A Mutt called Goofy

God has given him three lines in his forehead which he capitalizes and turns it into a worried look. Dog’s don’t frown, but Goofy does. And when he frown’s he looks like us humans. The amount of human admirer’s he has is countless, they are all taken in by this frown and his good behavior . This mutt loves nothing better than to entwine himself round your knees. The hairs in his fur are all short, so when you rub his coat, whether it cheers him or not, you get a nice feeling. Decidedly positive energy flows from his fur into you.

Dogs, love to spend quality time under cars, buses, trucks i.e. anything which has four wheels or more . What great ideas flow into their brains when contemplating the underside of mechanical objects is not known to humankind. But while studying the objects of their interest they fall into deep slumber. Humans who understand this dog business appreciate and give time for the paws to vacate the premises by stamping their feet, slamming shut car doors, starting the car and keep the engine idle . Of course there are some humans and canines who are exceptions to this rule.

One afternoon, Goofy was enjoying quality time under a truck ,when the driver clambered in started it and drove away. Giving Goofy credit, he dragged away his leg in the nick of time from under the wheels but was badly bruised in the process . Being Goofy he told the whole world in his dog language what the truck driver had tried to do to him. Poor chap, that day to his bad luck very few people turned up to effectively ease his pain. The black sheep among us humans cheered and applauded and conversed why the only leg , the truck should have run over the whole of Goofy for a fitting finish.

When the collegian alighted from the bus, she was told by a shop keeper how the matters stood. So she went all over the neighborhood trying to trace Goofy. Once harmed twice shy, Goofy had literally vanished. Later in the evening after coming back from work, we joined the search to unearth Goofy by searching the entire neighborhood roads, lawns, staircases and found him sitting hidden under an electric junction box.We tried to coax him to leave this shelter and get up so that we could take him to the vet.No use, he refused to budge and now that he had his sympathizer’s with him sprawled out to his full length. When I tried to lift him, he filled the whole neighborhood with loud reasons as to why he couldn’t get up and tell this foolish human to desist as he was in deep pain.

The collegian hit upon an idea which solved part of our problems. Only now I have understood why we are told to educate our children . Those of you who have read novels written by the Vet , James Herriot would have come across a story where a women used a child’s squeaky toy to coax a dog to walk up to the vet’s clinic. The collegian told me to use our car horn. It worked. Every time I horned Goofy walked a few steps till we were able to get him near the car door. Btw Goofy is named after the Walt Disney comic character by the same name and both character’s are lovable but brainless.

The next obvious step was to encourage him to clamber into the back seat of the car. So easy one would say, but being Goofy , so difficult. The liquid medicine given to him had started to work, so the pain was less. Surrounded by a few people we tried to coax him, but ultimately fed up I just gathered him up and literally dumped him in the back seat. The rest was easy, but of course from time to time he complained to all and sundry of being cooped up , the car windows being dark, the amount of noise on the roads and his urgent need to pee. The confinement at the Vet’s place and the medical treatment did him a world of good .

Now he is back.The best present we had the other day was to watch him padding silently behind a human couple with bags hanging from in their hands and his nose buried inside one of the bags. The best part was , the couple were totally unaware of Goofy.

We hope and pray he will be more alert when he sleeps under a four wheeler.