My Stray Hero’s (A True Story) Part-II

My Stray Hero’s (A True Story)Part-II
I now feel that Zinky had especially survived for me. The new entry in my family was so loved by all of us that it took no time for Zinky to mix with us all. He now used to understand our language, do shake hands, play with the ball, brought back the thrown ball, etc. He never made the house dirty as he always went out of the house for his natural calls, never kept untidy, never put his mouth in our utensils, he eats only in his utensils all these activities at such a tender age was surprising for all of us. Zinky by one month has become the hero of our House. Sometimes if my room was untidy my father used to scold me and tell me “learn to keep tidy from Zinky”.
During these days whenever I returned from my school I always found him playing with two little stray puppies both brown color with patches but very beautiful puppies almost the same age of Zinky. Sometimes their mother uses to visit our house all three puppies used to play with the mother. I never refused Zinky for playing with these Puppies or their mother. This act of mine brought all three puppies very close to me. Whenever I returned from school, I use to find all the three puppies waiting for me as if they had a clock and exactly knew my arrival time. As I used to reach my house all three puppies waiting for me used to pounce upon me with love, licked my face and often used to make my school dress dirty. I too was very fond of their love and I too loved them. Later I found out that these puppies are brother and sister and I kept their Name Jacky and Lucy. Initially, when I use to call them by the name they could not understand but by about 15 days or so they came to know that I was calling them with names. As and when I called Lucy she came running and so was the case of Jacky.
Not to forget my Mothers contribution that she use to feed them with milk and food along with Zinky without any discrimination and they all loved my mother also. The great thing that I noticed was the Mother of Jacky & Lucy knew the exact time of the feeding when my mother used to give the milk to the trio. She uses to come at that time sitting at a certain distance see her puppies feeding with the milk. When they finished she would come to their puppies love them and lick the few drops left by the puppies loved them and went away. This thing was also noticed by my mother and when the puppies used to finish the milk my mother would call their mother and would pour little milk for her also but at this time none of the puppies disturbed her. Such was the bond of love between our new family. But during night time they went to their mother and only returned in the morning to see off me and my father along with Zinky and perhaps for the breakfast. Jacky used to knock the door in such a fashion as if some human being is knocking, we use to understand and my father or mother used to open the door with a greeting and smile and their tails waging faster and faster.
This was the general routine of this family until one night there was a knock on our door around midnight. My father opened the door and to his surprise, he found Jacky and Lucy on the door and they immediately ran inside the room as if for shelter, they just rushed near Zinky and sat very quietly near him and so afraid. Father went out to see but no one was there but the father could not know the reason for this and went to sleep. In the morning both puppies were so much afraid that they did not show any responsibility for me or my father or for the breakfast but just sat on the bedsheet of Zinky appearing very afraid. We could not find out the reason and I left for my school. I went on thinking all the way as to what has happened to Jacky and Lucy.
When I returned from the school to my surprise I could find only Zinky in the garden greeting me as usual but Jacky and Lucy were absent. As I entered my house I was surprised to see Lucy and Jacky just sitting near my mother and on seeing me they bounced on me with all the love and I loved them too and later they sat near to my mother. I asked my mother what has happened to Jacky and Lucy. What my mother told me was really shocking, my mother told me that yesterday night there was a drive-by the Municipality people of Catching or killing all the stray dogs in that locality and the municipality people had killed the mother of Jacky and Lucy and somehow these two have survived by coming to our house in the night. My mother further told me that the aunt living on the other side of the colony had come to meet me and she told me that she has seen so many dogs killed by the Municipality people during the night. Oh God! Now I could get the whole story. I was totally filled with grief and tears in my eyes asked my mother “What will now happen to Jacky and Lucy now without the mother? “My mother hugged me and replied, “Don’t worry son we will keep them with us like Zinky. I was a bit relieved but again I asked, “If Lucy and Jacky will go out they will be killed by the same people who had killed their mother”. To this, my mother replied that we will tie the strap around their neck and then no one will kill them because they will be treated as the pet dogs. So that evening I brought the two new straps and tied across the necks of Jacky and Lucy and now they became the pets. At the back of my mind, I was feeling a lot, had I knew this before I would have tied the strap across the neck of their mother and would have saved her. Now Lucy and Jacky often use to visit the place where her mother was living with them but both used to return back with very low morale as their mother was not present there. This continued for weeks later the same routine of the trios returned because by now both may have realized that their mother may have left them. Now Zinky, Jacky and Lucy had a very strong bond of love between them and my family and we also loved them all.
As three months passed all the three turned out to be very cute ones. Things were going all the way in a good way till one day the door knocking habit of Jacky was strongly punished by some cruel-hearted man in the early morning. We can only presume that he might have knocked the door in the early morning of someone and seeing the Jacky he might have hit him and this resulted in the loss of one eye of Jacky who came bleeding and sat in the place near the door. The blood was oozing out of his eyes when my father saw him. He immediately called me to bring the first aid box and we both cleaned the wound and my father put the ointment in the eyes of Jacky who was crying like the child and my mother brought the milk by mixing turmeric powder which he somehow drank and sat there screaming in pain. Both Zinky and Lucy sat just near to Jacky putting their Paws around Jacky as if asking him what has happened but Jacky responds in a cry to tell that he is hurt. As we had no vet- nary doctor nearby our locality we had to treat him but by the grace of God, Jacky was all right in a month but with only one eye. One day someone had complained to municipality people that they have seen the stray dogs which had escaped from you on that day. So after the next derive of municipality people both the Jacky and Lucy were never seen again. My father even visited the municipality office hoping that both may have been captured and may have been kept in their custody, but all in vain the municipality members never owned up that they have killed or captured the dogs from that locality. My father returned empty-handed and seeing he coming empty-handed, I cursed the Municipality members from the core of my heart as I could do nothing about the dogs. I cried and cried and in the end, I could only say,
“Alas! We have lost our Jacky and Lucy.”

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