A Dog's Tale

I tried to sleep to help me forget about my hunger. My master didn’t feed me again. He always forgets. Or maybe he doesn’t forget, it’s just that he chooses not to feed me. When was the last time he fed me? I’m not too sure, probably a couple of days ago I guess?

Just as I was about to sleep, suddenly I was jostled up rudely. Someone kicked me in my stomach. I was very much familiar with the kicking of my master so it didn’t take me long to realise that he was kicking me. And every time that happened I’d to run and take cover somewhere far away from him. He’s a pretty violent person after all, and since he can’t afford to buy a punching bag, I’m the next best thing.

“You useless dog!”

Oh did I forget to mention? He’s pretty vulgar to. Of course, he being a human being never thought that I could actually understand well enough what he was saying. As it is, I’ve been living with humans longer than he has lived with me.

He continued swearing and cursing me about how lazy I am by sleeping in the day, not taking care of the house, always dirty the porch and stuff. I couldn’t be bothered and just trotted off into a corner where his voice would be least heard off. Hey dude, the only reason I dig your garden is simply because you won’t feed me so I’d have to stay alive by eating some worms. Simple things like that would just never cross his mind, would it?

Usually he’d kick me before leaving for work every morning. This time however, he didn’t kick me as hard since he was carrying a new fur ball in his hands. It was a Persian cat that he purchased overseas for a couple of thousand dollars. Apparently the feline had a certificate to prove it’s a pedigree species. So much for spending so much money on a living organism that doesn’t do much for him. All it does is purr, wag its tail around, rub its body on him, eat and sleep. It doesn’t catch mice, it doesn’t watch take care of the house, it doesn’t purr when there are strangers nearby and it basically does nothing that could benefit anyone in the household.

What truly stupefies me is the point that, why on earth would a useless creature be so generously rewarded for doing nothing?

Its fur. The noise it makes. It looks nice. People would pay for anything that they like looking at.

*Sigh*

He was playing with the stupid feline and it was just purring and purring away. I knew from the very start that its main objective of existence in the house was to make me jealous and to irritate it. Too bad I was too hungry to entertain it. No matter how loud it purred, I was just too tired and too bored to start barking at it. At the end of the day, the outcome of things would be a bruised body, and worst of all a broken rib cage from his kicking.

Closing my eyes, I tried to concentrate on other things. I didn’t want to dwell on them any longer. The agony of being a dog to such master is tormenting. Somehow, at such times, as soon as I close my eyes, the only thing that I could see clearly, is the sanctuary that I was brought up in.

I was delivered in a sanctuary where my big family lives in. When I was still little I could remember how I would sit beside my mother and watch how my dad and grandfather would teach my older brothers how to run and sprint across the fields. They looked so majestic and graceful when they run together in the pack. Their strong and muscular body that bend and swept pass the grass in the wind, the legs that were forceful and powerful, and seeing them I vowed that one day I too would be like them.

And that day sure did come. After 8 months my grandfather decided that it was time for me to start training. He taught me how to bark and growl, how to recognise friends and enemies, how to sniff and smell, how to snap and bite, how to sprint and dash, how to sit and be alert, how to be observant and how to be a guide to people, and most of all he taught me how to be a friend and a partner to humans.

That was the physical training. After a long days work, he’d lie me down beside him in the middle of the field. Resting, while watching the sun set from the distant and return to its nest in the valleys of the mountain ranges at the far end of the horizon, he would tell me all about their history and origin of our species.

“We are the only species of dogs in the world where humans can both love and respect. They will take us out into war fields, bomb sites, crime scenes, and they will train us to help the blind make their way around, help the cops find the criminals, help the military trace the bombs and mines.

“It’s not because we are just known as German Shepherds. It’s because our ancestors were dedicated to their roles. They knew that as dogs their jobs were to help and be the assistants that humans need. Though they know well enough that humans are a bunch of pretty helpless creatures, still they chose to do what they knew was best and right. And when they made that choice, we became respected. Not just because they did their jobs, but because they did their jobs well.”

Pride swelled in me when my grandfather spoke. It made me feel that I was of a Chosen Race. A Chosen Species of the humans. A dog that no ain’t the same as the ordinary ones you find in any village or home.

“Do you know what humans love best about us?” I shook my head.

“It’s the fact that dogs are loyal,” he looked into the far mountains where the sun was setting. The day became night slowly. “We don’t bite our masters, regardless of what they do to us, regardless of how they treat us.”

I nodded my head. Yes, that’s what I will be when someone buys me next time. Yes, I’ll be loyal to my master no matter how hard it may be.

I opened my eyes when my memory recalled that part of my past. But should I still be loyal to this kind of a master?

It’s just getting too tough and too hard. He used to be very nice to me. He used to give me nice warm food and huge juicy bones for dinner, but now he even forgets to feed me, if not it’s just some cold rice and expired dog food. He used to play Frisbee with me, but now he only kicks me. He used to pat me on the head and rub me, but now he doesn’t even want to bathe me or look at me.

What have I done wrong? Where have I failed in my duty and responsibility as a watchdog?

Or is it just because he changed his taste so soon?

Watching him play with his feline, I realised that both he and the pussy cat were nothing. They were just objects that mean nothing to me. Those days my master was the world to me. I’d be more than prepared to lay my life down for him, but now he seems so distant and foreign to me. My jaws are strong enough to crack his skull in a single bite and I swear I could swallow the whole feline in one breath if it ever came near to me.

I wished I could snap at my master every time it kicked me. It’s not fun being kicked. I’m not a football, but he still kicks me. And all I can do is to whimper away to a corner. I’m fed up of it, I don’t want to live such kind of life anymore. I want my life, I want my freedom, I want to run and dash across the field. I want to live with a jerk as a master, I want children that know how to appreciate me and play with me.

I want to run away.

But where can I go? It’s been so long since I last scent the sanctuary, I doubt if I could make my way back there… but where else could I possibly go?

The day before the jerk took me home, my dad took me for a long walk at the end of the field and the far corners of the sanctuary. Again it was a sunset, and as we strode off to higher grounds, leaving my other family members wondering and asking about what my dad’s going to tell me, he invited me to sit by his side. Looking down from the highest point in the sanctuary, we could see the city view. The lights that were flickering on, the cars that were zipping by along the main streets, the sky scrapers that were beginning to illuminate as the night crept in.

“Are you ready son?” he asked after a long moment of silence.

“I don’t know dad, I just don’t know what to do.”

“Go and show a human what a German Shepherd is capable of doing.” He said without any hesitation. “Go tell the world that you are the most fantastic generation of the proud and best breed of dogs in the entire universe. Go show them that the price that they are paying to have you is nothing compared to what you have been trained and taught to do.

“Above all, do not forget your roots and your traits. You are a German Shepherd, live you life as one. Be a legacy where people will live to tell of how brave you were and how loyal a German Shepherd you were. Remember that and may the blessings of our family go with you wherever you go.” Upon saying that, he trotted away, leaving me alone on the highland then. Setting my visions upon the city, I knew that it would take everything I had in me to conquer the challenges that lay ahead.

The challenges I thought were robbers and bandits. The darkness of the alleys and the evil of the night. The crimes of the bad guys and the undoing of the corrupted.

Never did I expect the greatest of all evil coming from my master.

He forgot me. He forgot that when he sleeps I am awake. He forgot that when he’s away I’m back home taking care of the house. He forgot that I alert him every time someone comes near the gate. He forgot that I reminds him to take his keys from the keyholes every morning he leaves home for work. He forgot that I keep the stray cats that shits near the house away.

And he still forgets. And he keeps forgetting. So much until he forgets to take care of the one that protects him for one that only entertains him. Someday he will realise that he has far undervalued me through his ignorance and actions for the worthlessness of a cat. Someday, I said to myself assuringly before falling into a deep sleep.