I wasn’t t raised an animal lover. By animals, I refer to uncaged animals, those left unleashed. That said, having a bunch of fish in an aquarium and small birds like grey pigeons that my late maternal grandfather cultivated so earnestly as if they had been his dearest grandsons. He erected a number of 10-meter poles for the birds at the backyard. Every morning, my grandfather would be voluntarily pull the string attached to each of the poles, making the cages and the birds inside them drenched in the morning sunlight. I was just watching in awe, how he cared about these little creatures so much.
I don’t understand why he did so, until my father who recently retired also adopted the same hobby. Bird raising again, for God’s sake! I myself never intend to do so. I would prefer letting them free in the wilderness to trying to take care of it. Yeah, the responsibility of a pet owner really sucks. And I have no such ample amount of spare time to think of pets.
So when yesterday a friend who happened to be a dog owner in Ubud told me he just adopted a 6-week old female dog named Milo, I could NOT care less. He narrated in the most enthusiastic manner you can find in any super huge lovers of canine. Milo, as he explained, was found on August 17 this year. He was as little as an albino rat my pal spotted on the door mat right in front of his door around 11 pm after going out all day long. I have to admit she looks cute and mild and unthreatening from any possible angle. She even looks timid to strangers, like me, which is good because I cannot tell you how anxious I may become when creatures who bark like her is around me. What was on my mind is a dog chasing and biting me. It truly doesn’t make sense, I think. Not every and each dig is that aggressive. But when you hardly ever encounter an unleashed dog during your entire childhood and adulthood, suddenly this makes sense. I need to adapt to it.
Bali wants me to adapt and, more precisely put, conquer this fear of canine in an instant. Insane! But I can’t complain because these dogs are anywhere to be found in Ubud particularly.
Tonight as we went out to have dinner, a dog bigger than Milo (and seemed to be a lit bit more aggressive than her) stayed under my legs. At first, I acted cool. I kept murmuring to myself,”It won’t be long, it’ll go away in a second. Just take a deep breath because it won’t bite you anyhow. You’re kind, you’re not threatening to it.” But my sanity was getting weaker than my paranoia as I found this dog lingered under my legs after a while. I shivered, and lifted my legs in fear of being bitten or perhaps, licked. This seems very ridiculous to you, just like when I saw a friend got terrified by doves flying near her. Seriously, she – who is one of the most adventurous and blatant girl I’ve ever seen in my life – is afraid of peaceful creatures like doves and I keep thinking,”She is being so ridiculous and irrational.” Now, I’m in her shoes, trying to convince these dog lovers that these creatures should stay away from me to make my life a little bit easier.
Speaking of paranoia, there’s no way you can talk through it with logic as a sole weapon. Impossible, I should say. Because even people as shrewd and intelligent like Paypal co-founder and Space X owner Elon Musk are terrified to encounter dogs.
(Image credit: Wikimedia)
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