Dogs can be the most
funny creatures. You just need an observant eye. At times, you can catch them
running behind their own fluffy tails! While at other times, they'll bark at
their reflections (remember the story where the dog loses his bone because he barked
at his reflection in the pond?). You go to dog shows and see all kinds of dogs,
exquisite to raw to elegant. And there we will have some dogs who troll and
photobomb other dogs just the way we would do at parties! You see those dogs
who've been with their masters long enough to imitate them in their own ways
(have you noticed how some dogs sit on their master's couches and don't budge a
bit?). Ya ya, I have some photos (which I scrapped from random sites) to prove
the points in this entire article (including those mentioned in this
paragraph!) so just scroll through!
Some dogs are
trained to bring newspapers, sit, run, bite, shit at right places, etc. While
some dogs are trained to be the eyes of other people! Shepherds are trained to
be the eyes of the visually challenged. Those dogs efficiently guide their
blind masters throughout the city, while some have reported to have saved them
from accidents and apartment-fires! Some
dogs are trained to be life-savers. Take St. Bernard for example. Those fluffy
large dogs sniff out victims of avalanche from the debris and dig them out to
give them a new lease of life. Man does things for a reason. What reason does
the dog have to save strangers, the strangers who'll not even give St. Bernard
a cookie in return? Training is one reason. But the answer is partially right.
Training is useless without perseverance and the will to act.
Talking of training,
some dogs are trained to utilize their olfactory senses to their optimum level.
They're trained to be sniffers. Remember those movies where the leashed dog
sniffs a piece of cloth and roams the entire town to find the heroine, only to
let the hero take all the credits of finding
her? Remember the dog from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The sign of
four"? Remember the movie scenes where they show dogs sniff out bombs, and
RDX? Yes. All these have distinct smells, and they're relentlessly trained to
identify a chemical based on its scent and report it by barking incessantly.
These dogs are placed in bomb squads and inevitably become family with the
bomb-squads! So much is the attachment that the bomb squad arranges for a
military cremation with full honors for their departed companion.
Tears run from my
bulgy eyes as I type this. No, I don't have a dog. But, I've petted stray ones
outside the street. I've caught myself tapping their heads slowly and then
suddenly miss a beat -- only to see their expectant eyes shut waiting for the
beat which never came. But, why in the world am I typing all of this? What's
the use? There will be anyways instances of atrocities committed on those mute
creatures by both individuals and the agencies (govt. and pvt.), for reason as
silly as loitering around without a leash. I've seen dogs run over by bikes,
incarcerated in small cages, rendered
sterile unhygienically, earflaps sliced, and more. Nevertheless, they are our
heroes
(mine, at least!). They are our companions. Companions on four legs.
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