Listening to your fears

Robby saw him first. He was sitting quite meekly with his tail firmly tucked between his legs in the ICJ compound. He was not tiny, at least not heart-wrenchingly tiny, but he looked vulnerable and at any rate, an adorable darling. He bounced eagerly forward when Robby and Madhu came close and began to promptly nibble at Robby’s rather faded jeans. Revathy smittenly looked on...it turned out the little beast had quite a thing for dupattas, jumping surprisingly high to tear away her dupatta as she tried to get past. A tug of dupatta ensued when Gopal burst into the scene and with enviable ease, gently retrieved the sharply punctured garment, offering his own finger for the ‘mutt’ to nibble.
Henceforth, Leo, an unlikely name that the idly uncle should choose for him, greeted every student of ICJ with a friendly bark and doggy banter which translated into sinking his teeth into the nearest trousers. He never left the compound except to eat at the idly uncle’s little setup. Revathy’s initial cutesy liking to him turned quickly into irritation and impatience whenever she had to scale the compound by herself which meant undivided and teething love. She would shoo at him in vain, brandish her bag threateningly at him, raise her voice to a shrill pitch and eventually dash for it. And she never seemed to remember about him, so that every time she unthinkingly turned the corner, she sprang out of her skin at the sound of a delighted bark. She always felt slightly ashamed when she was safely inside and she turned back triumphantly only to see Leo look dazed and a little less waggy. But she couldn’t help it, the dog was gnawingly irritating.
She however marvelled at how this did not in any way faze or daunt her friends from fawning over the scrawny thing. It was almost like they were always already trained to deal with aggressive dog behaviour and this didn’t embolden her any to deal with Leo. If anything she resented the dog for making her look like she didn’t take to dogs-she really loved dogs, she was just not accustomed to seeing them through this youthful, dogosterone-filled phase. Even Poonam (in hindsight, Revathy saw the syntactical error of ‘even’, as Poonam had a dog very early on) eagerly enjoyed being scratched and beleaguered by the creature. The dog was now affecting her conscience and her consciousness-with every passing day, she was an envious and anxious witness to new persons willing themselves to be assaulted by the dog, while she kept a safe distance and when alone with the dog, still unable to change tactics. Revathy was now cognizant of a strange complex-of being a dog-lover but not being recognized as such. Couldn’t it stop loving with its teeth for a minute, so she could pet its patchy brown head?
Soon, ICJites grew so used to Leo and Leo so used to them that he would come bounding out of the compound at the sight of them even when entering the lane. It was one such day when Poonam, Revathy and Nina got out of the bus and started walking towards the lane when they saw it happen. Revathy could recollect the incident only in a blur as it all happened in such quick motion but she could somehow still see Poonam vividly, in her anguish, cry out and race forwards. Leo had as usual, torn out of the compound at the sight of them and just as they turned into the lane, he came in the direct range of an over-speeding car. A creaking halt, an agonizing squeal followed by Poonam’s scream. The driver looked furtively behind, saw an enraged Poonam and accelerated involuntarily. A trail of dust and he was gone. Nina and Revathy stood transfixed for a shocked minute before they rushed to join Poonam. Leo was bleeding only slightly, but something had happened to him. He couldn’t move his head and his left foot gave way every time he tried to painfully stand up. He kept whimpering appealingly to them-Poonam and Nina picked him up helped by idly uncle who too was too shocked to immediately react and they climbed into an auto.
Later, Revathy heard that he was taken to a nearby veterinary hospital. ICJites didn’t see him for the next week, and when a week became a fortnight, Revathy asked Gopal where he was. Gopal looked a little shocked and said, “But you must have seen him, he lies down just next to idly uncle’s shop. He is still badly hurt, so he can’t move” And there he was, when Revathy remembered to look for him. No bark, no bite, no wag, it was not Leo she saw. It was some dog in unspeakable agony, with sorrowful eyes and a strange funnel that hung around his neck. She couldn’t linger much, she couldn’t hold back the guilty tears as she held herself responsible for wishing the dog less friendly. Leo began to limp in a month and by the time they left, his limp was almost gone, but they never saw him in the compound again. A year later, when they visited ICJ, Leo was gone as was the idly uncle.