A Tragedy of Two Puppies

 

This is a real-life story, which I had to unfortunately witness.

There is a boy in a village who is very fond of animals and pets. Once he brought a small white pup from somewhere distant. The bitches who give birth to pups often produce 4-5 offspring at a time; so, he must have just picked one while she was not around and brought the baby to his home. His village home was very spacious, with ample land in the front as well as around the house. Plus, he had several milk-giving cows being reared in front of house. With his loving care and a very safe and friendly environment, the puppy found its footing. But it was really ‘alone’ and the boy noticed that. Next day, he brought another pup, a black one. He kept it along with the white pup. Now, the puppies had got a company of each other!

The two puppies became apple of eye for everyone. For whole day, they used to play various games with each other. Since the white pup was a bit older and bigger, it used to prod the black pup a lot. They quickly learnt the ‘spy game’ and started sniffing and moving around. Small kids from nearby places used to come to see and play with these pups. The little black pup tried to play with the kids by trying to lick their fingers or hand. The pups learnt to recognize and respond to the boy and his family members. During winter, the puppies used to sleep near the ash pile of bonfire for hours. Once some grownup dogs visited the area and the little black pup was seen cozying up to another bigger black dog, which did not show any affection towards it. It seemed that the two pups were not to be adopted again and were fated to be together for a long time to come. Alas, even this was not to be true.

One morning, everyone was shocked to know that both pups were dead. What had transpired intrigued everyone. The boy had got some sort of insecticide or chemical sprayed on the grass in front of his house to scare away the birds who used to visit there and spoil the grains which were being dealt there. The person responsible for spraying the chemical had sprayed a heavy dose and hence a pigeon died after eating poisonous substance. The two little pups, by now well versed in eating miscellaneous things, but devoid of any parental guidance or training, had collected the dead bird and feasted on it, thereby poisoning themselves. When the boy saw them in this condition, he immediately rushed them to a nearby veterinary doctor who gave some medicine but could not save the pups. The two pups were cremated together.

These events which happened so quickly within a month or so appear so tragic that in another world of dogs this could be a plot of a blockbuster movie. On a serious note, I felt sorry for the little pups and hope that they are doing well in their next lives, wherever they are.

- Rahul Tiwary