Kani
When I first came to Babaji there was a dog there called Kani as she only had one eye. She loved Babaji very much and whenever he went for a walk around the ashram she would follow him or walk along by his side and sometimes he would play with her. Kani was very different from other dogs. She seemed to be very aware of what was correct for her to do and what was not correct. She never disturbed anyone in the ashram in any way. When Babaji came back from his walk as soon as he entered the dharmashala she would lie down quietly on one side of the steps never giving anyone any reason to chase her away. She would wait patiently until Babaji again came outside and then she would happily run after him again.
Another strange thing about Kani was that she always did the Ekadashi fast. On that day she would only eat phalahari and not the ordinary grains that were served on other days. If anyone fed her phalahari food, she would eat it but if anyone gave her ordinary roti or rice, she would sniff it and then leave it where it was.
One day Kani disappeared and was never seen again. Babaji said that she had gone to die quietly somewhere in the rocks where she would not bother anyone. He said that sometimes devotees have to be born in an animal body because of something they did wrong but then they will live in an ashram or in the company of saints so that they retain a good sanskara for when they next receive a human body and they can continue with their sadhana.
By Nanima