Dog's Love

"Dog's love is so wonderful.

Dog's love is so wonderful.

Dog's love is so wonderful.

Oh! Wonderful love!

So high, you can't get over it;

So deep, you can't get under it;

So wide, you can't get around it;

Oh! Wonderful love!"

Its not that I'm afraid of dogs, nor is it that I do not like them. But, there is a special feeling that a dog, in general, has for me. How else can you account for those numerous sincere attempts of making me fall in love with them? It all started when I was a kid, about 9 years old.

The kites would cease to fly and come down after being cut by rival's kite. They purposely fell down in that area of my building which the dog had proprietary ownership or so I thought. The only way to get those kites was to have the dog in confidence, get hold of the kite and then run as fast as you can to save your life being chased by a heart-broken dog realising that my love was for the kite and not for him. As a kid, this was my daily routine after school; to run for my life in spite of the fact that my dad bought me kites and had clearly told me to give up on the kite-catching business. The dog would run only up to a certain distance and gave up on me. I kept running till I reached the terrace. The dog's love fetched me several medals for running competition while I was in school. Other manifestation of this love was shown by street dogs when they kept calling me while I was doing my business and scrupulously ignoring them. When someone does this to you, you save your life by simply going across the road.

Recently, things have changed. The more I knew humans, the more I loved dogs and the more dogs loved me; clear case of undeterred love. While I was at the receiving end of love for humans, the animal kept loving me through thick and thin. Only a fool can ignore such innocent, selfless, undemanding, bold and royal expression of the most beautiful human expression called love. I replicated by supplying them with a source of energy to keep them from not loving me. I gave them Parle G biscuits. Apparently the 'G' is for Genius. So, the dog kept loving the genius. Like Saint Enrique Iglesias once said, the dog said too, "You can run, You can hide. But you can't escape my love."

Understand, the most difficult part, if you experience such a great love anytime, is not the replication of love from your side; it comes naturally or may be you can mould yourself into loving of this kind when you experience being loved to such great extent. The difficult part is to accept that love; to give yourself in and let it to sink into you. The difficult part is to let the love love you while you embrace it.

The next step was to start loving the dog. Like I said earlier, only a fool can ignore such kind of love. So it happened that I went to visit my aunt and she had her dog. I was relaxing on the sofa and the dog started barking. My aunt enlightened us that the dog wanted to meet me and my cousin. She started conversing with the dog; "Apsara, you want to meet these people, eh? So intelligent of you to decide that. Come, come, come on in here." I said in my mind, why the hell do you want to meet us? Oh! good Lord, save me and "Apsara" came out. She was truly "Up-sara" for the moment she came to sniff me, my legs went up from floor to sofa. She is a Labrador (Labs). Go away, go away. I shooed her away. My aunt then tied her and she started chewing my cousin's sandals, her sun-coat and other stuff. What I didn't like about the dog wasn't the looks but the fact that she was holding keys of our bike in her mouth. I was afraid she might swallow it and choke herself to death for my not loving her. She was truly "Apsara" or "Angel" as I learnt later. Apsara in Hindi sounded much coarse while Angel in English was much pleasing.

While we were having our lunch, the Angel was sitting right at our foot steps. Such a great moment with Angel at our feet, I thought. After all, she was Angel and being one, she won't bite me and if she did, I was okay with it. I made my mind firm. I kept saying to myself, "If she bites, its okay". Meanwhile, I ran my hand through her angelic body; from the head through the body and till the tail; I held her tail for quite sometime. If you are dealing with a dog so closely for the first time, each second spent seems so long. Angel was cute, sweet, good looking and I loved her from then on. Her eyes were beautiful. The faces she made; seemed like an actress. I caressed her, loosened the belt, set her free and we played.

As I was all set to leave, I looked at her angelic face. She was sad; her facial expressions told me. I was so truly, deeply, and madly in love with her. My cousin later told me that Labs are loving but their huge size scares us. Later that day, I came home and played with Jackie and Janie. They too seem to love me. The Angel has cast some spell on me, I thought. Janie put both her hands (or legs) on my body and I took them in my hands and tried to sing and do some dance. I loved it. It was amazing. When I came home at night, the same thing happened. I tried to dance with both of them this time. I couldn't sleep with these beautiful memories in mind.

And so I started writing.