A Little Loving Attention-Story by Bhaskar Sodankoor

A LITTLE LOVING ATTENTION

I woke up to the sound of barking in my neighborhood in the wee hours of a Sunday morning. I got up to investigate the source of the commotion.

An ongoing construction in our layout had the labourers tent up in an unoccupied house opposite my residence. A female puppy was tied to a pole where they had tented up. She seemed to be requesting the passers-by to set her free.

I located her as the source of the barking heard earlier. When I came out of my house, she acknowledged my presence and, wagging her tail, conveyed her sense of anguish and the urgency in freeing her of her restraints in her own unique dog talk. She seemed to be around two to three months old. By that time some neighbors had gathered around me.  I was told that they had seen the puppy straying on the road, left by her previous unknown owner to fend for herself.

She had been captured by one of the construction workers who had brought her here and tied her to said pole. The labourers shared their leftovers with the puppy and the puppy was happy till the workers were there. Also the workers took her out for morning calls during their stay at the tent near the site.  Now the work was abandoned and the workers had deserted the site leaving the hapless puppy here.

Her good looks-innocent and beautiful black face and body interspersed with brown and milky white patches-made her draw onlookers’ loving attention. She was of ‘Golden Retriever’ breed and of robust health and strength.  Now the lonely puppy was in distress and continuously barking and at times howling, groaning, singing and shouting terrible oaths on the caretakers who had deserted her.

I offered her the leftovers of the previous night, which she gleefully partook. After wolfing down the leftovers, she wagged her tail in gratitude. I was in two minds as to whether to adopt her or not, since I did not like the prospect of devoting a substantial part of my time and attention in rearing a puppy, what with the cleaning, injections and her daily maintenance. Unable to come to a quick decision, I walked back to my house. Some days had passed with the stalemate, and supply of her necessities to her place (tied to  the pole) from our house continued.   

On one of such days, I and my wife were returning home after our usual evening walk. Nearing our compound, we found that the chain that was restraining the puppy was intact but she had escaped.

On entering our house compound, we were greeted with the shock of our life. Our footwear which were placed in a proper order on the shoe stand, was thrown helter skelter. Our carefully nutured potted plants were toppled, the peels of fruits that we put in the garbage can for disposal were removed and thrown on the verandah of our house.

We thought that this must have been the work of the puppy at large. I had a strong feeling that the puppy would surely return from her roaming spree for the leftovers provided by us regularly. I was angry for what she had done to us in return for our caring for her. I waited for her to return so that I could teach her a fitting lesson.

It was dark and when we were inside the house, we heard her barking outside our compound gate. Possibly she was hungry. But I was angry with her. I wanted her to remain hungry for some more time for her misdeeds so that she learns from her mistakes. Hence I did not open the gate. I went inside and was doing some cooking preparations like chopping of the vegetables.

After some time my wife stealthily motioned me to come near the door for beating the puppy. Taking up a cane that we had kept earlier, I slowly opened the door. She was standing there without making any noise. She had stealthily climbed the compound wall from behind our house and made her way to the main entrance door and stood there wagging her tail. I had hidden the stick behind me and proceeded to beat her unawares. It seemed like she had already sensed the impending danger to her. When she was about to run I hit her with the stick but she had escaped unhurt. With a loud ‘ghoeeennnc’  as if she was badly hurt and to dissuade me from further beating her, she ran away.

After dinner, as usual, my wife and I assembled on our terrace for relaxing in the evening breeze. We had seen that, below us, in front of the compound gate, she was standing and barking, possibly afraid to stand before the entrance door, requesting for food. We gave her a stern look and verbal warning to leave the place immediately. We shouted threatening words from above and she seemed to understand. She in turn had sensed our mood but she seemed to be hungry. Afraid of our reprimands, she ran away temporarily but came back soon and renewed her barking, half ready to recede in case we chase her out.

Sensing our signal and so as not to challenge us by standing before the compound gate, she started running up and down the lane in front of our house with an expectation that somebody in the neighboring houses welcome and feed her. Her barking for food was met with abuses by others in the vicinity. She was not welcome anywhere. Then not able to bear her hunger further she stealthily climbed our compound gate and entered into our compound with a request for food.

Even though our anger had subsided somewhat, we were determined that she suffer in hunger for a little more time for her misdemeanors. We immediately went towards her with the stick pretending to drive her away. By that time she had already run out of the house. With our feelings varying between anger and affection and with a resolution to thrash her severely on finding her next morning, I slept.

I woke up by about 5 in the morning. I had a gut feeling that she was somewhere around. I opened the entrance door to verify. There she was, silently standing at the entrance and wagging her tail with eager expectation. I was again angry on remembering the previous day’s antics perpetrated by her. So I wanted to hit her.

But suddenly I had a feeling that my anger was weakening. I felt as if something inside the dog radiated towards me and made me lose my anger. She did not return my anger nor was she afraid of me. She was wagging her tail with affection, standing before me. Then I brought yesterday’s leftover food from inside and placed it before her. She just sniffed the food and in her body language, suggested that more than the food offered which she was badly in need of, she needed my loving attention.

I was once again angry with her for her audacity in refusing the food that was offered by a kind being like me. I felt that instead of being grateful for the food offered to her, she was scorning the largesse shown by me. In that anger, I was about to lift and throw away the food and chase her away.  To my surprise, she seemed to understand and stopped me from lifting the food by immediately eating all the food in one take.

With the food consumed, she just stood there, wagging her tail and renewing her request that I give her a little loving attention. Then there was a sudden rush of love from my heart towards her that made me totally forget yesterday. Then I grabbed and held her, lovingly rubbed her forehead and caressed her.

She became an inseparable part of our lives then onwards. She was part of our travails and tribulations, of our joys and sadness. In fact, our home and its compound became her own kingdom, she a loyal commander in our home’s army. It also became her final resting place in my wife’s arms many years later after a snake bite, with us helpless and unable to save her.

The place where she was buried now sprouts a flower, asking nothing except a little loving attention.

Note: The above story is the exclusive copyright of Sodankoor Bhaskar Bhat, who is the author of the work, and shall not be copied or reproduced anywhere else save with the explicit written permission of Sodankoor Bhaskar Bhat.