgia too. I had one on Wednesday who led me down memory lane to the seventies when I got involved with his family. So many good things have happened to that family since then, that we were discussing that for over an hour!

I guess that the older one gets, I am now well past the proverbial three score and ten, and pushing four score, the more we find opportunities for nostalgic trips. We also can find the time for such escapades. We also develop the ability to laugh at ourselves.

Please go over to Shackman’s blog to see what he has to say about the topic. Thank you.

Pets.

“It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” ~ George H. Lorimer.

This photograph is of me watching something on the TV from my recliner while my companion at home Chutki is busy watching a fly or something else equally absorbing. The observation in our home is that when she is with Manjiree and Ranjan she thinks that she is human and when she is with me, she thinks that I am a dog.

No sir, money cannot buy me the unconditional love that Chutki gives me. I just have to go out for a few minutes across the road to the grocer to get something and on my return she makes me feel like I am returning from a decade long absence. When I am fast asleep, she will come to ensure that I am still at home and in the process waking me up for some goodnight words for her. It will be difficult if I lose her.

My family are dog people. From the age of about eleven I have had dogs at home, the most memorable one being, arguably the first to be imported into India, Doberman Pinscher Kaiser with an official name of Dee’s Black Escort. His descendants are still part of the Chennai Police Dog Squad. He was not a dog. He was human. He was trained to be so my brother Barath who in turn was trained by Kaiser to be a dog. To the left of this paragraph, you will see Kaiser then with my father on a newly opened bridge while the whole family was going to a wedding at out village. Circa 1956.

In my immediate family, ie Urmeela, me and Ranjan, we have had dogs on and off at various places but due to our constantly moving around, none lasted very long. But keeping a dog for a pet at home was very much the in thing as Urmeela also had grown up with dogs in her childhood. I have written other posts about some dogs in our lives and two of them feature here. I even started a blog for Chutki inspired by Kaitlin, but somehow cannot find the energy to write in that blog. I shall try and do so again soon.

Pets become so much a part of the family that it is difficult to treat them as anything but. There is always the concern that they be given the top most priority in all activities at home. Which makes me agree with George Carlin – “Dogs lead a nice life. You never see a dog with a wristwatch.” The others at home do.

Today’s topic for the weekly Friday LBC post was suggested by me. As you have seen, it is vested interest. You can see what the other two participants, Shackman and Pravin have to say in their respective blogs.

Pets.

From when I was about 12 years ago, I have had dogs as pets at home. Barring some very unsettled years, we have always had a dog at home. There was also a brief period when I took in a grown up cat whose humans went back to their home overseas.

The cat experience was vastly different to the experiences that I have had with dogs and since that one time, I have not had the pleasure of being the human for a pet cat. I can tolerate them as pets of others, but for me, no thank you.

I have had many varieties of dogs as pets in my life and the most endearing relationship that I ever had was with a rescued doberman pinscher who came to us as a one year old lasted for many years with my parents. I was not around when Kaiser, that was his name died, but he continues to be a legend in my family. The least troublesome have been either crossbreeds or native Indian breeds and my current companion Chutki is a native Indian who is very much part of our household.

My son Ranjan and daughter in law Manjiree are both deeply involved in animal welfare activities in our town and Chutki came to us as a rescued pup with both her hind legs broken in a hit and run accident. Manjiree and Ranjan then nursed her back to health and since then she has been part of our family and how! I can simply not imagine our home without her.

Since two residents at home are so involved in animal welfare activities, it should not surprise you that our home often turns into a halfway home for rescued dogs and recently one cat as well. I don’t actively get involved in the caregiving activities, but I suppose that my benign presence helps.

A problem that usually arises when more than one person is involved in a house welcoming a pet is the naming of the pet. I have written about one such problem here and you may just find it hilarious enough to have a good laugh.

And that dear readers is my contribution to the weekly Friday LBC blog posts. I had suggested the topic for this week during a moment of particular weakness with two dogs at home and life being rather hectic. I hope that you will go over and read Lin and Shackman who are sure to write too.