The dog who changed my life
Fear is part of life and part of being human. A man without fear is most likely lying or in rare cases insanely courageous.
I say that because I have seen few people who don’t appear to be scared of anything.. though their sanity is an entirely different question.
Now I am a guy who has many fears. Most of my life decisions are governed by it.
Earlier I had difficulty admitting to others about my fears, some materialistic and some just stupid.
I guess it was because you want to look macho for the girls. Another trait I failed to portray well.
But in the last year and half I did manage to conquer one fear though.
The unreasonable fear of dogs.
OK before I go on, I am still scared of the dogs on the street but now the fear is within reason rather than before.
I remember a time when there were a lot of dogs in my locality and how I used to walk to take my school bus with a stick in hand as protection.
Looking back, that stick would have had absolutely no use but I guess it made me feel more stronger.
So when I heard that me and my friends were moving into a house with dogs, I was scared.
Though everyone assured me that the dog is friendly and harmless, I still harboured a deep lying panic.
Early days were scary for me. Looking back it is ridiculous how I used to make sure that Mikey (the dog in question) wasn’t in sight before I ran into the kitchen to fill water.
Over time I became used to him and even grew very fond of him and the credit goes to Mikey.
The first time he curled up next to me and I didn’t move away was captured on camera by my friend.
Yes it was a big moment for me and I sent it to my sister to prove that I am ‘cool’ with dogs now.
He was a pain in the ass but the sweetest dog in the world.
He ripped my coat to shreds, ate my chicken kabab and destroyed fresh clothes that were left inside the cover on the dining table but somehow it felt wrong to rebuke him.
Perhaps one of the most spoiled dog that has ever lived in a middleclass household with five guys all of whom more or less left him to his own devices.
A keen football enthusiast who hates any kind of closeness between two individuals (two people stand close and he jumps one them), possessive and protective in equal measure, drama queen, serial humper and perennial attention seeker.
Mikey was the man.
As I write now I have moved out of the house and has since then not seen Mikey who is in rehab for some training.
But as the date comes closer to him coming back, his fans, of which there are many including yours truly, are all waiting to see the fur ball again.
Whatever he means to others, for me he will always be the one who helped me to overcome my unreasonable fear of dogs and bring it down to reasonable levels. (Yes reasonable fear is prudent I fell).
Here is to Mikey. Dog extraordinaire.
Fork in the Road 