Giving medicine to my little bundle of joy, JoJo

Perhaps "little bundle of joy" is a misnomer. He is actually quite large, fierce looking and has a mouth the size of a laundry basket. When he yawns and exposes the vast expanse of his jaw, teeth, muzzle and various other bits, it can be disturbing to those who don't live with him every day. Even  we get a tremor every once in a while.

Realizing that Rottweilers have the second strongest bite of any canine, except for the Gran Canaria, is no comfort when your dear pet gives you a rumbling growl when you try to either put in or entice him to eat a pill. Thoughts of screaming, dismemberment, sundry portions of anatomy missing, etc. gives one pause, don't you know?

Our esteemed, admired and much put upon vet, Dr. Uniyal, once gave the fastest injection ever done by man to canine that I have ever witnessed. Jojo was chained to the railing (a very strong work of the ironsmith's art, by the way), gave the approaching veterinary professional a more than wary look and then let off the most horrendous growl ever heard in these parts. It managed to instantly still man and beast in the entire village we live in. No mean feat when the dogs here are barking constantly, except, of course, when the leopard comes to visit and we lose one.

The injection time could have been measured by an atomic clock and we were filled not only with admiration for the sheer guts exhibited by our esteemed veterinary professional, but also for the literally "fearsome" level of skill he exhibited armed only with a small ampule and tiny needle. What a man! We watched safely from a distance and if he had demanded triple hazard pay, we would have gladly paid it. (That is not encouragement doctor, don't get any ideas, please!)

So, in other long-winded words, we arrive at this evening where my doggie exhibited a delicacy of touch, a truly admirable sense of gustatory discrimination and the oral machinations of a world class chef.

To whit, he has a tick infection, for which our dear vets prescribed a 14 day course and a 28 day course of treatment. They had to issue me a bag to carry all the pills home and I knew that tough days were going to come.

There are 8 pills of various colours and sizes in the evening dosage time and 3 in the morning. With mounting trepidation, my wife and I drove the van to the butcher, he was open, blessed man, and purchased several kilos of boneless chicken for our little canine sumo wrestler. After boiling, cooling, slit cutting, pill insertion, mixing with other ingredients he normally likes, we sat back and watched him eat. He sniffed the bowl, every so delicately lifted out one chicken morsel, deposited it on the floor, did some very intricate internal motions in his giant jaw, swallowed the chicken and every so gently deposited the uneaten offensive pill on the floor. We watched the surgical removal process with amazement. At the conclusion of his repast, having eaten all of the chicken, none of the roti, little of the dahi and none of the chicken soup, we were left with a dappled, colourful display of various pills scattered on the tile floor, all intact, albeit slimed a bit.

He banged the door to be let out, and with a seemingly satisfied smirk he went to guard the neighbors from our terrace.

Now we will try exotica that would shame even a gastronome's imagination involving liver, peanut butter, exotic meats, fanciful concoctions and the like. And you know what, NONE OF IT WILL WORK!