Destructive entertainment: a good training technique

Our grandpups have been dirtying the living room every night, so that I have to mop it thrice every morning--once to scoop the pee and poop off, again with water to get the sticky paw marks off, and yet again with Savlon to kill the odor and germs off. They've been doing their business in the balcony/terrace area during the day, except when they are engrossed in playing and don't have the patience to go all the way outside.

Until recently, I didn't keep the door to the balcony open during the night for fear that the mosquito militia might take over. The last couple of months, however, have taken a toll on my patience. Two days back, I took the risk, and the results have been dramatic. The first night, they dirtied the place 50% lesser. The second night, that figure went down to 90%!!

So this morning, I gladly began sweeping the floor, because it wasn't quite possible due to the sticky floor until now. I found a lot of thin sticks, and wondered what they were, because we didn't really have any stick-ey object lying around. (Before we retire every night, we diligently hide everything that the critters can destroy. They've targeted and succeeded with the TV remote's rubber hand grip, the remote itself, a few wires, cloth, bottles... pretty much anything that is unable to protect itself.)


I found this lying on the rug that I put down for the puppies to snuggle in if they need it.


And then it all came back to me. I remember looking at this small table mat lying on the center table last night, and thinking, oh what the hell... they might not even look at it. What I didn't think was... this is the only useful object in the room... do you think they're gonna stick to their toys? Which kid ever did that?



But then I figured, this was a small price to pay for a clean room. (Only one pee! And that too, not splashed or spread around with their paws!)

So here we go. Another lesson learned. Leave one object in the room for them to focus their energy on.

Some thoroughly enjoyable destruction inside
Keeps the pee and poop outside

The Grandpups

Just so I get something up in May.... here's what kept me busy since April... inspite of being jobless.

The Easter bunnies who looked like rats but were actually dogs.

In 5 weeks, they grew up to be spotted and spunky little critters of destruction. Or, as the hubs calls them, The Cuteness Guns... they've got killer looks!

The slightly-confused-but-happy-to-find-new-playmates-pop and the pissed-with-the-progeny-that-howls-at-night-pop-pop... my cousin unknowingly managed to capture the best picture yet of these two together.

The brilliantly instinctive mamma who got all 8 of them out and cleaned in 4 hours flat and the rather proud and goofily happy nanna holding up the firstborn to tie a colored thread around his neck for identification... they were both glued to the pups the first couple of days.

It's been a thrilling, tiring, breath-taking, back-breaking, exhilarating, and exhausting ride. Sadly, we can't afford to keep any of them... neither have the money nor the time. I hope the li'l ones find takers who really care for them and love them like we do ours. Or better. Till then I'm just a wobbly pot of mush.

When I'm not yelling at them to STOP-TEARING-THE-PAPER-THAT-YOU'RE-SUPPOSED-TO-PEE-ON! Or wiping pee and scooping poop. Or preparing their feeds. Or feeding them. Or washing pee-drenched cloth. Or feeding / walking their parents. Sigh!

Pune supports India against corruption

http://indiaagainstcorruption.org/index.php
Apparently, the website is down at the moment... I guess it is the number of hits it must be receiving.

Folks worldwide can sign the online petition:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_anna_hazare/?cl=1007806945&v=8808

Punekars can participate in a couple of related events:

• Support for the nationwide event on Friday, April 8, 2011 (TODAY) – A march from Baalgandharva Theatre (J. M. Road) to Shaniwaar Waada; gather at 6:00 pm, bring your own candles.
• Pune-specific event on Saturday, April 9, 2011 (TOMORROW) – A march from PMC Office to Shaniwaar Waada; gather at 6:00 pm, bring your own candles.
  

Contact: Dr. Gitesh Devhane (gitesh.devhane@gmail.com) (+91 9028 485 261)

More info: http://indiaagainstcorruption.org/aboutus.php
Further contacts: http://indiaagainstcorruption.org/citycontacts.php

For a change, let's do our bit without making excuses.

The first few pictures

... are here!

There's this coconut tree on the rear side of my apartment, and this colorful branch caught my eye when I was ambling in the balcony making sure that my pets drank water.

So I zoomed in and immediately made a desktop wallpaper out of it :D

A spring blossom I picked up on the way while walking my dogs. I placed it on my red leather wallet for a contrast-ish effect.

My Phoebe! How could I not capture the apple of my eye? The queen of our home? My only love at first sight, ever? (Take that, hubby! The only thing I felt when I laid my eyes on you for the first time was... wow... that's so much light entering the room! You were practically reflecting light with every square inch of your visible skin!)

That's Mojo in his playful pose, who mistook the camera for a toy and was ready to jump at me and wrestle it away.

The second memory capturer

... is here!

From Nikon's Life series of digital cameras, it's L120! It has 21x optical zoom. Megapixels be damned!

Isn't that red irresistible?

• Specs as per Nikon


• Review by Steve's Digicams


• Offer from Flipkart
  

I can't stop giggling. Or at least grinning. It's either that or my evil laugh.

And I must add. Flipkart rocks! An impressive interview by Unmana made be give them a try. Am totally sold.

Also a vote of thanks to TG (bows! and bow-wows!) for the advice. And MG (you should begin write again!) for appreciating the pics I took earlier.

Got off my ass and did something

... the second time around. This Saturday, folks from Ramnagar Colony, where I reside, had organized a walk to raise awareness and protest against the encroachment upon Ramnadi (mostly by construction companies). The plan was to walk alongside the river bed around 7:00 in the morning. The Ramnagar Colony Mandal had contacted the press and some municipal authorities. Considering their availability, the timing was changed to 11:00 am. Most of the participants were aged 50 or above. Considering the summer heat, we decided to use cars instead.

We drove to the adjoining highway and then went down the fork to the left where Anshul developers are constructing a residential complex right on top of the river itself. Their project description reads "Conveniently located at the junction of RamNadi and Mumbai-Bangalore Bypass." Located at the junction... my ass.

The next stop was the bridge beside DSK Ranwaara straddled by Rainbow Housing and the Goel Ganga group on each side. Their projects are not only endangering the ecosystem, but their future customers lives as well. Isn't it a simple fact that soil under or adjoining a river is unstable? How can the foundations of these constructions be strong enough for the buildings to survive even the next 5 / 10/ 20 years, especially with flash floods like we experienced last year? What are they thinking? Is this a forest where tribals can shit in the river and hope that their waste will be carried far away and wouldn't bother them? Rainbow Housing does not even mention the water body in their project description. Guess they assume that there won't be able left when they're done with the place.

The last stop was the rear side of Sai Kamal complex, which is separated from Praj Industries by Ramnadi. This a company that offers "water and wastewater treatment systems for customers, worldwide." By shitting in their own backyard. A few weeks ago, they were caught dumping debris in Ramnadi, which runs through their own backyard. As of now, it seems like they are cooperating and have expressed willingness to clean their act.

We did not do much other than walk around and chant slogans... something I'm not really a fan of, but we can't do much else until we gather the support of enough folks to move the responsible people in civic administration to do their jobs. Some experts explained the situation to folks who were new and mentioned other similar ongoing struggles in other parts of India. The press was invited to cover the event. The corporator, who was invited and reminded about the event over the phone, did not turn up. He missed the last even too, when these folks protested against praj Industries. The next action item is to get more people to involve and speak up. We're hoping to build the numbers and the momentum of this struggle so that the authorities take requisite action before this monsoon. This is a tad overtly ambitious, but we can hope, can't we?

Some folks have written about this elsewhere and the news articles should come out soon. Will update this post when I have the links and pictures.

Which Star Wars Character Are You?
	You are Darth Vader. Secrets are kept within your soul for ages, and you only reveal them when the perfect opportunity presents itself. You are not purely evil, but let's just say you need to chill out a little bit! You are a leader- and because of that have a great responsibility to make sure you lead people down the right path. You will seize control of situations by any means necessary- and you do so with no regrets (and you probably throw in an evil laugh too!)
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com