String-puller.

Who gets to decide the demise of a person or a living thing? Not us for sure. It’s that person or the living thing who decides when the time is up for them. Their body does and never us. When they die naturally it means that their soul and body have given up until that moment nobody can put an end to anybody.

Here’s my mistake in the past. Stray dogs in my area usually undergo surgical contraception. And one of my friends named Chinnu had to be operated on too. After he was operated he came home and I noticed that he wasn’t fine. Soon after that, we realized that it was kennel cough and since he is a stray pup, he did not trust me enough so I couldn’t take him to the veterinary hospital. So I thought I’d only feed him and I did. Then 4 days later, his legs got weakened. He couldn’t move from the place where he was resting and ants were causing him damage. I gave him a little push from the back and he hurried away to a better place. That night itself a dog attacked him. I ran to help him and then in the afternoon followed by that night, my neighbour threw stones at him. When asked he said that it would stink when he died! My mom and I warned them not to do it again. Though he kept attacking me every time, I went to feed him I didn’t stop what I was doing. Yet, his condition only got critical. I decided that he wouldn’t make it. Then for the next two days, it rained so I decided that he must have died. 4 days later my neighbours were talking to themselves and I stopped there because it was about ‘Chinnu’. Turns out he was alive and they made an issue with me as I did not let them kill the dog. I was standing up for myself but I realized that saving the dog was the priority more than fighting with them. So I went ahead and contacted a lot of NGOs and nothing seemed to help. Then I called the head of the district’s animal welfare organization, the head of the PFA and they rescued the dog. ‘Chinnu’ is alive now. I know how painful it was for him to live. But he had willpower. He wanted to live and so he did.

But if only I didn’t decide that death was the solution to his pain, I would have done all this a little earlier. If my neighbour didn’t throw stones at him thinking he was going to die, he would have gotten well long back. We are nobody to decide anything for others. Always help people, but do not be the string-puller.