Sam (Rox) Rao

He came into our lives on 20.05.2009.

We thought that by adopting him, we were giving him a break, but we did not bargain for what he gave us – unconditional love and trust even as he passed into the great beyond in my arms.

It was love at first sight, when the entire family Revathi, Aniruddh and Akshay with Aniruddh’s friend , Rahul and Aditya trooped into the Dog Shelter at Worli. We were introduced to the shelter by Ms Daisy (God bless this beautiful lady), a social volunteer, committed to homeless dogs and abandoned pets, who in turn was introduced to us by my colleague Bharati Srinivasan.

Daisy guided us to the Shelter where we saw an assortment of canines, desparately in need of a home. While walking past them, Sam caught my eye, what it was about him that drew my attention to him I do not know, he was emaciated and scared and looked like a “holocaust” survivor. We chose him and walked out with him, on record as a half breed – Labrador one year old (apparently all dogs here are classed as around 1 year old as older dogs are apparently rejected for adoption), but was probably around 5+ years of age.

My colleague and friend, Jai (Capt Jaideep Verma) who saw Sam soon after we had collected him, called it “collective madness” for taking home, a strange, shivering, scared large dog.

Sam did give us some anxious moments, he spent the next week on drips and medication and not many would have expected him to survive. Revathi and Aniruddh, literally dedicated themselves to Sam for the next week, visits to our vet, Dr Aditya Dhopatkar, holding him while administering drips, cleaning after him and giving this poor abandoned dog what he needed most – love. I think this initial closeness between Aniruddh (Dada) and Sam lasted till Sam passed away. In fact, Sam waited for Aniruddh to return from ship before he gave indication that he was ready to move on.

Sam came home at a time, when our elder son Aniruddh, was doing a serious introspection about his life and career, and like all middle class Indian parents, we were uptight about it. Sam came to our lives, took away the focus, and everything settled down and Aniruddh chose the profession he wanted to be in since he was a year old – Marine Engineering.

I was the alpha (self deemed) in the family and Sam was my dog, but like the rest of the men in the family, he knew who the BOSS in the family was. When Revathi, was relaxing in her favorite recliner , Sam would creep across to her and goad her to scratch and pet him. She was also the only one whom he would allow to inspect and clean his ear.

Sam was a gentle large hearted soul, his instant rapport with anyone who visited or stayed with us was legendary. Like all Labs he was a four legged eating machine, anything organic was meant to be eaten, his favorites were carrots, apples, cheese. He actually preferred vegetarian food, he would love anything with milk.

His devotion was so great that he once jumped into a lake that I was swimming in to “save” me. He loved water and enjoyed being bathed and loved the subsequent grooming.

He was a great traveller and he used to love the journey’s we made to Goa, Bangalore and Pune in our trusty Innova.

While Aniruddh was acknowledged as his social superior, Akshay was his pal, his playmate – and direct competitor for attention.

Like all rescued dogs, Sam came with his own baggage, our flat where he first came to live was his safe haven, anywhere else he was restless and rarely slept, probably the fear of being abandoned was still fresh in his mind. In the flat, he would stay alone here for days, completely at peace with himself, with our housekeeper Manjula who would come to stay the night with him.

Unless he was home he was very restless unless I was within sight, once in Goa he even escaped from the house we were living in to search for me, fortunately he did not even get to the gate of the society.

He was extremely possessive about me. If Revathi was sitting next to me he would force himself on the sofa between us and literally push her out, this became a family game for us to elicit this possessive response from Sam. Another interesting aspect of Sam, when I was at home, he would sleep at the foot of our bed, however when I was travelling sometimes for weeks at a stretch, he would sleep at the door on his custom made bed till I returned home. He had the uncanny ability to know when I entered our building and would be at the door barking furiously long before the lift reached our floor.

Sam fell ill, a few months before he passed away, we learnt he had cancer and had a tumor on his snout. Towards the end breathing became painful and he started bleeding with every breath he took. It must have been very painful, but Sam being Sam, not a single whimper, growl or any indication of the agony that he must have been going through. He was ever ready to go for a our favorite walk up the Parsik. It was when he turned back barely a hundred yards on his favorite walk, I realised that this lion-hearted warrior was ready to move on.

Sam had just spent time with Akshay before he returned to his hostel for the next semester. He hung on untill his “Dada” signed off from his ship and came home on leave.

Two days later, we relieved him of his suffering by putting him to sleep, it is probably one of the most painful moments of my life seeing Sam breathe his last in our collective arms (Revathi’s, Aniruddh’s and mine).

I am sure that when my time is up and I cross over – Sam will be there on the other side, barking and furiously wagging his tail to make me take him on his favorite walk up Parsik hill.