A heartwarming story about my family pet Dog: Puppy
I have heard and read a lot of stories which prove Dogs as Man’s best friend, from dogs who saved their owners’ lives to loyal dogs who stayed by their loved ones’ side even after death to protect them. My family always owned a pet dog since I can remember my own existence and I never felt those stories I read were just imaginary.
The protagonist of my story here is our pet dog. His
name is Puppy and he is 6 years old. He is a white hairy dog and our family’s
protector, staying awake the whole night, barking at the chicks who spoil our kitchen
garden, chasing cows/oxen who get into our grass field, barking at electricians/workers
who come to grasp his owner’s money and chase away other stray dogs fearing the
diversion of his owner’s attention. No one can shout at him or give him left
over, else he would cry and diet for days. He also understands most of our words
like get out, come in, eat, sit, sleep, stand up, etc etc. Amongst all, the
relationship Puppy share with my dad is just incredible, so very unlikely and
unbelievable at times. He used to accompany my dad almost everywhere and
protect him from the fear of darkness, the fear of being alone or the fear of
being robbed or things like that.
He used to cry for days when my dad remained away
from home, he didn’t even eat without seeing my dad around. When my dad got
ready for school, he ran and waited for my parents in their car so that he
won’t be left at home. My parents used to take him to school with them, while
they taught, puppy used to stay under the table and watch them teach turn wise
turn. However, he had to be chased out of the class when the students got
distracted with his presence in the class and in addition he would bark if the
students stayed too close to my parents. He then sat near the door and waited
for the class to be over. One day, my dad told me that, while checking his
students’ homework, one of the students had done the work exceptionally well
and in order to encourage more of such works, my dad called the student in
front of the class and as a token of appreciation he gave the kid a gift. It
was at that time, Puppy jumped from nowhere on the student. If my dad hadn’t
been there, he would have bitten the student and created a scene. It was after
this incident he was tied at home when my parents went to school. Poor Puppy!!!
He was to be blamed somehow though.
Every morning he used to cry like a baby. When we
were at home on vacations, we had to hold him tight so that he wouldn’t run
behind my dad’s car. And we would know that my parents were on their way home through
him because Puppy would waive his tail and run around the house happily. One
time my dad had to stay away from home for a week for my grandfather’s
treatment. Puppy didn’t even eat one meal properly in a day, he stopped barking
and he cried all day and night. When my dad came back, Puppy started being his
normal self again. We used to wonder if he was one of those dogs in the stories
we had heard before. He was just so extra ordinary. Everyone in the neighborhood would say, if
Puppy dies, he would be reborn as my dad’s grandchild. That was the kind of
bond Puppy had with my dad. J
Of recent when I went home to celebrate Losar
(Chinese New Year) with my family, something was strange. Then I realized it
was Puppy, Puppy wasn’t there, he didn’t come to get me from the car, to jump
over me, to lick my legs. My dad told me that Puppy had left home two weeks ago.
What I heard thereafter just left me dumbfounded. As we talked towards home, I could
see a little black sick dog perhaps just few days old sleeping at the gate.
When I asked my parents about it, they said it was the reason for Puppy to
leave home. My brother had brought the dog home few weeks earlier when he had
found it lost and sick on the way. He couldn’t just leave it seeing it
suffering, almost dead and he thought he would bring home a brother for Puppy
as well. However, nothing went as expected. The first few days, Puppy pretended
like he didn’t actually care, he stayed away from the little black dog and
slowly he stopped coming inside the house, he stopped barking and he even
stopped crying when my parents went to school.
One day when my parents got back from school, they
noticed Puppy wasn’t around. He didn’t come back that night. The next day, early
morning my worried dad went around the neighborhood to check Puppy and get him
back home. He told me it was one of his saddest moments. He saw Puppy running
away after seeing him. He chased Puppy, but my dad lost his sight after a
while. My parents thought he would come back home the next day after starving
for a while. My dad stored a lot of meat for him so that he could give him and
bribe him to stay home every day. But it never happened.
On the morning of Losar, every one of us was seated outside
the house with piles of eatables. To our surprise, Puppy made his appearance
finally. All three of us (me, my brother and my sister) used to be his
favorite, it was actually really so touching to see him come back home after
hearing all that had happened in our absence. We felt like maybe he came to
meet us. His favorite food used to be Cookies and Fish. No matter how full he
was, he would not leave it untouched. There was yet an another astonishing moment
for us. My dad threw him a cookie pretending not to notice his arrival, Puppy picked
it up and ran towards the garden with it in his mouth. All of us were watching
him, we saw him dig the ground and bury the cookie inside it. Everyone just stared at each other and said
nothing. Puppy left again after celebrating his Losar with us.
I told my parents if Puppy was really so wounded by
the presence of the little dog, why don’t they just send it away though I knew
the reason myself. The little dog looked very weak and sickly. He needed to be
taken care of very well and he had to be fed with milk and good food which he
won’t get elsewhere. They said they would keep him till he grew big enough to
take care of himself. But I wondered even if they do that, would Puppy ever
come back again? Even if he comes back, will my dad and mom get the same faith,
trust and love Puppy once had for them again? When I called my mom to check about Puppy today to
write a conclusion for this article, she said he still isn’t back home yet.
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| He is the Hero I am talking about here :) |
