Pet-à-Tête

Bishen and Hita talk about Lara who became a part of their family just about a month back.

How did Lara come into your life?

We’ve had Lara for less than a month. She is a 4.5 years old golden lab. Her previous owner was leaving the country to study, and Lara needed a home. We adopted Lara as part of Hita’s (my wife’s) 30th birthday celebrations. Hita loves dogs and her birthday was on April 12th. I was not much of a dog person until I met Hita’s earlier dog Hazel, also a golden lab, who is unfortunately no longer with us. It’s entirely coincidental that Lara looks like and has a similar temperament to Hazel.

How has life changed since Lara came?

We’ve become more morning people than we were before! We need to make time before work to walk and feed her. All our outings and drives now involve more preparation and packing, whether it’s Lara’s food, water, bowls, mats or even biscuits to befriend the aggressive street dogs!

How often do you come here?

We come to Permit Room quite regularly. Very often even couple of times a week! I don’t think there is anything on the menu that we haven’t tried. I think the Kerala coin paratha with beef fry and the Pork Ribs are our favourite items. Now we are even more glad to be living in the same neighbourhood (Rest House Road) since you guys are so welcoming of dogs!

Do you plan things around her?

We definitely plan things around her now. Weekends always include a trip to Cubbon Park. Also, we are always looking out for dog friendly pubs and restaurants when we go out. Shopping is no longer for just ourselves, but also for Lara. I had never been to a pet store before Lara and didn’t even know what they had!

Interesting experience to share?

We had some trouble walking Lara since the street dogs near our house become very aggressive and bark loudly. We’ve managed to control that by feeding and befriending those dogs while walking Lara. But now Lara’s become confident and barks her head off at them because she thinks we’re giving away her food!!

Are you planning to take a trip?

We want to do want to do a weekend trip with Lara and stay at a pet-friendly AirBnB or homestay. Maybe a drive to Kabini, Chikmanglur or one of the other nearby places. But we are still figuring out if Lara’s enjoys and can handle drives, before taking her on a long one.

Her traits, peculiarities etc?

She often gets into an odd upside-down position next to the wall to relax (picture attached). We call her a kangaroo when she does that. She loves (or hates!) birds and will start chasing them whenever she sees one. I think she genuinely believes that she will catch a bird one day. She is very obedient and waits patiently outside the kitchen for her food. But that patience is limited and once served, she gobbles her food faster than any dog I’ve seen leaving the bowl squeaky clean in under a minute!