WHO LET THE DOGS OUT

 I wonder who coined the phrase, "Leading a dog's life" implying that he/she was in the dungeon and obviously not happy about it. I am sure the person had not dealt with dogs in general or it must be an alien, not familiar with their traits.  Dogs are happy and contented animals by and large, very friendly and adorable pets. We can count ourselves amongst the lucky ones who have had pets since we were kids and then as adults also, we had our own Buddy for almost 12 years, a Lab who finally bid us adieu during Covid times. We haven't got another one, knowing fully well the responsibilities which go with keeping one and are not in a position right now to shoulder it. But then wherever we are, dogs and cats adopt us and naturally the association is a win-win except that it is limited to our period of stay. 

But getting back to the dog's life part, there is royalty and there are dogs, who are no less, they are fed, taken for walks fawned upon and they decide to play with you or humour you when they are in a mood to, otherwise  they just laze around. No tension of foraging for food, just chill. Of course there are some hardworking types, the ones who are destined to serve the nation like soldiers, they are a breed apart but these are naturally an exception rather then the rule. Pets are privileged, no doubt  but even their country cousins, the stray or street dogs lead a decent life in India, as they lie sprawling on the streets, refusing to budge even after repeated honking of the horn, and these days the PETA brigade is on an overdrive and consequentially it is the humans who are second class citizens in this universe. Dogs are not to blame even if they attack kids, stalk oldies or charge at innocent bystanders, about time we replace "cows" with "canines" the phrase ought to be "treat someone as a holy canine". They are pampered by the pet parents, a new coinage, most of these generation zee yuppies are quite content being just that, a pet parent, so having human kids is so "middle class". 

Recently we were at the receiving end, we had just moved in and were greeted by three of them wagging their tails greeting us, welcoming us to their abode. Obviously they were the permanent residents, we were the tenants, here just for the mandated period. Naturally we were adopted and we dutifully obliged by reciprocating in kind by feeding them. The arrangement was quite satisfactory till one of them turned rogue and decided to occupy an exalted position and plonked himself atop my newly acquired Kia proudly surveying his kingdom. Now that was stretching it a little too far and he had to be shunted out. But he was way smarter and he just waited for us to retire for the evening and then again he would be upto his tricks. Not content with the Kia throne he jumped across the fence and occupied one of the sofas in the verandah, which I discovered when I came out in the morning to pick up the newspaper. I saw him jump across the fence like a professional executing it with finesse. I was impressed but couldn’t digest the sofa bit and had to take a tough decision to send all of them away. 

This triggered a chain of events which caught us in a bind between dog lovers and haters; on one side former team got after us for having shunted the dogs away to the extent that we were at the receiving end of curses. The other side went ahead and reported against us for feeding the dogs. I asked them to get the dogs out of the residential area through the Resident Welfare Association, when I was informed that the Honourable Supreme Court has directed that dogs can not be displaced from their habitat, we are not that privileged and can be shunted out anytime unceremoniously.  Dogs naturally are the prima donna that realisation has dawned on us,  we are at our wits end to get out of this imbroglio…. any ideas?