Man's Best Friend

desiderata.civilsociety

Yesterday at tea-time, an old friend of mine, whom I also consider a counsellor, chatted over our favourite cendol at the height of the early afternoon equatorial heat, and our conversation turned to nine-year-old Muhammad Hazman Seh Zahidi who recently had a nsaty encounter in his neighbourhood of Taman Putra Perdana, with three dogs, including a Rothweiler suspected to have inflicted the serious injuries on the boy.

I believe the victim was highly traumatised, and would for a long time yet, harbour deep-seated fears of dogs and any animals of the ferocious kind, maybe even when properly confined to cages at the zoo. In my schooldays, when going around doing chores to raise funds for scouting "Job Week", I had a terrifying experience when a door opened up to a pounding Alsatian. I turned and yet could not escape entirely and the "miniature-tiger" left a mark on my back with a scratch.

Back to the incident involving the young victim, I believe the neighbour who allowed the dogs out without proper supervision and control had been negligent, and I would say, highly ionconsiderate allowing the dogs to roam freely. Now an innocent child has been "scarred" for life!

My counseller friend, (whose surname rhymes with another animal, hence I logged his reference in my handphone directory as Coww), observed that animals will be animals -- some can be fully domesticated, others not. Humans should not stretch their hobbies too far by keeping potentially dangerous wild animals like tigers, bears and reptiles -- yes, some indeed have done so, as highlighted by the press.

Nevertheless, cats and dogs are common pet animals in Malaysia. However, it is incumbent on the owners to keep their "pets" under proper control, especially if the dogs are known to be of the "ferocious" kind like Rothweiler and Alsatian and the "Black Bulldog". Every time I read or re-read "The Hound of Baskervilles" featuring my favourite detective, Sherlock Holmes, the atmospheric tension with the impending pounce of the Hound gives me the "creeps". Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never fails, again and again, describing the arresting landscape and atmospherics of the dark and sinister moorland.

Malaysians must exercise goodwill and consideration, whether in the neighboorhood or using public amenities, or when we hit the highway -- then the incidence of road rage deaths might be prevented. In the old days, before the handphone emergence, some "inconsiderate" user would hog a public phone for hours -- maybe chatting with the boyfriend or girlfriend? You return at half-hourly intervals, and many frustrated "other users" would still find the same person burning up the line!

I'll end this goodwill sermon on a more heart-warming note.

Coww retold the story of a dog in the Second World War in a Japanese town who escorted his master to the station as he left to serve in the war. The dog just parked itself at the railway station, checking out with each arriving train to see if Master was returning. The patient pet survived on the morsels thrown his way by passersby and their children.

The station master admired the dog's devotion to his enduring virgil, ears always alert to each ariving train, with hopes perennially lighting up its heart, that the Master would alight from the train one day.The days stretched into weeks, the weeks into months, and the months into years. And the winter cold finally took its toll, and one morning the station master found the dog lying on the track's kerbside, motionless and cold.

The neighbourhood and local authorities erected a copper statue of the dog as a monument to one faithful servant who patiently awaits the return of his master -- for six long years. Yes, indeed,to many of us, the Dog is still Man's Best Friend.