One evening, to escape the wrath of barking pariah dogs, a stray mongrel sought shelter in my compound. He charged in through the open gate and feeling he was on safe ground, stood with his tail up and glared at his tormentors. The mayhem subsided abruptly. An alert black and white shape, the dog furtively looked around and seeing me sitting on an easy chair and observing him with interest, he favored me with a look of a shepherd at finding his long lost sheep and lay down on his stomach , put his head between his paws and crept slowly and confidently towards me whining gently, wagging his tail in an ingratiating manner and on reaching me rested and rubbed his face on my knee. As I reached to caress him he lifted one side of his upper lip and displaying his white teeth in a lopsided gratifying grin, again wagged his tail in a blur of excitement.
My two grandsons Tanmay and Jatin who had since long cherished having a dog as a pet, playing nearby were distracted and at seeing the visitor had rushed away but were back in no time were back with two slices of bread and a bowl of milk. The bread was relished and the milk was lapped up. Excited, both the boys insisted on keeping the middle aged mongrel and christened him ALEX right away. Honored by the attention, Alex lost no time in following the boys around . They spread an old blanket in the corner of our garage, thus completing the home coming of Alex.
Despite his pedigree Alex has settled down admirably. His day begins with an early morning call at our entrance with a knock on the door and after awaiting an acknowledgment, yelping and wagging his tail happily, sets out for a round of our compound cum garden measuring some one third of an acre. He passes his time by sitting somberly outside our gate to keep out intruders, calling for meals at our kitchen and of course intermittent snoozing.
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