Dogs. From those cute little Chihuahuas to the hefty boxers to the slender Shepherds; they’re all adorable. Nicknamed “a man’s best friend”, they truly live up to it. They know the language of love — unconditional love, love that does not consume but sacrifices everything. There are millions in this world who pet one dog or the other, some pet dozens. They say, you need to pet a dog to know what it is to be with a dog. I agree with that. We may pet dogs for various reasons — heartbreak, the idea of feeling wanted, reciprocation of love, fantasy, competition, show-off, fun, and more. But, dogs let us pet them for only one reason and they expect only one thing from us. The answer for the former is love, while for the latter is care.
Dogs can be the most funny creatures. You just need an observant eye. At times, you can catch them running behind their own fluffy tails! While at other times, they’ll bark at their reflections (remember the story where the dog loses his bone because he barked at his reflection in the pond?). You go to dog shows and see all kinds of dogs, exquisite to raw to elegant. And there we will have some dogs who troll and photobomb other dogs just the way we would do at parties! You see those dogs who’ve been with their masters long enough to imitate them in their own ways (have you noticed how some dogs sit on their master’s couches and don’t budge a bit?). Ya ya, I have some photos (which I scrapped from random sites) to prove the points in this entire article (including those mentioned in this paragraph!) so just scroll through!
Some dogs are trained to bring newspapers, sit, run, bite, shit at right places, etc. While some dogs are trained to be the eyes of other people! Shepherds are trained to be the eyes of the visually challenged. Those dogs efficiently guide their blind masters throughout the city, while some have reported to have saved them from accidents and apartment-fires! Some dogs are trained to be life-savers. Take St. Bernard for example. Those fluffy large dogs sniff out victims of avalanche from the debris and dig them out to give them a new lease of life. Man does things for a reason. What reason does the dog have to save strangers, the strangers who’ll not even give St. Bernard a cookie in return? Training is one reason. But the answer is partially right. Training is useless without perseverance and the will to act.
Talking of training, some dogs are trained to utilize their olfactory senses to their optimum level. They’re trained to be sniffers. Remember those movies where the leashed dog sniffs a piece of cloth and roams the entire town to find the heroine, only to let the hero take all the credits of finding her? Remember the dog from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The sign of four”? Remember the movie scenes where they show dogs sniff out bombs, and RDX? Yes. All these have distinct smells, and they’re relentlessly trained to identify a chemical based on its scent and report it by barking incessantly. These dogs are placed in bomb squads and inevitably become family with the bomb-squads! So much is the attachment that the bomb squad arranges for a military cremation with full honors for their departed companion.
Tears run from my bulgy eyes as I type this. No, I don’t have a dog. But, I’ve petted stray ones outside the street. I’ve caught myself tapping their heads slowly and then suddenly miss a beat — only to see their expectant eyes shut waiting for the beat which never came. But, why in the world am I typing all of this? What’s the use? There will be anyways instances of atrocities committed on those mute creatures by both individuals and the agencies (govt. and pvt.), for reason as silly as loitering around without a leash. I’ve seen dogs run over by bikes, incarcerated in small cages, rendered sterile unhygienically, earflaps sliced, and more. Nevertheless, they are our heroes
(mine, at least!). They are our companions. Companions on four legs.
Refuge 
