That day, I woke up to a strange shriek by an animal behind our neighbour’s house. I went to my backyard, and using the top of the compound wall between the two houses, I pulled myself over the six-foot-high wall. I craned my neck and found a dog with its legs entangled in the mesh of the barb wired fence. With no time to rescue the pitiable animal, I went about my day. Even when I was back home for lunch from the college where I had a good innings as a lecturer following my retirement from the Air Force, the cry of the canine continued to be heard at a lower pitch. Sujatha, my only daughter, who is a lecturer in Economics returned home from work that day earlier than usual. Hearing the groan of the animal, she asked me, “Appa, where is it from?”
“A dog has gotten stuck in the fencing of the next house” I replied, asking her not to be too concerned about it as I knew well she was a lover for the canine and the feline. It was about 1 pm. “Appa, look how easily the dog walks now” chirped Sujatha drawing my attention to the pitiable animal she had brought to our portico. Lost for words, I stood for a while and then asked her, “How could you do this?” “Placing a stool close to the wall I scaled it, jumped down to the backyard of our neighbour’s house, extricated the dog painstakingly from the tangle of the wires, swathed its injured paw with a piece of cloth wetted with Dettol and brought it here”, she cheerfully recounted. A sense of remorse pricked my conscience as I failed to do what my daughter could accomplish single-handed.
Albeit our daughter’s loathing to part with her priced possession, she had to let go of it, compelled by me. The next morning, as I opened the front door of our house the faithful animal came running to me from our garage. It fawned over every one of us, lashing out its caudal appendage.
Another night, the same canine burst into a frenzy of uncontrolled woofing. I sprang up from bed and used a torch to see what was happening outside the window. I could notice two men running towards the compound wall of the next house with tools in their hands. It occurred to me that they might have tried to steal the motor fixed under the staircase. I called up the ever-absent owner of the vacant house the next day and told him about the incident. He thanked me for our timely action. Had the dog not barked wildly, the thieves would have knocked off the electrical appliance, I told the gentleman. The wounded canine thus proved to be an epitome of fidelity.
H Narayanan
Email: nanan2105@gmail.com