Mongrel: A Dog'S Hurt Tail

 

Only one incident occurred. That too was an accident of a hen. Its vibrations travelled and confirmed a blind man’s safety, a burglar’s imprisonment, a police officer’s promotion, and a street dog’s official adoption.

A responsible citizen had accidentally road-killed a hen. A responsible dog had dragged its body out of the middle of the street. He was just about to dig in his dinner when someone stepped on his tail.

The dog had then chased the culprit half way across the country for about three hours when at last, tired, he decided to return and concentrate on his dinner. It was nearly twilight.

On returning, he found the dead body gone! But the bloody scent still lingered. The dog followed it and reached a lawn inside the house, outside of which he had been standing.

He followed the stench until he found a slightly elevated portion on the ground. The odour was maximum on top of the burial place. Due to empty stomach and loss of his dinner, the dog whined and whined for a long time. When, out of thin air, two stale chapattis appeared in front of him. Looking up, he saw a man with a stick. He did not look murderous. The man was also wearing dark black glasses. The dog was intelligent enough to sense that the man was not an idiot to be wearing sunglasses at night. Therefore, he had to be blind. And he had given him food.

Over the next few days, the dog ate the food provided by the blind man. The dog knew by now that the man was aged, lonely and vulnerable. Therefore, the dog had developed a strong determination to keep him safe.

There was only one hitch. The dog’s tail still hurt very much. He still craved for revenge and got his chance the very next day.

A burglar came. He knocked for he knew that the old man was ‘vulnerable’. The blind old man, unknowingly, opened the door. The thief snatched the blind man’s cane and demanded silence and money. Instead, he got noise and pain. Many things happened in quick succession:

The blind old man had exclaimed, the dog had growled, the thief had exclaimed too and had cried when the dog had bitten him. The dog bit him because he had recognised a familiar scent. The thief ran again, the dog behind him. But it was as if the dog was leading the way! On wrong turns the dog growled more and, thus, led the burglar to the police station.

Inside the police station, Thanedarji was anxious for he had just received a phone call from his senior who had ordered the arrest of a certain burglar. Strangely enough, the burglar, unknown to everyone (including himself) had arrived at the police station on his own, with a mad dog on his tail.

A mixture of dog’s angry barks and man’s painful cries brought Thanedarji outside and much to his astonishment, the thief fell on his knees in front of him demanding to be saved from the dog. Raising his head, he was left dumbstruck. Thanedarji could not believe his eyes, too. Only the dog remained animated. Before leaving, he bit the culprit yet again. Vengeance is sweet!

From then on, the blind old man officially adopted the dog, both security and friend fashioned in one. The next day, someone read to him from the newspaper that a certain Thanedar got promoted…