Twinny

I have always known that dogs are loving, and over the years I have made some wonderful four legged friends.  Loyalty and faithfulness is the hallmark of this great animal and humanity would be greatly enriched if we were to borrow a little of this trait from this “animal”.  Teary eyed, I have read James Herriot’s Dog Stories many a times, but it was Twinny who gave me a real life glimpse of how much love a dog has for its master.  

Twinny was not my dog and the name was given by my mother who has a name for all the animals that she feeds.   Twinny was from a house nearby ours and looked to be of mixed ancestry, somebody up in her family tree was a dachshund and thus she too had a dachshund look, albeit a desi one.   We started seeing her regularly only after she was fully grown up. 

Twinny was in fact picked up from some place at the insistence of the young boy of the family, who was enamored by her cute looks.  Once Twinny started growing up, her cuteness diminished and the young master was not interested anymore.   So, they just kicked her out one day, and the young master got a new pup (this time male).   It was at this time that we started seeing Twinny loitering around our back gate and also along the road and pavements and at other nearby places.   My mother found striking similarity between our dog Spotty and Twinny and this is how Twinny got her name.

 Her old owners, especially the kids, would not allow her anywhere in our neighborhood, perhaps it hurt their pride, or maybe they thought Twinny would somehow sneak in and hurt their new dog, I don’t know what their reason was.  They did not allow her to eat peacefully in front of our gate.  The boy would come on his bicycle and create such a ruckus that poor Twinny would run for cover, but she was smart enough to come back once the idiot was gone.  My sister caught the boy red handed in the act once and scolded him hard, after that we did not see him doing anything like that.

One day, there was nobody at home, and I saw Twinny standing at the back gate.   I took out what mom had kept for Twinny, opened the gate, and placed it down there.   Twinny was initially not comfortable taking from my hands but perhaps hunger made her overcame her shyness and in no time she was gorging over the food.   I knew my duty did not finish with just giving her food, I had to make sure she ate it without any hindrance , so I just came inside my compound, closed the gate, and, stood there  with my head resting on the boundary wall.  I could see Twinny eating her food, she was clearly enjoying the rice and fish when suddenly I felt she was getting alert.  I could see a twitch of her ear and from the corner of the eye, I saw a movement.  Twinny’s old owners lived around 100 m away from my home, just across a curvy turn and it was at this turn that I saw the master of the house walking in our direction.  He was perhaps going for his evening walk.   As he came nearer, Twinny left her food, sat erect and to my surprise and astonishment started moving her tail.  The tail movement culminated in a wag, but the old gentleman did not look in our direction and went straight along his path.  I, who was the sole witness of this incident, was moved beyond words.   

There she was, a small, feeble, now living on the street, dog, who after being pampered for a while, was suddenly left on her own, but who still remembered the love she once got from her owners and thereby would wag her tail….it did not matter to her that the person to whom she wagged her tail, did not pet her, did not look at her, or even may have hurt her.  That is the love a dog has for its owner.

My advice for people is that dog is not a toy, to be thrown out after use is over.  He or she is like a junior family member, one who needs our love, attention, and care.  Loving back and being faithful and loyal is somewhat of a default setting for this four legged “animal”.  So please if you are not interested in keeping it like a family member, then please don’t adopt, and once you have decided to go for the adoption, please please never abandon !!!