Inhuman Animal: A Heartwarming Story By A Nepali Scientist
RAMCHANDRA KC (Translator)
April 14, 2020
Wouldn’t that man be the most cursed, senseless and inhuman animal in the world? Only God would know.
A few days ago, an article published in a daily paper said that a doctor had left his elderly mother somewhere in the street. The poor woman was unaware of this.
Since then she has been taking shelter in a senior home care facility after her son left her to fend for herself.
Another similar story was published in a weekly paper a few days ago. A young boy named Umesh, who was in the good books of many people around him, suffered from a mental illness. His family was tired of his pathetic situation, left him alone in the crowd of a temple in Benaras of India.
The family of Umesh hoped he would never return home.
These inhuman behaviors broke my heart, leaving me very emotional. These examples reminded me of an incident which took place in our own home. That incident came to mind, becoming more and more alive.
A few years ago, our dog also had become the victim of our thoughtless behavior.
It is said that there is no other animal more honest, more loyal, and more helpful than a dog. Some people, especially those who can’t have children of their own, love their dogs as if it was their own.
The Western world is a case in point. We’ve read or seen that some rich people, before their death, bequeath their dogs all their property so that the pets can have proper care in their absence.
More than this, some people have invested a huge sum of money for a modern cloning technology to bring their beloved dogs back to life. They have also made to prepare the clones of their beloved dogs. Dear God! What a bond of love that exists between men and dogs!
In my case, I was not very fond of dogs.
When I was a little boy, a stray dog in our settlement had once bitten me. I had to take anti-rabies vaccines for fourteen days. The vaccines which were given in my belly gave me a severe pain. This was one reason why I hated dogs.
I would always be careful not to go too close to them from that time.
When my daughter was little, she brought a German Shepard puppy home from her friend’s house. “Don’t bring the dog here,” I shouted at her and did not allow her to keep the dog in the house. I told her to return the puppy immediately.
However, my daughter did not want to return her lovely puppy. She pleaded with me to allow her to keep her little puppy for only a few days, not forever. Defeated by the stubborn nature of children, I allowed her to keep the dog in a condition that she would return it soon.
My daughter had named him Rocky. “Rocky, come here! Rocky, go there,” she would say. Rocky was agile and cute just like when the animals are pups.
In a few days’ time, Rocky turned into a beloved puppy. I was sensing that he was becoming like a member of our family. Waging his nice tiny tail, he would run towards me and his innocent eyes would just stare at me. Rocky was an honest dog with an appearance to die for. He understood our orders and obeyed them.
Sometimes, Rocky would become more playful by flopping down by my feet and wagging his tail. Slowly and within a few weeks, Rocky started to grow on me, and he completely became a member of our family.
When Rocky was small, he was kept inside the house. As he grew big, he was left free outside the walls of our house to roam around.
During the months of the chilling cold, we bundled up Rocky in warm clothes. Even the neighbors were very much fond of him. They would often say that even their houses felt safer because of Rocky and praised him.
A few months later, strange changes occurred in Rocky’s behaviors. He stopped obeying our orders. He began to trample the plants grown in our garden. He sometimes broke the vases. He would bark throughout the day without reason and groaned at night.
Rocky’s such behaviors disturbed not only us but also the neighbors which made them irritated. They complained that they could not sleep because of Rocky’s incessant howls. We had disagreements with our neighbors because of this.
Things went from bad to worse when one day Rocky barged into a neighbor’s house and unleashed a terror for many hours. With great difficulty, my son brought him home safely. All the neighbors got together and started to give us pressure to drive away the dog from our house and theirs.
I made many efforts to convince them that it was just a mistake, but all my efforts ended in vain. I was obliged to come up with a solution to the problem.
With the thought of checking Rocky’s abnormal behavior, I met a veterinary doctor from a Kennel Club. The doctor could not give any reason for Rocky’s abnormal behavior. ‘Rocky was probably showing all these strange behaviors like being intolerable with some internal reasons, or he might have been suffering from something else,’ I spoke to myself.
It is uncertain the relationship between medical science of dogs and human beings where even the veterinary science has yet to understand. My own efforts of trying to improve Rocky’s condition fell flat.
Technicians of the Kennel Club suggested me that I put him to sleep. “The dogs with such symptoms are always treated this way,” they said. But I thought such treatment was inhuman and I did not agree with the idea of letting beloved Rocky die with injection.
I asked if the Kennel Club had some provisions to keep such dogs. I asked if there were some places where such animals could be kept, but there was not one. I thought it would have been better if such places for canine care were established.
I could not keep Rocky at home due to the neighbor’s complaints. Rocky, which had been a beloved pet for us, was now becoming a huge burden. Finally, I made a hard decision of leaving Rocky somewhere in an unknown place and returned home.
In an effort to make myself feel better, I asked for help from the veterinary technicians of the zoo and made Rocky unconscious, against what I previous wanted to do. Then I told a man to leave him in some place en-route-to Dakchhinkali temple, a place of slope land with trees and is less crowded, with some food for him.
In the evening, the technician took unconscious Rocky away from our house.
That night, since the neighbors did not have to listen to the groans of Rocky, they might have slept in peace, but we were plumbing the depth of sorrow. None of us had our meals. The daughter, missing her beloved dog, continued crying. Every moment, I was eaten up by guilt.
I was feeling like I committed a crime for Rocky who was revere in our family like one of our own members but was later left on the lonely road. The memory of him, like a shadow, haunted me all day and night.
I was feeling guilty.
I felt remorse and this grew more and more. Up until this time I never knew how emotional a man could be towards an animal. My eyes brimmed with tears. I felt we had done something human beings should not do.
“Had I been so hardened and unfeeling of a person? What condition Rocky might be in?” I started to ask myself, “Dear God, would Rocky be attacked by stray dogs?” I grew restless. My restlessness did not let me stay at home.
The next day, a little before nightfall, I called the man who had taken Rocky away and we drove to the place where he was left.
It was already late when we reached there and due to the darkness, it was difficult even to see one’s own hands. We did not find the right place where Rocky had been left. A bag of food that we had left for him was the only thing we found on the side of the road.
Sadly, Rocky was not there. I looked all around and searched the entire areas for several hours.
“Rocky! Rocky!” I shouted at the night, knowing all too well that he would not hear my call. We only heard an echo from the river downward. Rocky was seen nowhere. He did not come wagging his tail. He did not come to cuddle up in my legs.
I returned home, hopeless, and helpless.
The whole night I tossed and turned in my bed, unable to sleep. Thinking that Rocky would surely be found in the daytime, I again left the house early in the morning and headed towards Dakchhinkali.
I searched for several hours but Rocky was nowhere to be seen. “Rocky! Rocky!” I called many times, but his whereabouts were unknown.
I could not get this tragedy out of my head and became an unforgettable event in my life.
How could his family leave the poor boy in the crowd of a temple in Benaras, expecting him never come home again? How could a doctor leave his own mother by herself in an unknown street, even without telling her about it?
Do the people who kick out their own family members on the road or somewhere else, feel a sense of guilt? Wouldn’t that man be the most cursed, senseless and inhuman animal in the world? Only God would know.
