Dogs!

Find me a better title for this. You couldn't.

Many don't share the love for dogs or animals in general. That's okay, them not loving animals doesn't make their existence a waste of space. I don't like most humans, doesn't make me any less of a human either. Anything that moves or breathes deserves to be loved.*

* That wasn't a cry for help, this isn't a pity party. Trot on.

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Dogs. This is how Wikipedia starts describing them:

“The dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Dogs were the first species to be domesticated by hunter-gatherers over 15,000 years ago before the development of agriculture.”

Read again and think about it. Over 15,000 years ago man, with no help from technology or medicine (or maybe there was some medical intervention) managed to convince a 4 legged creature to come stay with him. Share food with him. Hunt for him. He didn’t fear the creature and nor did the creature fear him back. There must have been initial hiccups but with some mutual agreement and understanding, they lived happily ever after. Mutual agreement must have been all about “You, man with an unruly beard, you give me timely treats and scritch scrotches, I will hunt the world for you.”

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Fast forward 15,000 years and more, moving past the medieval period, the French Revolution, the World Wars, the age of the Beatles and Ravi Shankar, the age of wireless connectivity, the age of digitally minted coins to the age of AI wars between the tech giants – one thing remains constant. Dogs. Wait a minute, you’ll find a whole lot of constants in the said duration but this piece is about dogs so we will stick with them. They have the stage and they’ve got our attention. Apologies to the cockroaches under your kitchen sink.

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We drive and walk past dogs. You go out to buy bread, what do you see? Dogs. You are waiting to grab a bite outside a food stall, who do you see? Dogs. What would they must be thinking about us when they make an eye contact? Are they judging us? Do we have a target on our backs? Are they zeroing in on us mortals and thinking “This is the person I want to love me.” Or, “God, hope he drops that bread!”.

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There’s a gang of 5 super built dogs on the street right outside our apartment complex. Rarely create any ruckus and keep to themselves, you know, the well-behaved types. Have never seen them run behind cars or bark mad at strangers. If I ever could speak the dog language, I’d ask them about the cool concept of running behind cars. Anyway, the chillest band of dogs you’d find. Until they spot me. Happened to feed them good on a cold night in January and that literally think of me as their God. Do I feed them every day? No. Do I play with them or spoil them with scritch scrotches everyday? Oh you betcha! Are they hopeful I get them something to eat every night? Yes they do. Will they start hating on me for not feeding them? Absolutely not. That’s what distinguishes them from us. Dogs don’t possess a single toxic bone in their body and that is why they should run the governments. If dogs could run the governments, the world, there’ll be no wars. Easy solution.

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Food stalls on the sides of the roads. You are devouring your shawarma and kebabs and your sandwiches, having a laugh. You turn around and see the most hopeful pair of eyes, wanting a piece of what you’re having. You give 1/10 of your leftovers and they’ll want to protect you for the rest of their lives. A sense of possessiveness. Everytime you go past that food stall, they’ll look at you. Hoping you’d drop something for them. They aren’t barbaric. You won’t be touched or harmed in any way. 2 legged creatures would snatch things away, them dogs won’t. And they’ll always remember that one good deed you did.

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A few days ago, I hopped onto a long-distance train, a gruelling 34 hr journey cutting across states. One advantage of such journeys is you get the scent of different places, little hamlets along the way, no flashy billboards in sight. Kids on their bikes, on their way to schools. Men on their way to work. Factories along the way. Simple life. And if a train happens to stop at a station or town rarely visited, you get off the wagon until it starts moving. The simple joys. And I got to experience it and guess who did I meet while the train made an unscheduled, unplanned halt at a little known station. A dog! All it took was a packet of biscuits and a few head pats. A surreal connection was made. A connection which in my thought, still exists, but the physical connection lasted not more than 7 minutes. The train started to chug along. And he made a run as far as he possibly could and stood back. I tried to steal one final gaze and then he was no longer in my line of sight. He made a friend who he’ll never meet again. Hopeful that another train stops and he meets a person to befriend. Who’ll eventually leave him behind, not before hogging on another packet of biscuits and long spell of scritch-scrotches.

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Me writing about dogs would be incomplete without a special mention to my little beast.

I had a dog of my own. A purebred Labrador and was named Rio after the 6′2″ centre-back who wore the red shirt with pride. This 40 day old little ball of joy set foot in our household on 18^th March 2012 and changed our lives forever. All our life’s decisions more or less revolved around him. “How would it affect Rio? Can Rio do this? Can Rio stay alone for 12 hrs? If we move, can he adapt to the new surroundings…”. Night shifts used to be soul crushing but every night on my way back, just as I approached my apartment complex I could see his massive head popping out from the living room window, waiting for me at 3:40 am, tail wagging intensifying with each step of me getting closer. Rio lived the life of a king and was loved by each and every person who came in contact with him. Filled our lives with joy until he couldn’t. I can’t get myself to write about his last 8 days on this planet, I hope he is happy and wagging his tail in anticipation that we’ll be together some day. We’ve got to be. That’s how it is. Every dog video I scroll past on Instagram, I think of him. Every dog I meet in real life, I think of him. I’ll show funny dog videos off the internet to my mother and she’ll go “Hey, that’s what Rio used to do!” with eyes welling up. And that’s the cue to change the subject and move on to something else.

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This post is in no way demeaning the existence of other animals, clarifying this just in case cat lovers come parading to my house and cut down on my ration supplies. I love cats, sadly I have had very less interactions with cats in real life. Most of my interactions with cats or elephants or pandas are limited to the phone screen. Oh, while you’ve managed to reach up until the very last part, watch this wonderful talent The Kiffness’ The Kiffness X NumNum Cat (Live Looping Balkan Remix)! It’s a bop!