Last December, I had an epiphany. I finally understood why I was spending less time on my second book. And it was all thanks to a certain four-legged creature. I mulled over various reasons and finally concluded that my productivity was going haywire around tea time. The reason – Coco adores tea time.
This is Coco, my two-year-old playful and energetic dog, who insists on shadowing me throughout the day. While I love having her around, it can get pretty overwhelming when she insists I accompany her for meal times, especially when I am on a tight deadline.
Let me give you some context on why Coco loves tea time. My family has a tall snack box that emerges during tea. It did not take long for Coco to associate the box with tea and treats. The clever dog that she is, she also understood that if she put on an I-havent-eaten-in-forever expression, none of us could resist her. And if the snack was crunchy, she learnt that doing all her tricks in quick succession worked wonders.
Soon, she started reminding me if I was late in brewing tea. On the rare occasion when I lost all track of time, she would lead me or my mom straight to the pantry and the shelf where the snack box stood. Slowly, I started relying on her internal clock to know when it was time for tea. Being clingy, she also learnt another trick to get me to leave my desk. She would put on dramatic sighs and whine until I agree to leave the room. There is, however, an exception to this behaviour, and that is when mom is making something delicious and the aroma reaches her nose. She is a dog, after all, with a weakness for good food!
The challenge is that I cannot return to work after gulping down my tea and sharing my snacks with her. She nudges me with her wet nose to tell me it is time to play. I have only myself to blame for that. When Coco was a puppy, I innocently began playing with her outdoors during my tea break. I did not realize how quickly she would adapt to a routine.
So, after a long game of fetch and staring at the cows and goats on the street with her, I struggle to resume work with the same enthusiasm as before. My energy is spent. Some days, the exercise helps me think better. But mostly, I end up wracking my brains trying to figure out how to spell ‘the’ or ‘definitely’.
In all probability, the dedication page for my next book – whenever I complete it – will look something like this:
To my darling Coco and her tea breaks, without which this book would have been finished a long, long while ago.
Inspired by whoever wrote this dedication page. A true gem!
