When a simple mud roll did the trick!

by Neha Srivastava
(Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India)

Rocky as a 2 year old!

It was a pleasant yet dull early evening of March, two years ago, when my brother parked his bike near a beetle leaf (paan) shop close to a popular crossing in our city, Lucknow. He had received an important call from a client and needed to attend it. As he was talking to the client on the phone, he was startled by something soft and squishy that rubbed against his feet. He looked down and saw a small fawn colored indie puppy, about a month and half old, rolling on his feet and on the mud near it.

The pup tried to attract his attention with all his might. My brother bent down, mobile phone in one hand, and caressed the pup with another. The pup lay motionless at his feet as he enjoyed the caress. As soon as my brother stood up to continue his chat in a more sane posture, the pup began his antics all over again. My brother, an ardent animal lover, was intrigued. Once he got done with his client call, he started playing with the pup, who had already taken to him like any attention seeking puppy would!

The shop-keeper who had been observing the interplay for a while, asked my brother to take the puppy home. My brother said, with a sense of concern, that the puppy’s mom would be upset if he was taken away. The shopkeeper told my brother that the entire family of this desolate puppy had been killed by a truck the preceding day and that he was the lone survivor of the pack. At that very instant my brother’s heart melted. Fortunately, a staff member had accompanied my brother that day and he assisted in getting the mud-rolling puppy home on the bike.