Abandoned

Today I was astonished at what I saw at the society's gate.

Usually there are a bunch of stray dogs roaming at the gate. These dogs are looked after by the people working at the construction sites, living in their makeshift houses nearby. Even though these people are struck by financial constraints, they take good care of the strays. These dogs in-turn guard the houses when the workers are not around. A good example, of mutual understanding, one could say.

But today among these stray dogs was a well bred, Labrador Retriever. This view just froze my legs.

At first I assumed the Labrador had gone astray from his(could also be a her, never checked) owner and these street thugs were bullying him. I even called out to the security guard to shoo away the strays to save the Labrador. The guard replied that the dogs had been playing together from morning.

So I just stopped and looked, thinking the guard had cynophobia (fear of dogs) and was lying. But to my wonderment, the dogs were indeed playing. Never seen such a phenomenon before.

I decided to wait and watch what would happen next. As the sun was setting, it was time for the workers to come back with some food for their house guards.

Almost half an hour had passed when, the labrador started running towards one of the workers walking past the road. This guy unwrapped a newspaper covering and placed few sukha rotis in front of this creature.

Shocked again by this, I finally decided to enquire the guy.

It wasn't an enquiry at first but more of an accusation. I accused the guy of robbing some good dog and threatened to have him beaten up if he lied. The guy frustrated with his tiring work and my accusations began to bark at me for this.

I decided to be the good cop, since the bad cop failed drastically. I changed my voice modulation and calmly asked him about the dog. This guy, Aamir(got to know his name later) saw this sudden change in my action and decided to keep his calm.

After a few casual chats with him, Aamir finally decided to narrate the story of the dog.

He said a few nights back a car came by. A man stepped out from the car with Moti(thats what Aamir calls the labrador). The man tied the collared dog to the fence, stepped back in the car and drove on. Aamir had pity on the dog and loosened the noose. The moment Aamir loosened the noose, Moti shot in the direction the car had driven.

Aamir thought the dog would find its way back home, but next eve when he was returning on the same street he saw the dog at the same spot. Thats when Aamir decided to take Moti in with him.

I was touched by this compassion, this poor lil' man had on the creature. So I decided to share this little experience of mine with my readers(which is very few now).