One activity Daphne looks forward to every occasion to get out in to the lawn for her favourite exercises as in the pictures above. It is difficult to refrain her from doing this after a bath. If we scold her she would lie prostrate in front of us in a begging tone to let her have her way. We usually have her way. It would involve wiping and drying her again before she goes back to her kennel.
I remember instances when she looks at the lawn through the kennel and look s at me when I sit in the veranda which is adjacent to the kennels and bark in a begging tone. When I oblige and let her have her way to play in the lawn she would insist on giving me a lick on my face.
On occasions when I was not obliging she would cry in a tone that makes us feel sorry for her.
Daphne and Dulcie have a gala tme together in our cottage for about three hours every morning. Both off them look forward to it. Today it was drizzling and the courtyard had waterpools. When Anna let Daphne out of her yard to come in to the house, against her normal habit to rushing in to the hose, she went straight into the lawn. Dulcie also ran out to go to the lawn, but she listened when Anna objected to it. But Daphne defied her, till Anna went near her to fetch her inside. That is when she turned her face away, which is what the last but one photo is about! Daphne seemed to regret and hesitantly turned to get in to the house on Anna's call (last photo)!
The photo below is of Dulcie looking wet and unkept after her adventure in the rain! She too appeared hesitant to come in, seeing how Daphne got away with her defiance! Neither Anna or I felt scolding them after we noticed the fun they have had! Their look of regret melted us!
Yesterday, while on an on-line consultation yesterday, parents of two year old child, told me how they are tired of their son, who wants to run out into the courtyard whenever the door is open. He seems to scream and resist if made to come inside. They do not let him go out for fear of getting dirty in the mud. What a reduced view of childhood! In a further conversation, I sensed that the family has preset expectations and conditions for that child! It almost made me feel that the parents did not have a generous attitude towards their son to promote his exploration and discovery.
How nice it is to retain some of the infantile instincts of fun, laughter, exploration, adventure! What is life without all these!
Thanks to Dulcie and Daphne, who remind us, that life is complete only with some good diversions, anecdotes and surprises! The difficulty is when they both decide to leave the campus and make a trip to the stream when we leave them alone in the campus! On the few occasions when we discover them at the stream, both of them would prostrate themselves in an awful regretting mood, although lasting for only a few seconds. When they know that we are not in a scolding mood, they get up and run back to the compound. They look subdued for a while. It is one occasion when we receive lick from both of them all over us.
Oh, that parents would revise the description they use to describe their toddlers and pre-schoolers! They are energetic and exploratory. Till they have experienced the thrill of this, they would push their boundary. The 'tantrums' are only one such normal behaviour!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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