The Stray Dog Spirit

The dog, Canis lupus familiaris, is the first domesticated species on planet Earth. Across thousands of years, it has evolved such that it can now recognise human behaviour. However, there is a subset of dogs that find themselves somehow unfit to the narrative.

These are the stray dogs, the bastards. Those wandering around neighbourhood alleys, perhaps ever so slightly surprised to find missing its supposedly best friend, the human. When it sees a middle-aged, jewellery-laden woman walking her well-groomed dog around the street, the stray dog is perplexed.

‘Aww’ is what humans say when they walked past the rich lady’s dog. ‘Eww’ is what humans say when they see a stray dog.

Hardly a celebrated photograph of a stray dog. No social media account or memes for it. No one to pet it and supply emotional attention.

But the stray dog shrugs it off and keeps living. It learns to fight and protect itself. It finds others and forms a pack. Its eyes razor-focused on anything that resembles a bone. It hunts down any slice of meat it can smell. It is a wolf in dog skin.

But it never stops trying to live on and survive. It never spends much time duelling on its fate. It just moves and keeps moving.

When death knocks on its door, when it is then hit by a careless driver and die, it perished. The stray dog becomes a slab of decaying cells feeding the flies. The universe did not bat an eye. That is it.

The spirit of the stray dog, the will to keep living and surviving despite its fate, will forever be appreciated by yours truly.

Footnote:

To those who feed the stray dogs in their neighbourhood, you have my respect. (My good friend Denesh is one I know).

To dog owners, please be responsible and don’t let your dog breed if you cannot handle the crowd. Thank you.