The Day We Lost and Found Our Dog

We found our dog after 7 hours of being lost. Tanzo, our 14-year-old German Spitz stepped out of the house early in the morning, around 6:00 am, and couldn't find his way back. He is blind.

 When my parents called for him, they realised he wasn't around, not in the usual places and not in the places where he could have strayed to. He lives with my parents in Jaipur and with their 2 daughters away, he is like the ever-demanding son who keeps them on their toes. With him gone, their world came to a standstill. My mom was inconsolable and my dad in shock.

My relatives came to help in the search but to no resolve. Finally, a vegetable vendor told them that he had seen a white dog with a brown leash at the crematorium. My parents rushed to the place. Another clue took them to a man who said he helped pull a dog from an open drain after he heard it cry for help. He stood with him for sometime and then left.

The search came to a dead end. While they were there, a few people enquired if everything was fine. One of them said he saw a white dog entering into some lane. My parents followed and entered a lane, which had sub- lanes running in all directions, a place dominated by hatchet- faced butchers who could scare the hell out of you. No one had seen Tanzo even there. My mother, crying more hysterically than before, attracted a lot of attention from the people living in and around. Two boys riding a scooter stopped and asked what had happened. When my mom said they were looking for their dog, one of the boys ridiculed her saying she was crying as if her son was dead. My mom lost it and screamed at him. An old butcher in that area consoled my mom and said “ Beti duniya main taraha- tarha ke log hain. Appke bête jaisa hoga tabhi aap itna pareshaan hain.” Three other guys entered the scene and said they had seen a dog being chased by other dogs and some kids saved him and took him away.

This was the point of some hope. One lead after the other took them to a place under a tree where young boys surrounded a dog petting him and taking care of him. They had even bathed him as he was covered in mud and drain water. 

My parents got Tanzo, my kid brother, home. He is still in shock but is with the people he loves.

Only those who have ever had a pet will understand that it is like your own son or daughter. Only an animal lover will help pull out a dirty dog from a drain. A person empathetic enough will tell you that he understands what your pet means to you. Most scary looking people are the most tender at heart. Not every person who stops seeing you in distress is willing help you; he is just taking care of his own curiosity. And people like those two boys on the scooter, will continue to be gobsmacked at the love people have for animals and will continue to astonish those who can’t understand how you cannot love an animal.

It’s a Dog’s Life

Today I saw a very wounded and sick dog on the street just below my office and he was running helter-skelter in search of a sheltered place. He finally decided to climb the stairs that lead to the office entrance but was shooed away by the guard. I requested the guard to allow him to sit in a corner so that he could take a little rest but as I had expected the guard refused.
My heart skipped a beat when I closely examined the dog. He had literally no hair, had cuts and bruises on most of his body parts with some open and bleeding wounds, a broken leg and was panting heavily. I was astonished that he was even alive in such a condition. But the most striking thing about him were his grayish-green eyes. He looked at me as if pleading me to help him. I remembered my dog at home that has all the luxuries and demands everything by barking at us, gets upset and angry when not attended to. And here was this dog who was so scared of the people around him, probably because of the way they had treated him in the past.
I immediately bought some glucose biscuits, a bottle of cold water and a plastic tumbler out of which he could drink the water. The moment I poured out some for him, he slurped it as if he had never had water before. I poured some more and he drank that as well. I then gave the entire pack of biscuits to him and filled his tumbler with some cold water again.
While I stood there watching him, I heard a passersby’s remark that people don’t get food and water and here I was feeding the dog. I ignored the comment. The poorest or the sickest person can atleast ask for help but how will these helpless and dumb creatures? How will they communicate that all they desire is just a loving pat at times or a second glance or for us to understand their unspoken words, their passionate and sad eyes? But in return what they get is “all of a sudden” infection concerned person wanting to shoo- away the ‘dirty’ animal, a person more interested in checking out what the other is doing and a uncompassionate person who only understands spoken emotions. Have we ever thought that when we spell GOD backwards, it actually reads DOG and maybe it’s just not a coincidence?

Thought for the Mood:
"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.”
(My dog is a living proof of this)

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion"
(We should owe every bit of it)

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where
they went."
(I certainly would)