The Apple of my Eye

Cheechu was just a week old when we got him from the lush greenery that encompasses Assisi Bhavan. When he first joined our household he was this small fur ball, with big gooey eyes, long bushy tail and who was as cute as a button. By the way Cheechu is my pet squirrel if in case you haven’t figured that out.

The gardeners of the old age home placed him in this size eight shoe box where he slept day and night. Dad and I would take turns feeding him a spoonful of milk containing two cubes of sugar. He loved it. Then he’d curl up in the palm of our hands with his tail hiding his face and body and snore. Adorable.

It is so easy to love animals. Anyone who ever had a pet or who has a pet will know what I am talking about. Their love is unconditional, absolute and never-ending. Cheechu is one of those animals whose sole purpose in life is to eat anytime and anything, he never says no to food, although he turns up his nose if you offer him the same food twice. He likes variety you know. The initial two weeks, his dietary consumption changed drastically from milk to caffeine and from white rice to biryani with a little vindaloo curry for flavouring. Pure-vegetarian, one always wonders how he came to be part of a pure non-vegetarian family.

But from the first moment we looked into his coal dark eyes, he stole our heart, mind, soul. He is quick footed and loves disappearing into my dad’s prized coriander plants. We find him fifteen minutes later paw deep in mud with a leaf dangling from his mouth completely guilty, with dad bellowing CHHHHEEECCHHHUUUUU… lol. Well after he gets a few fatkas on his mouth he stays grumpy for exactly five seconds. I swear the guy has such awful memory, in the sixth second he is running around doing his business as if nothing happened.

His favourite hobbies are making number one and two on laptops, eating cigarette buds out of ashtrays, nibbling at novels or sharpening his teeth on the border, hanging upside down from the curtain while yawning and stretching. He knows he either is doing something wrong or has done something wrong when we call out his name, that he will give this pious angelic look which says ‘Who me, you gotta be kidding???’ I tell you my chipmunk is a first class actor. He knows when to milk it for all its worth.

Take mom for example. She loves him to death, but from afar. I mean she feeds him nonstop warning us not to bring him closer but yet six months of having him be part of the household he already has a paunch. No wonder when we go to work and come back in the evening he turns his nose up in the air as if to say ‘HMPH! I am very angry with you for leaving me home alone’. Then we all spend the next half hour bribing him with grapes and jalebi.

But even before hog fest there is the lad pyaar that he has grown accustomed to from all of us. By nine am he’s awake ringing his Christmas bell till everyone is scrambling to placate him with breakfast. After that he has his power nap for about two hours and then wakes up wanting some love and affection. Now this involves a lot of petting, hugging and kissing. It’s what a mother does to put her cranky new born to sleep. Well Cheechu is that way when he wakes up, he needs a lot of TLC and as soon as you stop, he will open one sleepy eye and give you the ‘Hello, please continue’ look.

To put him to bed at night dad composed a lullaby. He sleeps like a baby for the next eight hours. We all kiss him goodnight and he crawls under his bedding, curls up and closes his eyes.

He really is the apple of my eye.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7_Uz8c3q2o