Laughing stock and a smiling dog

As a kid, i was fond of animals. Except lizards. I still am. For one, dogs always enthralled me. Especially those stray ones. There was this abandon they represented without uttering a word. It’s a miracle how they are still found on our streets. Excuse culling please! They teach us our species so much. And by lessons, i don’t just mean the very facts of life. Porn happened to me a decade later as mating in public turned out to be their way of letting us know that they are cooler than hippies. You laugh at them because they can be so stupid as well. Chasing cars long before Snow Patrol made it a song? What are bicycles for? Whatever. There are exceptions too. I remember this female-dog — an adorable bitch, actually — who smiled as soon as you utter the word ‘siri’. Now i’m talking about an era where Apple hadn’t discovered the alphabet i. At the risk of turning nostalgic (more nostalgic than usual), i can clearly picturise her broad bright smile. Absolute beaut. She was the closest any member of the canine family ever got to us. My assumption is that she learned Tamil in our chawl and then put it to good use.