Real Story — A Dog’s Loyalty

     Who says a dog is a friend to man? Well, almost everyone. It is true that a dog is a blessing to humans. Either most of us had an experience having a dog or we wish to have one. Their will be very few people who might not love dogs. Well those would be cat lovers.

    Over years we have heard many stories about loyalty and bravery of dogs. Dogs have had to play many roles such as watchdogs who look after people and their safety, pet dogs who play and entertain the owners, bombs quad dog who detect bombs before it can kill lives, police dogs who helps to track criminals and objects. Looks like dogs are more adventurous than we humans.

    In a way, a dog has contributed too much towards our society. Some people keep dogs to protect them from thieves or to play with them. Well, everyone has different reasons for keeping a dog. Though I haven’t figured mine yet.

    If I start describing about every dog, my day will never end and this article will go on and on. We’ll hear about a dog’s bravery and loyalty some other day but today let us learn about one particular dog who’s only presence meant a lot to someone. A dog’s contribution not to the society but a human life. The unnamed bond can give a lesson to everyone.

    Summer vacations were on and there were kids everywhere playing on the streets. In the city like Mumbai, Climate is never predictable. One minute the scorching sun rules the city and the other the sun is hiding behind a layer of clouds. It was a pleasant day with clouds covering the city and blocking the penetrative heat. Sameer, Nirav and Vaibhav were playing with football in their building premises. Sameer’s mom called him, “Pura din khelna hai. Uppar aa ab khane ka time hua.” Sameer replied,” Ek minute mummy. Bas aa raha hu” His mom answered,” Tera ek minute khatam hota hi nahi. Upper aa abhi nahi to papa ko call karu?” Sameer surrendered to his mom’s threat and said goodbye to his friends and left. He walked towards his building wing. On his way home, a dog came and stood in his path. He said,” Jaa tu yaha se. Shwwww” but the dog didn’t move. He tried to move left and right but the dog blocked his way. He lifted a pebble and threw at the dog. The dog cried in agony when the stone hit him. Sameer ran to his home laughing when the dog moved aside in disappointment. The poor dog only wanted some affection and food for his hungry stomach.

    The dog was very weak due to his age and loneliness. It was observed that no other dog was seen with him but the other dogs barked at him and beat him. He could not even battle back or save himself from such attacks. It’s a known fact that dogs holds territories. No dog is allowed to enter the other’s territory. If a other territory dog enters a different territory, a fight brews up between both the territory dogs. Dogs are believed to stand for each other. But this poor dog didn’t belong to any territory. He was alone with no dogs to stand by him.

    He walked with his head facing down towards the other end of the building. He found an empty spot and cuddled down. He looked very upset. It had started raining heavily. Sheru walked back slowly towards the residents. “Sheru, Kaha hai tu?” called an old lady. “Chal aaja khane”. Sheru ran to her and took shelter under her roof. He ate the freshly made chapatis that Mrs. Doshi fed him. Mrs. Doshi was the only one who fed Sheru everyday. “Kaha tha tu? Mana kiya hai na maine mat jaa Kahi dur. Yahi mere ghar ke saamne beth. ” Sheru made a sound in agreement and continued eating. She went inside once he was done eating and he slept under her roof for the rest of the night.

    For the next six days, Mrs. Doshi had gone to somewhere. Sheru had to mend for himself. No one else fed him in absence of Mrs. Doshi. By the end of 3rd day, he was hungry and sick. He had tried eating the waste food out of the Dustbin but even dogs don’t like stinking food, do they? It is their hopelessness that they have to eat from dustbins. After the day fall, it started raining heavily. He happened to squeeze himself in an iron plated box that was lying empty behind the building. But to come out of it he had to twist and turn which gave him injury. He injured his head badly. A layer of skin was peeled off and he was covered in blood. No one bothered to mend his injury. Two days passed and his condition worsened. People started noticing him because of the stinking smell of the blood.

    The building members decided to call a vet for him. They spoke to the vet with a condition that the funds for his treatment will be paid by the society but once treated they have to take the dog away. The vets arrived one morning to treat his injury. On the ground floor passage they tried to catch hold of him. “Shant ho ja beta. Tujhe lag jayega” They used a rope to tie his mouth shut so that he does not try to bite. After many tries and lot of cries from Sheru they could tie the rope around his mouth. Than they tied a rope to his legs so that he cannot run away.

    Throughout the treatment the residents of the ground and first floor could hear his hurt and agony. He cried the whole time while the vets cleaned his wound and applied ointment.  It took an hour by the vets to treat Sheru.  After it was over, one can see the pain on his face -Physical pain and emotional pain. The vets left him behind too. He might have wished for death even that he would have not got. Even after this ordeal, no one came to check on him. He was all alone.

    That afternoon a young kid rang a door bell and said,” Mujhe Uppar 1st floor jana hai par kutta hai vaha.  Mujhe darr lag raha hai”. It turned out that the young kid was Sameer. He who didn’t fear the dog and threw stone at him today he is scared of the same dog. It is simply because of the open injury on his head. The vets had cut his infected skin and left a wide deep hole on his head open. “Sure. Chalo mere saath”, said the resident and took the kid to 1st floor. Sheru was sitting on the passage between ground and 1st floor. While passing him, Sameer looked scared and walked behind the lady. He asked her to wait for a while and take him back. On returning once he passed Sheru he thanked the lady and ran out of the building as if the injured dog was going to run behind him and harm him. It seemed like the boy thought the injury has turned the dog into a monster.

    People do not understand dogs do not hurt you not even when you hurt them and injured dogs can do nothing. The day Sameer threw the stone at Sheru, What did Sheru do? Nothing. He didn’t even hurt him back. Rather Sheru was scared. If we show stones to dogs they will always step back that is because they are scared. They never come to hurt you.

    Sheru sat outside Mrs. Doshi residence and waited for her return. Mrs. Doshi returned after six days and fed Sheru with freshly made chapatis. The lady who took the kid to 1st floor had tried feeding Sheru chapatis on the day he was treated but he didn’t eat. It was because he wanted good food not dried hard chapatis. Dogs can differentiate between good food and stale food. Mrs. Doshi holding his foot and trying to make him eat some more said ,” Tu khata kyu nahi. Jaldi thik hona hai to kha Sheru.”

    From the day Mrs. Doshi had returned she had taken care of him. She applied ointment on his injury ever day.  Many people asked her, “Chep (Infection) lag jayega. Infection ho gaya to?. (What if you catch any infections?)” It did not bother her. Every time she had replied,”Mujhe kuch nahi hoga. Par is se kuch hogaya to khud ko maaf nahi kar paungi”.

    Later it was understood that Sheru had been a companion to her. She stayed with a working husband which made her live alone in the day time. She liked to spend time with Sheru and talk to him.

    Here Sheru didn’t protect her from thieves or explosive bombs neither did it play with her. But Sheru gave her company when she was alone. Mrs. Doshi did the same for Sheru.

    There was no greed in this relation. Sheru was an old sick dog who could not do much for the lady. But the lady didn’t ask for anything from Sheru just showed her love and affection. In return Sheru gave her company in her alone time.

*Do not try to find a meaning behind a relation. Relation is not about give and take. It’s only about feelings.