Adieu, dear friend...

Several weeks ago, we bid a sad farewell to Gypsy, our constant companion of the last 8 years. She was pregnant, but she had apparently developed an infection, and did not make it through.

Because she had spent most of her life in our farm, and so thoroughly enjoyed it, I thought it would be fitting to share some of our memories of Gypsy here...

Gypsy was our family's first dog. When we lived in Chennai, our son would ask if could have a dog, which of course was not easy in an apartment. So we told our children we could have a dog if and when we lived in an independent house, not realizing how soon that would be! And like children do, they reminded us of our promise as soon as we moved out of Chennai to an independent house in Oddanchatram (as a transition to moving to our farm).

Coincidentally, we happened to meet a dear friend, whose friend, along with her mother, were breeders of South Indian hound dogs! And voila, very soon we were on our way back home to Oddanchatram from Chennai with a 2-month Combai puppy riding along with us in our car. Combai dogs are probably the least-known of the South Indian hound dogs, with people generally being more aware of Rajapalayam and Chippiparai breeds.

True to her name, Gypsy has travelled to quite a few places with us: Coimbatore (which was quite often since we often took her along when visiting my parents), Kollam, Calicut...In fact, there was a time when, as soon as she realized we were all leaving the house, would jump into the back of our pickup so that she was not left behind!

It would be fun to watch passers-by walk close to the pickup, and be startled to find a dog in the back! Of course, while she was mean-looking, only we knew that she was quite a friendly dog.

How she loved being on the farm! Whenever we walked down to the stream, or around the farm, she would bound ahead of us, effortlessly jumping over bushes. Before she gained weight in middle age, she had such a lovely profile of a typical hound.

One of our big regrets was being unable to find a suitable Combai mate for her. We did find a male which was said to be a Combai, but Gypsy just did not accept him. She got pregnant twice from other dogs, and a couple of our friends have pups from the litters; a nice reminder to us about Gypsy. In fact, we have one pup from the last litter that Gypsy had, in 2020.

Jackie (left)was a potential mate, the closest to a Combai that we could find, but it didn't work out

From Gypsy's first litter of pups, two of which grew up with us.

Late last year, we took Gypsy with us to visit my parents in Coimbatore, on what would be her last trip with us. Uncharacteristically, she insisted on travelling inside the cabin.

Sitting on the floor in the front, at one point the sun was so hot we had to put a sheet on her for shade.

Farewell, Gypsy...you gave us much laughter, joy and companionship!