9 lives

Lyka loved car rides - she would happily place herself strategically on the back seat so no one else could sit and watch the traffic and the world go by. She would also proceed to drool and shed fur all over the backseat which prompted us to stow a Lyka sheet in the boot of the car on a permanent basis. You'd always know if Lyka had been in the car. The window would be marked with her nose having been pressed against it and if you were wearing dark coloured clothes, you could be assured that you would walk away covered in fur.

When we first moved to Madras and moved into our apartment, we would have Lyka be dropped off at my grandmom's house in the morning so she could wander about the garden and I would pick her up on my way home from school. This was to let her get some sun and generally get acclamatized to living in the city.

On one fateful afternoon, Lyka had been loaded into the front seat by the driver and I was sitting in the back, with her leash in my hand. Lyka liked the window down so her ears would fly in the wind. We were half way home when we crossed a bullock cart (the kind that uses emaciated bulls and occuppies the whole road moving at a glacial speed). Lyka never liked cows - it's that whole dog in the manger thing I think. She started barking wildly at the poor bovine and got extremely agitated. I was trying to get her to calm down when all of a sudden she leapt out the car window and landed on the road. I have no idea what she was attempting to do - perhaps being on the same eye level with the bull emboldened her. The driver screeched to a halt, having lost a few hours of his life I'm sure, and I nearly had a heart attack. Now remember Lyka's leash was still in my hand. If we hadn't been moving at 2 kmph trying to overtake the cart, Lyka could have very easily snapped her neck. Having recovered from my shock, I got out, seething at the silly dog's idiocy, bundled up the canine and put her in the backseat with me, her collar firmly in hand and all windows rolled up. Lyka of course thought it was a brilliant change from the monotony of being driven home and seemed quite happy about the events that had passed.

We learned our lesson and after that day the car windows would be rolled down only enough to let Lyka smell the world. Fresh breeze could wait till we got home.