We’ve been luxuriating. Much fuss was made of us a few days ago. One fine morning, Mom suddenly went loony. At first she went about her morning kitchen, bird feed, plant talking, newspaper routine as always. And just when we had settled between her feet to trip her (she still hasn’t figured out the ambush though she survives it every morning) and over her shoulder to peer at the day’s events, she screeched, jumped up, and did a kind of rain-sun-dance jig. We nearly jumped out of our fur. One of us went round in let-me-help-you-catch-your-tail circles, and the other one of us gave a what-the-hell-let’s-have-fun yelp and joined in the dance with full orchestra-l power. For a few seconds the apartment building reverberated alarmingly.

It was probably front page news that day, for the last thing Mom did before blast off was look at the top of the front page of the newspaper. Though we can’t read human writing as well as we can read human feelings, we can imagine the lines there: Birthday Babies! The Dynamic Duo Turns Four Today. Oh My Dog! What hugs, kisses, and more hugs, kisses we got then. The news was probably global because we heard Big Sis’s voice over the little box saying the words we understand – ‘love you my babies’ – and Big Bro saying something like that too, each from their respective corners of the world. Of course, we couldn’t touch them or smell them or lick them because they were inside a little box, but we could hear their voices. Big Sis’s friend sent us a treat that had Mom in a fix. We could see one part of her quarrelling with the other part: we could not be denied a huge treat on our special day but all of it in one go …?

The best was yet to come. Our love, who takes our breath and words away (Upset equilibrium – but totally worth it!), One For Whom No Name is Good Enough, our VIM, descended with a bag full of goodies. As usual, with her around, we looked for Big Bro – with only half an eye because the rest was on the big bag swinging from VIM’s hand. At that time, we were totally distracted by the stars in our eyes, by the melting of our hearts and brains as she bent down to rub our scruffy hair, torn between the smell and taste of the treat in her hands and our inner angel telling us – “Behave! Behave!” Once she had left, once we got our noses in that big bag — what a treat! That day we learnt that as much as we love them, there is more to life than rubber balls.

O how we loved all the fuss that was made over us! We loved it that our breakfast surprise – mango smoothie made especially for us – inaugurated the alphonso mango season this year. We loved it that Mom’s little box would go ping ever so often for us with little messages from friends and family that Mom would read out. We loved it that with just the turn of an eye we got to go for a longer walk and then a drive to the ice cream cart. We loved it all so much that we even allowed the silly blue birds to come as far ahead as the halfway point of the balcony before we charged. We loved it all so much that we danced tippy toe to the door every time the bell rang in anticipation of further special deliveries. And finally, it dawned on us. If that day was special, it’s because of us. We made this day special for our Folks – simply by being born.