Everyone should own a dog

As a child – an impossible one, may I add – I was twice bitten by rabid dogs and miraculously lived to tell the story.

Rabid, because the doctors at Entebbe Grade-something hospital on both occasions told us to monitor the dogs in question.

If they died after three days, that would mean they had rabies and my situation would just have become more complicated. Well, in both instances which happened two years apart, the dogs died within the stipulated hours, and my family was waiting for me to start barking and convulsing with rabies, but by God’s grace, nothing remotely scary happened.

Which is why many do not understand why I still love dogs. I cannot not-have a dog at home. If I lost one today, I would mourn as I frantically search for a replacement. Dogs are in a class of their own, as pets, companions and even guards. And I totally understand the family that mourns their dogs like they would mourn a family member.

My pastor’s dog of decades was taken to the vet, and they were told Woodie sadly had to be put down. His age could not take any further treatment; that would be subjecting him to unnecessary torture.

So, my pastor’s wife chose to sit with this dog that they had lived with for donkey years, just so it would not die alone. I know…quite un-Ugandan, right?

Anyway, she called me to say she was at the vet’s and her dog was about to be put down, but she wanted to sit with him so he did not cross over alone. And when a few minutes later she called to narrate how she had screamed the vet’s examination room down in horror and grief as Woodie breathed his last, I still understood, even as we later had a good laugh about the ridiculousness of it all.

I see the intelligence and compassion of dogs and wonder how some homes exist without any!

When my brother died, his dogs that ordinarily never entered the house kept sneaking into the sitting room and walked around looking utterly miserable.

I watch as a dog exhibits clear signs that it understands the language we speak and I set out to convince someone else to get themselves a dog. I am not always successful. But everyone should have a dog. Incredible animals when you get the right breed for the right purpose/setting.

malita@observer.ug