Dheera's Workshop of Whimsy

About a snappy pup, mean and thin

Nipper was the doggie’s name

His lack of manners, a total shame

His troubled mother did her best

To treat him gently like the rest

But Nipper it was clear to see

Had a problem with conformity

He bit the hand that fed the pack

Was always primed and ready for attack

“Nipper,” his mum would warn him often

“You are reducing your chances for adoption!”

At six weeks old

The pups were sold

All except Nipper, for his lack of manners

Put a spoke, in the selection spanners

When hope diminished and Nipper had grown

Soon after he developed a strong jaw-bone

A nervous family timidly drove up

And asked if there was a procurable pup

Thus Nipper despite his manner less past

Found a home, leaving everyone aghast

This lucky break, didn’t prevent his jaw

From snapping daily, three times or more

The gentle people who gave him digs

Were unused to dogs, they reared pigs

A domestic pet they had never before had

Nipper was the first and such a cad

They had no experience with the quirky features

Of snappy, ill-tempered, little creatures

When Nipper began to devastate

They excused it as a canine trait

They loved him dearly, their temperamental pet

And took him by car, to Mrs. Oomes, the Vet

Nipper hugely enjoyed the ride

On getting to the Vet, he would skulk and hide

In the same city, beside a busy snackette,

Lived Nirupendra Singh, with his beloved golf set

Nippy, as he was fondly known

An excellent golfer, he was prone

To bouts of utter and deep depression

About fear of having to give up his obsession

“Playing golf,” he often told Nupi his wife,

“Is the only focus of my life.”

The media pursued the golfer like a bear

They imposed a lot but Nippy didn’t care

They trailed behind him to the rooms

Of the lady Veterinarian, Mrs. Oomes

You may wonder why Nippy should visit

A vet, was he in any way deficit?

The answer is simple, it was for Poach

His lethargic, wee-dog, the size of a roach

Every so often, Poach’s plumbing rebelled

Churned up his stomach, its contents expelled

Necessarily Nippy spent several noons

With the sickly Poach, at Mrs. Oomes

One such noon, when Poach had a blip

Nippy was due at a golf championship

 Nupi was missing, had gone out for the day

 So Nippy desperately called Gaitonde

Gaitonde was willing, he promised to get

His car and transport Poach to the vet

That is how the dogs met at Oomes

They arrived almost together at her rooms

The golf championship was quite a breeze

Nippy won with graceful ease

Then as he collected his silver cup

His thoughts wandered to his nauseous pup

Had he been selfish and let Poach down?

He thought of his pet with a deepening frown

Nippy decided to make a dash and try

To make amends, and to mollify

Poach wagged madly to see his master

He had been given some oil of castor

Nipper saw Nippy and the newsmen approach

He watched Nippy bend and pat his Poach

Nipper disliked Nippy at very first sight

He strained on his leash to get a good bite

Meanwhile it was Nipper’s turn to be seen

By the Vet, Mrs. Oomes, who looked slightly green

Nipper was not her favorite client

Always angry, far from pliant

Nipper’s mistress tried but was unable

To lift her dog up on to the table

Gallant Nippy, chivalrous and bold

Offered to help, lend a strong handhold

With the newsmen agog and closely watching

He approached the dog, alert and crouching

Nippy grabbed the snapping wreck

Roughly by the scruff of his neck

Then he paused a second to cough

In that weak moment… Nipper nipped his finger right off!

The tip of it flew into the air

And landed gently under Oomes’s chair

The camera caught the fingers flight

From detachment to completely out of sight!

Nippy stood there numb and rigid

Blood gushing from his severed digit

The plastic surgeon Dr. Perse

Was unsympathetic and rather terse

He hated all this media zest

Interrupting his precious noon time rest

After several attempts to attach the tip

He gave up and made an offer to clip

The finger to Nippy’s thigh to graft

The golfer decided that this was daft

The media persons frowned and said,

“This doctor is surely losing his head

“Nippy has to be up to scratch

In two months, for the next golf match!”

Nippy abandoned fingertip and Perse

He couldn’t play golf, what could be worse

His dreariest nightmare had come to stay

He blinked back tears as he thought of the fairway

A month passed by without significant change

 Many cures were tried, some quite strange

 Poach whined one day and produced an odd ‘yip’

He jumped on Nippy’s lap and licked the finger tip!

Nupi screamed, she created a furor,

But this magical lick, was what initiated the cure

The result from then, was pleasing in the extreme

The finger started to recover like a dream

So ‘Nipper nipped Nippy’, it is fair to say

But that didn’t keep old Nippy away

He returned to the course like a furious cyclone

Despite ring finger, reduced by half a bone

Nippy soon had the divots flying

The cameras in place and each one vying

For a zoom in, on Nippy’s brand new grip

With its famous missing finger tip!