DASHENKA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 123, 31 October 1941, Page 47

DASHENKA

\7HEN it was first born it was just a white bit of nothing: yeu could easily hold it in your hand, but since it had a pair of tiny black ears and a wee little tail, we had to admit that it was a puppy, and because we wanted it to be a girl, we called it Dashenka. While she was a little bit of nothing, she was quite blind, without any eyes at all; and as for her puny legs, well, she had two pairs of something which if you had good will you could call legs. And because we had good will, they were

little legs. Oh no, she couldn’t stand up on them, they were too weak and limp, and as for walking, my dear, that was still more difficult. Right from birth she knew how to sleep and eat. Nobody had to teach her that, and so she did it with her heart and soul the whole day long, and it seems to me at night when nobody was looking she slept just as conscientiously as she did in the day-time, for she was a very industrious puppy. .Besides that she knew how to whine, but I can’t draw you a picture of a puppy whining, and I can’t show you because my voice isn’t thin enough. On the morning when Dashenka cele-

brated the tenth day of her life she met her first event; when she woke she was astonished to find that she could seefor the moment only with one eye, but even one eye is in a way of speaking a big step forward in the world. She was so surprised that she squeaked, and that memorable squeak was her first beginning of the dog language which is called barking. In these days Dashenka knows not only how to talk, but how to curse and terrify as well; but at that time she just made a squeak, like a knife running down a plate. You would never believe how much a puppy has to do! if it’s not learning to walk, it’s sleeping; if it’s not sleeping it’s learning to sit up. "Sit up straight Dashenka with your head up and don’t bend your back so much; look out, you're sitting on your back and now you're sitting on your legs, and where have you left your tail? You mustn’t sit on your tail you know, because you'll never be able to wag it." And even when a puppy is sleeping or feeding, it has the job of growing at the same time, every day its legs have to be a bit stronger, and its neck a bit more stretched out, and its little

muzzle a bit more inquisitive. And it mustn’t forget its tail to see that it grows and strengthens and doesn’t stay like that of a mouse. And it must know how to prick its ears, wag its tail, and all this and that. Dashenka had to learn it all, Already she can walk on her tiny legs; it’s true that sometimes one of her paws gets lost, she doesn’t know where it is, and she has to sit down and find it again, and count all the four. But there is another art yet to learn Dashenka; the maternal food will soon come to an end, you must begin to learn to drink from a bowl. Come along little one, here you have a bowl of milk. What, you don’t know what to do with it? Well, you put your little nose in it, stick your tongue out, dip it in the white stuff, and snatch it back so that a drop of the white stuff sticks to it, then you do it again and over again till the bowl is empty. Don’t look so stupid Dashenka, there’s nothing in it. Dashenka does nothing, she only sits there with big eyes, and waggles her tail. Oh, you silly, I shall have to push your dull--witted nose into the milk whether you like it or not; there! Dashenka is overwhelmed by the violence done to her; her muzzle and whiskers have been dipped in milk, now she has to lick herself clean and upon my word it is good! Of her own free will she crawls after the delicious white stuff, she scrambles with her head and paws into the bowl, spills the milk on the ground and dips all her

four paws in it and even her ears and tail. Mamma has to come and lick her clean. In only a few days she will be lapping milk from a bowl as quick as lightning, and with that she will certainly grow as if she were in a hothouse, or 1 should say, as if in a dairy. Well then children, take her as your example and eat conscientiously so that you grow strong in mind and body MNke that famous puppy that was called Dashenka. -(From Karel Capek’s "I Had a Dog and a Cat.")