stray dog
Hey Google. What is the proper way to handle a stray dog? Especially in areas where there is no Internet-connection to ask Google.
I first encountered stray dogs in the southern end of the Taiwanese mainland, after hearing a rumour that fires spout from the ground there (see Wikipedia.)
(That was in the year 2013 A.D.)
It was late at night. The inn-keeper told me, “Don't go there, so late at night. There will be ghosts,” he said. Which was the best encouragement for an adventurous young thrill-seeker – like my young foolish self – to rush there, right away.
As I went down this road and that, the houses began to look more delapidated in the dim light of the street-lamps. I realised I hadn't seen a fellow human for a while now. Below me was the sound of my hole-ridden shoes crunching on the gravel. Above me was a ink-black sky with no moon nor stars.
A long road presented itself before me. I felt a tingle of trepidation electrify my body. The lamps shed even less light here.
What's that in the distance? Something flickering! Are those the famous fires?
I gulped. Well, I've come this far now...
Footsteps. Nothing but the sound of my footsteps. The wind felt chilly against my skin. I wanted to turn back but my body seemed to move on its own.
Suddenly, a cacophony! Barking, from down the road! I couldn't see the dogs in the darkness, but they sounded like they were a huge group!
Shit.
I wanted to scream for help but I was not unaware that no human had appeared alongside me for a while now.
I turned back the way I came, trying hard not to break into a panicked run – I didn't know how to handle the dogs – help me – I'll pretend to be calm -
I walked briskly. The barking never stopped. If anything, it sounded louder.
Then suddenly, flashlights, from the road! A car! I stabbed my arm into the midnight air, flailing frantically to get the driver's attention.
Will they stop for me?
The car slowed down. A curious human head poked out of the window.
“I want to get back to my hostel. Can you help me?”
“Get in.”
Silence in the car. Three young people. I was so grateful and relieved, I wasn't sure how to put it into words.
The car blasted down the road, leaving the dogs and the barking and the flickering fire – that wretched fire – far, far, behind. Further away, further away, behind me. Gone.
The car slowed down. “We'll drop you off here. Your hostel is down this road. You can get there by foot.”
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I was at Pulau Ubin, a thirty-minute ferry ride, by sea, from mainland Singapore. It was daylight.
(That was in the year 2024 A.D.)
I found myself staring down a dusty, sandy trail. One knew not where it led to. Suddenly, one lone dog appeared on the horizon, and trotted down the trail. Towards me. Friend or foe? It looked happy, from its trot. Innocent delight or malicious glee?
I turned back towards where I came from. But I found an even stranger sight. Four (middle-aged) men, submerged chest-deep into a pool, overgrown with various kinds of floating weeds.
“Come and join us, young man! It's fun!”
Uh, no thanks.
I looked closer and saw that they had nets in their hands, which they used to capture the weeds and haul them onto land, out of the pool.
I asked: “Are there stray dogs in this area? Will they bite people?”
“Cigarettes? I don't have money to buy cigarettes! I want cigarettes, though! Can't you see I'm poor and desperate?”
No, damn your cigarettes, I'm talking about dogs, the dog that is trotting down the trail.
“Goodbye, it was nice meeting you,” I said to the four men, who now looked positively incensed at the thought of cigarettes they clearly spent day and night pining away for, but couldn't ever lay a hand on.
Jealous. Jealous of a young fool who had spent eleven years of his life getting chased by stray dogs, from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere.
I walked away. Where is the ferry that had gotten me here?
“He's crazy,” I heard one of the four men mutter to his pond-buddy, behind my back. “There are all kinds of crazy people in the world.”
Photo credit: the late great 森山 大道 さん (Moriyama Daidō)