He was born in a street next to the school – a tiny 15 day
old, thin, dusty, but happy nevertheless, an active baby he was, when he came
home. We were very excited; it really didn't matter if he did not belong to a
superior pedigree. We were allowed to keep him with us, only if we took
responsibility for it.
We began by finding a good name and zeroed in on Bruno.....a
name derived from the Germanic word ‘brun’ meaning ‘Shield
or Armor’, a name that we would later go on to realize, was very apt for
him. Suddenly it appeared that both of us siblings had become responsible
overnight. We took turns at training the little one – since it was summer
vacations we were allowed to spend a lot of time with our new friend or rather
younger sibling as we had started believing. Even at the lightest whimper at
night we would wake up and run to the little one. For once even our small
squabbles had stopped which was a pleasant surprise for our parents.
Bruno grew up quickly to be a sturdy young fellow; he would
run in the whole neighborhood like he owned all of it. He was a terror to the
little children returning from school; he would run after them playfully and
they would get scared. He had average height with little fur, his color was
white with patches of black and his tail was coiled like a telephone cord. He would
follow my father everywhere except for the time when he left for work. He had
made a small territory for himself and he guarded it fiercely, this included us
also.
He would also consider himself at par with us and no less. One
night he refused to get to his sleeping place and kept pulling the pillow – it was
only after the spare pillow was given to him that he resigned to his now complete
bed – complete with a small mattress, a small blanket and now his own pillow.
Yet, once the lights went off in our parents’ room, he would sneak into our
room and find a place on the bed.
It was late December, just after Christmas; my father was
travelling and we were alone with our mother. It had been a week since Bruno
came inside the house. Each morning there would be a layer of frost on the lawn
and Bruno would be cold and shivering. We tried every possible way to get him
into the house, but he would not budge. If this continued any longer, we would
surely have him seriously ill. We were really worried for him. He would spend
the night by the fence where he had last traced that stranger’s smell. This had
started since a drunken man had lost his way and rang our doorbell. Bruno
barked furiously that night asking us to let him out. He would've attacked the
stranger and we didn't want him to hurt the stranger. No one opened the door
and the stranger left. He later went to our neighbors' house and soon left the
place. Since my father was travelling, Bruno considered it his responsibility
to be taking care of our security. He barked relentlessly and finally when we
were sure that the stranger would be far from Bruno’s reach, we let him out.
Bruno sniffed around till he could trace the stranger’s smell to our neighbors' house by the fence and there he had parked himself since the last one week
waiting to attack the stranger when he came back.
It was a usual afternoon, all of us soaking in the winter
sun in the backyard, reading a book and eating oranges. The dogs would normally
sit by our side and chase the birds that would come to steal the rice from their
plates, except, that this time; Bruno was on the other side of the fence on
guard duty. We were discussing how to get him indoors; all our efforts since
the last one week had gone in vain. Just then, my mother went up to Bruno and
started scolding him just as she would do to us if we were disobedient. She shouted
at him,’ Bruno, why are you not listening to us; you know Papa is not at home
and instead of helping us you are creating trouble. What will we do if anything
happens to you? Do you realise that the weather is not good for you? Is this
the way to behave?’ We really do not know what Bruno could understand of her two
minute admonishment but that evening, as it was time for dinner, we heard a
knock on the door....we looked out and saw him scratching the door to let him
in.
Finally our Bruno had come home....like he always did, every
evening!!
This is a true story..............
WOW!! This story just reminds me heidi.
ReplyDeleteIts brilliant how dogs become a part of our lives so easily and get attached to us.I guess its just true love. More than even humans proving it, they prove it to us, what true love is.
So true Jessica, dogs are amazing, there's a lot for us to learn from them....just that one pat from us is all they they ask for and give back so much in return. They can even sense if we are upset or angry or happy and behave accordingly. So blessed to have had so many dogs since I was small..each one leaving behind his own story...
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