The one thing I like about dogs is the very basic:
When you call them, they come.
There's no point giving a cat a name, other than habit. Their inscrutability is not something i crave. So a dog it shall be for me; who will come when he/she is cawlled; who will appeal every relegation, who will make no bones about having an open agenda of food and free frienship; who will hang around wantonly even when it's going to look stupid. Above all, who will come when called. And so I picked up the phone and called Poornima. Even before I had finished punching the last digits, I heard her airy trot round the bend of the concrete lane in front of my room. She looked a little frivolous and a little shaggy which is all she could manage for a pre-empted cawl. She extended her smile a little more and asked the usual 'wassup' with her eyes.
'we're hitting town' i said.
'it's been a while' she said knowingly, 'what have you got for me?'