If you happened one day to wander past the shrines of Baba’s parents, Princess Norina, Countess Nadine or others there on the Hill near Baba’s sacred Samadhi, you might unexpectedly find yourself among another kind of royalty: Kippy, Foundy, Cracker, Chum, Warrior and Moti. In short: a small cemetery of five dogs and a peacock under a banyan tree.

Many of the God-Man’s special pets, and certainly these lucky ones, were heralded in Mehera’s book, Baba Loved Us Too. Once in a while, it’s enjoyable to review the gallery of His lovers in animal form, who He too loved and cherished.

KIPPY

Looking at her birthday photos below, it’s easy to guess how much Kippy was a favourite pet on Meherabad Hill. A Boston terrier, Kippy had come with Elizabeth Patterson from the USA to Nasik in 1936, then travelled the world with Baba, including a stay in Cannes, and a trip around India on the first Blue Bus Tour.

In 1941 when Kippy passed away in the USA, her ashes were sent back to Baba in India, and at His instruction, Pendu placed a headstone over her grave, the only one complete with a bronze plaque.

CHUM

Cradled in the arms of the Avatar as He walked up the Hill one day in the 1930s, one-month-old puppy Chum was about to begin his life as an extremely possessive and intensely devoted watchdog to his divine Master. Baba kept Chum near Him on the Hill up until the Blue Bus tours. Chum’s devotion (and jealousy) resulted in many stories (including biting Mani, Baba’s sister, when she got “too close” to Him, for which he endured Baba’s punishment without a whimper), and chasing a cow round and round Baba’s Cabin, to His great amusement.

WARRIOR

Warrior, an Alsatian puppy, joined the ashram at Meherabad in 1940, under Elizabeth’s care. During Baba’s seclusion on the Hill that year, He had little Warrior keep company with Him for certain work, feeding the puppy with His own hands. Soon after rejoining the women, Warrior became ill, and despite being taken to the veterinarian for medicine and treatment, he died in late September. Baba Himself picked the place where Warrior was to be buried.
As Elizabeth was very sad, Baba explained to her and the women, “Warrior, you all understand, was Baba’s dog! Warrior was not actually a dog, but was temporarily brought down from the spirit world to do this work.” Baba went on to say that because of this, Warrior would have no more births but was free; “How God works! He just takes a spirit from the spirit world, gives it a form, works with it, and when it is over, takes it away! Ram’s Hanuman, Baba’s Warrior!”

MOTI

Given his elegant colours and vibrant tail, peacock Moti lived a glamorous life as one of the pets of the Avatar from Bangalore in 1939 onwards. Moti loved to dance, and the beautiful sight of him dancing entertained Baba and the women mandali many times. He even had his own swing on Meherabad Hill when the ashram returned there. According to Katie Irani, who was in charge of the kitchen, “Whenever I rang the bell for lunch, Moti would be the first one to appear. He would come running and would jump right up on the low benches that were our tables and start to dance. He would go from one end to the other spreading his tail, which was so big it covered the whole bench!” And it was certainly hard to get him to go away!

FOUNDY

Baba’s name for “Foundy” makes clear the dog’s history: Elizabeth found him at a train station in Quetta where he was rushing into compartments on each train in search of his military officer, who had left him with a friend. Foundy’s fortune was infinitely improved when Elizabeth took him back to Baba, where he became part of the ashram. During the war years when Elizabeth was sent to the West and later returned to India, she took Foundy and Kippy with her back and forth. Foundy then spent his life with Baba’s dear ones until he passed away in the late 1940s; Mehera recalls, “Just a few minutes after Baba had given Foundy a loving pat and had left the room, Foundy breathed his last.”

CRACKER:

It was a great surprise for the women mandali when Baba came back from a mast tour in Delhi to Dehra Dun carrying a Scottish terrier puppy, just the type of dog they had been searching for in vain in an English hill station. He was named Cracker by his previous owner, and Mehera remarks, “… and a firecracker he was by temperament, but very lovable.” Mani took care of Cracker with everyone else taking a share when he lived with Baba and them all in north India, Mahabaleshwar, and Satara, enjoying lots of walks (and chasing buffaloes to everyone’s dismay). In Meherazad, it was difficult to give Cracker his freedom, so he was sent to Meherabad to be taken care of by Kitty, with a loving pat from Baba whenever He visited.