AMIGO THE PROTECTOR

"Mom, I'm telling you, there is a monster in the loft. You must listen to me. Siddy and I hear sounds every night," Amigo the beagle told Ambika, his pet parent, as they waited for their turn at the Paw Counsellor Clinic. Ambika wanted a pet dog and companion for her baby boy Siddharth, but it now seemed like Amigo was causing too much trouble, and she was getting tired of running to the pet counsellor so often.

- Radhika Patil

As Ambika waited with Amigo, she got chatting with another pet parent, Rajesh, who she later found out had a son named Mayur who went to the same school as Siddharth. Rajesh sat next to his Great Dane called Tinytot, who had a different problem. Tinytot refused to go to a room that had no lights on! He feared the dark! Another pet parent had a Dalmatian called Mutt, who was scared of trucks and tempos. A fourth pet parent had a Chihuahua called Monster. Monster feared nothing. In fact, he needed to be kept on a leash all the time, lest he run after strangers. As Ambika chatted with other pet owners, she realised that she wasn't the only one with pet problems.

Just then, Dr Sunil's assistant Georgia came out and asked Ambika to join the doctor in his chamber. "Amigo, my little baby, how are you doing?" Sunil asked the little brown, white and black furry ball. "He seems to have put on weight, Ambika. Maybe you need to go slow on the treats. All that extra weight will cause back issues as he grows older. How's he sleeping now? Any better? Or still getting up with nightmares?" Sunil asked Ambika. "Sadly, both he and my son still wake up at night, and it's not a pretty sight as they are both sitting up on the bed, scared. I really don't know what to do," Ambika replied.

"We've run tests on Amigo and when we kept him at the kennel for a fortnight, he had no such episodes, Ambika. I think it's time to take your son to a psychotherapist. Maybe he is having nightmares and Amigo is just reacting to his fear.