Rocky, the dog on the 3rd floor

Image source: Google

Life has the habit of throwing your past at you in the most unexpected ways. So, today I pen this tribute in the memories of Rocky, only hours after dreaming about him all of a sudden.

Rocky was the pet dog who had his home in the 4th floor of my building. He was a white dog (speech or whatever they call it, I am not very good in differentiating the breeds). I grew up with him and even though he wasn't my dog, I would often bump into him and pat him. At times, I would even visit his house upstairs to play with him. And yes, I also tried to ride him. Hehe. But he would wriggle ahead and I could never quite mount him technically.

Actually, he was a she. Technically, a bitch, a female dog. But I grew up referring to him as a he and that image has stuck. Besides, he was named Rocky by Pappu Bhaiya who had brought him from a local market way back in the 90s. I was quite small that time, but I vividly remember the first time I met Rocky. Pappu Bhaiya brought him to my house. Wrapped in a red cloth, he was a tiny ball of white furs with two bulb-like eyes curiously observing the world around him.

I cherish the few memories I have of him. I remember how he would stick his tongue out every time I blew air into his eyes. That was our way of expressing love for each other.

Rocky died some 8-10 years back. I wasn't in regular touch with him during his final years but when I heard of his demise, I felt a deep sense of emptiness in my life.

Life moved on and my memories of him got buried beneath a pile of other more recent memories (involving my college, dates, crushes and diseases). And last night, out of nowhere, he just visited me in my dreams, accepting my pats and air-kisses for a few evanescent moments before melting out of sight and going back to where he came from.

And when I woke up, I felt numb and experienced gloom and was left shaken. And all those deeply buried memories of him resurfaced in my mind for seconds before plunging deep again, sucking me in along with them, into a past where a happy tiny school boy was prancing around a fluffy white dog, blowing air into his curious bulb-like eyes.

PS- The above image has been taken from Google. Sadly, I don't have any pic of Rocky since we didn't have flashy camera phones in that era. But he pretty much looked like this.