My Dogly Days

By Vijay Lakshmi

At a time when so many of us lose sight of the humanity we share in common, Vijay Lakshmi's My Dogly Days reminds us that under the surface, our struggles, our dreams and our aspirations are all the same. We long for companionship, we long for love, and most of all we long to make our stories known. With lyricism, insight, and wisdom, the brilliance of this book is the way it makes clear that we are all us part of the same human family. Quinn Eli, award-winning playwright, My Name is Bess.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jan 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781528945011

Vijay Lakshmi

Born in Kashmir, educated in India and the United States, Vijay Lakshmi is the author of Pomegranate Dreams and Other stories. Her fiction has appeared in Femina, Wasafiri, South Asian Review, Orbis, Paris Transcontinental, and The Asiatic. Some of her stories have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, German, and French; some anthologized in Searching for Sita, A Rainbow Feast: New Asian Short Stories, and Bridges: A Global Anthology of Short Stories . A former senior Fulbright Fellow at Yale and a Visiting Fellow at Can Serrat, Barcelona, Lakshmi teaches at the Community College of Philadelphia and lives with her husband in Glenside, PA. My Dogly Days is her first book written for children.

Book preview

Seven

About the Author

The author

Born in Kashmir, educated in India and the United States, Vijay Lakshmi is the author of Pomegranate Dreams and other stories. Her fiction has appeared in Femina, Wasafiri, South Asian Review, Orbis, Paris Transcontinental, and The Asiatic. Some of her stories have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, German, and French; some anthologized in Searching for Sita, A Rainbow Feast: New Asian Short Stories, and Bridges: A Global Anthology of Short Stories. A former senior Fulbright Fellow at Yale and a Visiting Fellow at Can Serrat, Barcelona, Lakshmi teaches at the Community College of Philadelphia and lives with her husband in Glenside, PA. My Dogly Days is her first book written for children.

Zewen Liu. (the illustrator) is an independent young artist who lives in Alexandria, VA.

Dedication

To those who love their pets and care about animals

Copyright Information

Copyright © Vijay Lakshmi (2019)

The right of Vijay Lakshmi to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528900225 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528900232 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781528945011 (E-Book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2019)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LQ

Acknowledgements

A book is, often, a conglomeration made possible by friends and family. I owe special thanks to Pradyumna Chauhan, my husband and mentor, for his keen perceptions and astute advice; Prabodh, Jingyi, Leo, and Nidhi—my children—for their enthusiastic response to the very first draft and confidence in my work; Barbara Kenyon and Pat Terranella of Bookmakers for their editorial suggestions; Zewen Liu for his sensitive illustrations; Austin Macauley Publishers for their faith in my work; and ‘Sir Toby’, my beagle, for inspiring My Dogly Days.

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Introduction

A picture of an English foxhunting scene hangs in our family room. It shows a team of beagles—dogs with floppy ears and tricolored coats like mine—keen to go hunting alongside men on horsebacks. In my imagination, I have followed the team of beagles as they go charging into the woods, spurred on by the maddening scent of fox. I may have never gone hunting, but I know the thrill of a chase. In my younger days, I hounded squirrels, birds, and rabbits in the backyard. A daredevil I was then! Bold and fearless. Once, I had gone after a red fox that had strayed into our backyard. The nasty creature had turned around and bit me before it ran away and I had to be taken to the vet. But I had the satisfaction of having nipped the tip of her tail. It was a souvenir that I buried in the yard along with my other treasures. I was young and rash, then. Older and wiser now, I am given more to contemplating than to frolicking. If you see me stretched out on a sofa, or basking in the sun on the patio with my eyes closed, don’t think that I am sleeping or being lazy. I could be reflecting on issues of hunger, drugs, homelessness, broken marriages, or animals in shelters. Believe me, I have been there. I have seen it. It’s also possible that I could be reminiscing about my life—my adventures and misadventures, my joys and sorrows, my gains and my losses. I may have aged physically, but mentally, I am very alert. I remember the tiniest details of the life I have lived, as if it had happened yesterday.

You want to hear my story? O Boy! I haven’t told it to anyone. In fact,