Rant

I usually don’t like to complain and I don’t usually swear. I was however on the verge of doing unspeakable things yesterday!

Let me start from the beginning. As most people do, I don’t like waking up in the middle of the night if I don’t have to. Especially to annoying or loud noises. I still remember being 10 years old and waking up once frightened in the middle of the night when the phone starting ringing. It sounded so loud in the middle of the quiet night. On the phone, it was my aunt telling us that my grandmother passed way. I remember these days vividly because it was the first family death I ever faced.

Anyway, I was happily sleeping yesterday night when something woke me up. Don’t ask me how I knew I was happy. Let’s just say that I do enjoy my sleep time. Anyway, the sound that woke me up was a dog barking, really close to my window and the time was 4:00am! At first I got annoyed with the stupid dog! Why did he have to start barking like that in the middle of the night?

I noticed however that he wouldn’t stop and that no human voice tried to calm him. Also, the way he barked wasn’t normal. He didn’t sound like he was trying to protect or attack someone. He sounded like being in pain. A few minutes later he started wailing, so I had to take a look. From my window I could see that the dog was alone, tied closely to the nearby traffic light and he was in distress. He was looking towards the four possible directions of the junction and was barking towards them. Someone obviously simply abandoned the dog there and left him.

I felt so sorry for the dog. He was a white English Bull Terrier and he seemed young. He kept on making circles barking in every possible direction that people might come. This specific breed of dogs are mostly bought from people who are generally, (how can I say that politely?) not respected in the society! Some people call them chavs, white trash etc. I generally find them very cute though.

I started getting very annoyed about this and angry to the person who abandoned their dog like that. I was thinking of possible ways of helping but I couldn’t find a good one. I’m not sure if there is a charity doing 24 hours service that would collect him. I wasn’t feeling very confortable taking the dog myself. I live in a flat and I didn’t know where to put him. My brain wasn’t functioning too well that late at night anyway. Thankfully. The neighbours after a while from across the street went to check on the dog. A lady brought him a bowl of water as well.

The moment the dog saw them, stopped barking and sat down on the road, in complete submission. He whelped a bit and then stopped making any sound whatsoever. He kept on looking at them waiting to see his fate. The people on the street started talking to one another. They were probably trying to decide what to do. After a while, one of them probably suggested taking the dog to his place till the next day.

So, the crisis was over. It was getting 4:30 in the morning though and I was awake. I felt angry at the old dog’s owner and frustrated that I couldn’t sleep. Is it just me, or there are times you want to have learnt a little African voodoo magic to curse some people. Not seriously do them harm, but just a little bit…