There is a dog in my neighbourhood. It is a Golden Spaniel, like the dog in Secret Seven. So I named it ‘Scamper’. Recently, the people in his home had gone out of station. He was howling, barking and growling all through the day and night. I felt very sad for Scamper. My parents decided to call the owners and tell them about the howling dog. In fact all my neighbours were annoyed because a howling dog portends something ominous. I felt the dog was trying to tell us something with his howling. If we cry or laugh, does that become ominous? Definitely not. A dog expresses its sadness through its howl. It could probably be saying, “Oh! Why doesn’t anybody understand me? Without food I’m hungry, so I growl! Without anyone to talk to, I’m lonely, so I howl! If I see someone I bark! But why don’t you understand me?”
I am very fond of dogs. I have always asked my mom for a dog. But now I’m totally against it. I realised after seeing Scamper how selfish we can be. How can someone tie up their dog inside their house and expect it to guard their house? Imagine not being able to roam around freely and enjoy the liberty of freedom?
We, human beings don’t understand the inner feelings of this intelligent species. We should care for them, not just because we share the same planet, but for a simple fact that we are human beings and the word Human means being kind and compassionate. We ought to be able to understand and co-exist with other species and not try to enslave.
V. Shruthi, VII B, Yagappa School, Thanjavur
