It was a time when I was a school boy. I was something around 15-16 years old. In India there are lot of street dogs, and they are common. In my colony there were also some street dogs, but of all 2 were most common, rest used to come only some times, but these 2 used to live here only. One of them was male and other was female.
Street dogs are always hungry, no matter at what time you give food they never say no. We used to give them food very often and thus they become are good friends, because others in the colony was not bothered about them and hardly use to treat them with love. We named them Tomy (male) and Koonchu (female). I became very close to the female one. The two used to live like husband and wife. Both used to look for food together and fight together at times of problems. Tomy used to behave like a real Indian husband, suppressing wife, scolding her etc. koonchu was very shy in front of her husband, she never used to fight back . Whenever I used to give food to both of them, Tomy quickly used to finish his own and then comes to snatch the share of Koonchu. She never used to fight back to him.
Koonchu has some skin problems, her skin was having some red spots from where the hairs had disappeared. This gave her a sort of inferiority complex (I’m not very sure about it). People never used to touch her, while in front of her own eyes people show love and affection to Tomy and other dogs. Although she used to get food to eat but among humans she was considered an untouchable. This made me feel sad about her. I felt pity about the way she was being treated by the society and by her own husband Tomy (although many people claim that such notions of husband and wife don’t exists in dogs, but I’m skeptical about it). I thus tried to make Koochu realize her dignity and fight back for her rights. Earlier I was thinking not to interfere in their matter, but after one incident I had to enter the game.
The incident was, one day I gave food to both of them. As usual Tomy finished his food quickly and came to snatch the food of Koochu. I knew that she was also as hungry as Tomy may be even more. This time she growled at Tomy. This made Tomy angry a bit and they entered a small quarrel where both of them barking but in end Tomy won and she surrendered. The scene was she was lying on ground on her back while Tomy was on her with one paw of his put at her throat. This was really a hardcore suppression. I had to enter the scene in order to separate the two. Since then whenever I used to give them food, I used to stand by Koochu side so that Tomy cannot come to snatch her food. This also made Koochu to learn to fight for her share, as form then she used to fight equally with him.
Even though they used to fight at the time of food, there was love between them. Again many people say that such things are not there in dogs, well I’m skeptical about it.
Tomy was a rowdy dog, used to fight with many other dogs from other regions. he used to visit other ares and there fight with other dogs and get scratches and bruises here and there. When he used to come back and meet Koochu, she used to lick at the cuts and in end lick his mouth. I felt that it was their way of expressing love and emotions.
In order to express my love, I used to put my hand on their back. Dogs love this when someone moves their hand on their hairy back. I used to do this with Tomy but not with Koochu as she has some skin problems of which I was unaware. But I noticed that she feel hurt about it. So when I touched her for the first time on her head using a small piece of wood, she closed her eyes and felt very good. After that she became very close to me.
To be continued ….
