Show him a treat and he is your best friend. But there’s more to the big happy Joko who works as an alarm clock, a quality checker and more for Jyotshana Shah Parab and husband Gaurav Parab
Author Gaurav Parab has always named his dogs after tennis players. A few years ago when he and wife Jyotshna Shah Parab went to get a lab puppy home the toss was between Roger and Djokovic. It turned out to be a no brainer-Joko was fooling around, being friendly and had that big silly grin on his face so he was christened Joko.
Joko insists that he be treated as one of the lads. “To keep things simple, we think of him as a horse with the pure soul of a dog, and the evil manipulative mind of a human,” smiles Gaurav who has written the critically acclaimed book Rustom and The Last Storyteller of Almora. Jyotshana and Gaurav take turns and spell out what having a goofy lab at home means.
You want a lab? Then you must :
1. Have strong shoulders. Repeat. Have strong shoulders. A Lab who is distracted when walking will pull your upper body apart and not even pause to look back.
2. Even for dogs, they are unique for they are primarily made up of 99 percent love with a few bones and some flesh holding them together. So if you can’t spend time with a lab because of your schedule, then don’t even think about keeping them.
3. They are highly intelligent so if you can’t keep up with their thoughts, then don’t think of keeping them. They are also lazy and given a choice between running a marathon or relaxing with a good book and a beer – a lab will go with the book.
Who loves him more?
These are the types of questions that can trigger a war. Between the two of us this will be a tie, but overall according to Joko – all the ladies love good boy Joko.
And they do things to win Joko’s affection…
Jyotshana, who is a successful home baker has named her business after Joko, calling it JokoJoe – with Joe being her pet name.
Not to be outdone, Gaurav plans to dedicate his second book to Joko to win over his affections.
Apart from that, they make a few contributions to different animal charities in his name on his birthday along with other family occasions like birthdays, anniversaries etc.
A typical day
Joko typically wakes up in our bed with a hangover around 5 am. Then depending on whoever is closer, he starts this profound conversation about the importance of a good early morning walk. He then does a few quick stretches, admires himself in the mirror for 5 minutes and off we are for a walk of anything from 30 minutes to an hour. On returning, he typically goes to the balcony to admire Pearl – the neighbors golden retriever. Naturally exhausted, he sleeps for a few hours, gives advise to Jyotshana on making a good solid lunch that is Joko approved, before evening time for a longer walk. Joko’s nights are a dark family secret, and all we can say is he has been told to be more discrete and its about time he starts acting like an adult.
Where has he travelled with you?
Everywhere. Apart from outstation trips to Daman, Diu and other places Joko insists that he be a part of every delivery that Jyotshana has to make as part of JokoJoe. He says if we are using his name, he needs to make sure everything is in order.
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