How I Found, Loved And Lost My 'Jigar ka Tukda'

That awful empty feeling haunts me once again. I lost my English bulldog, Jigar ka Tukda, this month. She was adopted by me six years ago from Friendicoes and named after the Janis Joplin number, ''Piece of My Heart".

I remember the day I first saw her. I was feeding boiled eggs to the dogs at the shelter. She came and sat a little distance away and watched me. I was shocked at her appearance. She had no hair and was covered with sores all over. There was a terrible stench emanating from her body.


Abandoned, at Friendicoes

Maybe she realized this? And possibly was shunned because of it? In any case, she was careful not to come near me. I smiled and held out an egg to her. The look she gave me is one that I will never forget in my life... one of joy and implicit trust. That was also the day she took away a piece of my heart, tucked it into her tubby little body firmly and I became her "Egg Lady".

Fed on a diet of love and generous slices of pizza, Ms Jigar had a thing for wearing lingerie and loved Victoria's Secret stuff.

Jigar moved into my heart, home and life and went on to become a Facebook sensation amongst my friends. They loved to hear about her antics and marvelled at her recovery. Fed on a diet of love and generous slices of pizza, Ms Jigar had a thing for wearing lingerie and loved Victoria's Secret stuff. She was inordinately proud of her butt which she believed rivalled Kim Kardashian's. Many a time, I would wake up in the morning, finding it difficult to breathe! That bully-butt would be on my chest!

She travelled frequently with me and became firm friends with the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani express First AC staff. A breakfast of boiled eggs and paneer cutlets came especially for her from the pantry car! Her snores and farts were deafening and shattered the peace of my Dad's reading time. "Disgraceful," he would mutter and fix a baleful eye on me. But, often, I caught him sharing his buttered toast and omelette with her.

Here are some pictures of her. She led a happy, pampered life for many years with me.



The famous butt. She's chilling here along with her teddy Marilyn Monroe


Snoozing



She sure did like her lingerie


A piece of Momma's heart


It hurts. So Badly. In the wise words of Lemony Snicket (from Horseradish):

"It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things."

I am trying to re-adjust too... not check out lingerie with her online, not share my pizza, not dance to item numbers (she loved "Sheila ki Jawani"), not getting her stink eye, not holding that paw she extended when she thought I was low.

So Jigar is gone. She had been unwell for two days and was refusing food. I was not with her to say goodbye. But she played ball with my nephew, whom she adored, one last time, this morning. And yes, perhaps she remembered me too-- her "Egg-Lady"--for she had a boiled egg, one last time, before she left me. About that piece of my heart? She has taken it with her.



Appeal from Jigar and me: ADOPT! Please don't shop!

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