I was avoiding the repeated invitation of my friend to his house, though he is very affable, his parents loving and kind and his wife too quite hospitable, only because he also had a roaring Alsatian at his house. Whenever I found my friend's invitation quite entreating, thoughts of frenzied barking of the hostile canine also used to come to my mind creating a feeling of uneasiness. Some of the dogs I had faced were really menacing that, notwithstanding the assurances and reassurances of the hosts, I preferred to keep off their place.

     But ultimately, the apprehensions over a cur gave way to courtesies of friendship, and I visited my friend's house atlast. It was intriguing to me to see some people who are otherwise pleasant and well mannered, also pamper a pet dog that unleashed all its beastly manners on the guests nullifying the hospitable gestures of the host. The usual rhetoric of the owner "our dog does not bite" only adds to the nervousness as none so far has put the hypothesis to test. As the car approached my friend's house I mentally prepared myself for the dog to accost me and offer its traditional welcome. I have heard of owners of different breeds boasting of different styles of their dogs in this (dis)respect. The giant Alsatian I understand hugs the unwary visitor by placing its forelegs on his chest. The Labrador on the otherhand believes in hankering around and sniffing out the person to pale. The dog in my friend's house was chained to inject in me a sense of security and I faced only the frenzied barking which of course forms the integral part of the tradition of all breeds.

     But once inside their house, it was all warmth and mirth, and all the more pleasing was the keenness of my friend's mother to prepare vegetable pulav and bread rolls specially for me. For once, I pushed the ugly thoughts of the dog from my mind and spent a pleasant evening with people who not only had care and concern for me but also showed it in abundant measure. As we sat in the dining table, the dog was back in action. It started barking sitting right behind my chair as if to convey its displeasure over my entry inside their house without its usual scrutiny. I could feel its gasping breath whenever it gave interval to its barking. With very little space left between the chair and the dining table, I felt chained and with the dog let loose it caused wild dreadful imaginations in me. When the dog too actually attempted to inspected my body, I wriggled in discomfort forcing my friend to shout "Robin, stop it." The dog relented but only to kneel right in front and stare at me with it's stuck out tongue. 

Its robust body, ferocious looks, and bawling roars were so frightening that the bread rolls lost their taste and mechanically went down my throat. But for my friend the dog was so dear to be even christened. As I took leave of them I was mentally scared though not physically scarred, with the memory of the dog with its oozy nose touching my body lingering in my mind.

 Next day in my office my friend was quite apologetic for the deeds of his pet, but also pleaded with me for a better understanding of the poor beast. According to him dogs are affable, grateful, friendly and even intelligent. I am somewhat familiar with the psychology of the street dogs which display a sense of territorial integrity by pouncing on the intruder dog and also show penchant for the rag pickers. But the dog of the elite remained a mystery and all the more perplexing was the psychology of the owners.

     However, having regard to the high regard I had for my friend and his high regard for the dog I decided to do a bit of dog study. To begin with, I became familiar with breed names like Doberman, Spitz, Cocker Spaniel, Great Dane and what not. The special characteristics of each breed went into such descriptions making me wonder whether the references pertain to a dog or the traits demanded of an effective executive secretary. The breed of dog lovers had made such elaborate and painstaking study that mere browsing through the book gave me an entirely new perspective on the canine commune. The impressive photographs gave a further boost to the image of the dog that I did realise that I would have admired the burly and robust Robin had there been a barricade to separate us. 

But the human, in comparison, is no underdog, as some of the pet owners tend to project by their preferential treatment. I continued to visit my friend's house though the dog continued to be far from friendly. My friend had many other friends most of whom had a pet specimen making me feel that he chose his friends only after knowing their pet habits.

     My familiarity with the dog lovers though did not breed contempt either to them or to the breeds, certainly aroused my curiosity and inquisitiveness and also caused amusement at times. Some of them were so crazy to be keen to leave their pets only with the other dog owners while going out of station. The meticulous briefing the "to be host" used to undergo on the Do's and Don’ts “made me think of the fate of the poor human guest, who would also stay with the same host at the same time without any briefing as to what is in store for him. I was also led into a "dog show" wherein my bookish knowledge was supplemented by practical exposure. Being out of their sentry duty the dogs were in a far more amicable mood, as if on a ceasefire with strangers and displayed friendlier behaviour. One could enjoy the innocent looking fluffy Pomeranian in snow white and auburn colours, the silky skinned mercurial Dachshund hopping around with it's miniature legs, and the hairy Chinese terrier, the yelp of which helps one to locate it's front and back more easily, not to talk of the Alsatian which was and is majestic.

     After the show they sped out in cars one after the other, with the gleaming owners hugging their pets in admiration, much in the fashion of parents trooping out of school on an annual day with their prize winning children. "What a dog's life" I thought. But no doubt, apart from their beauty, they have commendable discipline too, in the likes of not playing on the sofa, keeping off kitchen and also have the civic sense not to raise their single hindleg anywhere inside the house.

     But all these are no justification to relegate the feelings of human to the background and give the comforts of the cur a higher priority. The human agony is incomprehensible, when an emotionally disturbed lowly placed employee approaches an executive in the higher echelon at his residence for favour or a with a mercy petition, and faces the sudden roaring of the dogs.

But the high fliers have neither the time nor the inclination to understand human hurts. Concerned they are, over the coming of age of their pet. I was awed to see in my friend the anxiety of a father having a marriageable daughter, when he expressed his worries over getting a suitable pair preferably KCI registered for arranging mating of Robin.

     When all ended well, my friend as promised handed over one of the newly born puppies to the owner of the paired Alsatian as a sort of a deferred dowry. I too was happy to see the increase in the tribe of pedigreed dogs which enriches nature with their spright and zest. But when the other pup was offered free of cost to me I did not accept it as, I did not want to be seen in poor light as a host. While the dog owners as human beings are good, and the dog being such a species that wags it's tail only in good gesture it is the obsession of the former with the latter that causes all the trouble and that perhaps also explain the notice at the gate of many a bungalows "beware of dogs" when there is more to behold and enjoy than to be wary.