Time passes by and I became more close to Koonchu. I still had love for Tomy, but I realized that whenever I came with good food to give them, Koonchu used to expect that I would give her a large portion since she is more dear to me. Ofcourse they were husband and wife. Koonchu was loyal to his husband Tomy, but I can’t say the same thing for Tomy. The reason why I’m saying this is that I never saw Koonchu with any other Dog, other than Tomy and she never used to go to other colonies to visit. Partially may be she felt that she doesn’t have enough strength to fight etc. But Tomy as I said earlier was a very masculine type dog, who feels proud in fighting and being rash and used to visit many nearby colonies to establish his rule in other areas.
Life of these street dogs is weird. They live in utter poverty, eating from rubbish and many times eating shit of other animals. On the other hand, some dogs are kept as pets in house. These pet dogs are brought up with very much love and affection. I feel a very strange contrast, when people come out to take a walk in park with their pets. The striking contrasts between street dogs and pet dogs: thin or healthy, shining or dull, clean or dirty etc. Well anyway, I will write about this later describing the social stigma faced among street dogs and the loneliness faced by pets.
Returning to the story …
Winter was approaching, it was if I remember right was middle of November. Both Tomy and Koonchu came to our house and we gave some bread to them for eating. To my surprise I noticed that both Tomy and Koonchu were injured. Koonchu was injured in leg, as if someone drove a vehicle on her leg or hit her with a stone. Tomy was hit on backof neck I don’t know by what, but it was bleeding and seems to be a deep wound. Generally these street dogs when they get injured, they lick the area of wound in order to heal it soon. Koonchu was able to lick her leg injurie while Tomy can’t. This was serious. I also didn’t know what to do. No one cares and so was I. I thought that it would go away in few days and then they would be healthy again. But I didn’t know that the injury on neck would become the cause of death for Tomy.
Days passed, Koonchu recovered herself from injury while Tomy can’t. With the passage of time, his wound was getting bad to worse, and the climate was also getting cooler day by day. Infact Tomy also came to know that his condition is getting serious. Now he hardly go anywhere in other colonies. Just eat food and stay close to our house. One morning we left the main gate of house open after we threw the waste, forgot to close it. After sometime when I went outside to do something else, I noticed that Tomy was sitting just at the door step of the house. His wound was smelling very bad and there were flies buzzing around him which he was trying to kill by his mouth. I tried to make him go out, but he was not going. I even brought some food from inside, so that his greed for food would bring him out of the house, but this also didn’t help. Ultimately my Dad has to force him out of house. He was looking very emotional. Already he was a street dog thus not liked by anyone except few, on top of that he got a foul smelling wound which make repel the people even more. This situation was really heart breaking.
After couple of days the wound was very serious. There was pus and mucus in the wound which was dropping every now and then from the wound. It was not only looking very ugly but also the smell was awful. Even we kept a bit distance from him and did not let him to come near the house, while at same time Koonchu was given preference. We hardly used to go close to him, used to give him food by trowing on floor. This was really touchy for him.
One night both Tomy and Koonchu came to our house. I brought food from inside. Tomy was standing a bit distance away. I gave the food to Koonchu by giving it in her mouth. On seeing this Tomy also came closer, but since I wanted to keep myself away from him thus I threw the bread on the ground, some distance away. To my surprise he felt really hurt at heart. He did not pick the bread and his eyes were glittering with tears. My sister was also standing close by to me. I then picked the bread and said “Tomy eat it dear”. He was not taking it. I felt that his heart felt bad on the treatment that he is getting on being wounded. We then closed the gate. He was standing close to gate but not taking the bread in his mouth which was kept on floor.
We felt pity that God has made him a Dog, that he cannot speak about his sorrows ans share feelings. He can atmost only stare and cry. His wife Koonchu was also sitting beside him to give him support. Ultimately we used more affectionate words and produced some kissing sounds for him, to this he felt better and took the bread. We also felt happy that at last he accepted the food. But we didn’t know that it was his last night. After giving him the food we went inside. That night was a bit misty and cold. Late at night we heard his cries and also the cries of Koonchu. It was too late for us to go out and check what is happening.
In morning we went and found Tomy lying on ground motionless, with his mouth half open and saliva falling from there. He was not breathing. He was lying in such a position so that his wound was towards the ground. We realized that since he wanted not to be troubled by flies sitting on his wound thus he slept with his wound facing the earth. But the ants and bugs from the wet ground started eating his wound, and thus he died after facing the unbearable pain. His wife Koonchu was sitting near to him, with his head lying on ground. She was looking very sad, and her eyes were speaking about what she lost.
To be Continued ….
