all about the dog

Hey..

Iam afraid of dogs.

I know that my rating with the female gender just dropped to the negative after making the previous statement, but then I cant help it. Iam afraid of them. I cant seem to like them. A tiger, a rhino, a panda - okke.. a dog - NO. A stuffed dog toy in the Toys R Us shop makes me nervous. It is not that Iam generally averse to the animal kingdom. Iam just averse to dogs.

My periappa is so fond of dogs. He was one of my LGs at college. (For those who havent had the pleasure of staying at hostels while at college, LG means Local Guardian). He had this big tall monstrous dog by the name Jerry. It never ceases to amaze me why they always choose a foriegn name to the dogs most of the time. Tommy, Jimmy, Jerry... these are common. In the land of the Tamils shouldnt they have dogs named as Munusamy, Kuppusamy.. (even if they wanted a name to end with a y which seems to be a trend). The only "Tamil" name for a dog is Mani. I cant think of anything else.

Anyways, Jerry was his favorite in his house. Considering the fact that the household had his wife, a daughter and 2 sons, this was sort of funny. Many a times I have heard him say "He is my most loyal son. All the others may leave me, but not Jerry" - this was just too stretching. Jerry used to roam around the house as if he were the crown prince. My periappa used to take him to long walks in the mornings (for the obvious, of course) and all that dog did later was to eat and sleep and give curious look at visitors scaring them to death. I can only remember of Jerry Seinfeld comment on the dogs when I think of the "obvious" morning dog-walk. "What if aliens from space watch us earthlings, following the dog and picking its poop ? They would think that the dog is the master and man is the slave walking behind his master and cleaning the master's crap"..

I was so afraid of Jerry that I always tried to avoid visits to that house. The dog always gave a nasty growl, kept on barking at the top of his voice during middle of the day giving everyone a wonderful headache for most of midday. The worse part was when at times when you sit down to eat and the dog makes a supervisory rounds. I always felt that the dog was going to pounce on me any minute. It was like living in the central African forest.

This fear of dogs has continued with me for a long time. I was actually happy when I learnt that I was not the only one having such a fear. A few of my friends happily joined my club. In Chennai we shifted our house close to office (right next ot it , actually) so that one of my roommates could walk back home late nights without being barked at by the street dogs.

When I went to Chennai this time for a vacation I visited my periappa's house. Jerry was there as usual, still big, strong looking more like a camel than a dog. I slipped into the house silently so that I dont disturb him. But that smart dog sensed my presence and gave such a shrill bark that I just made a U turn and started running towards the nearest exit as if it were a huge emergency. And he started following me. What a chase. I ran out out of the house, out of the gate and never turned back. The whole gang outside and inside the house watched me in amazement, a few laughing to their heart's content. I could care less....I was in Jurassic Park.

The dog is man's best friend, so they say. And it is the most thankful animal ever, apparently. But whatever it may be, I think I will be nervous around dogs for a long long time.

Chao....