Читать книгу Exile - Ciler ilhan - Страница 12

Baby Girl

Some kind-heart had brought us a whole load of leftovers and we were full. In good spirits, I mean. Us stray dogs can’t always find something to eat. Some days we just cannot, you understand, but that day we had; lucky us. And as we had nothing else to do, we were chillin’.

We found ourselves in the cemetery. Suddenly Abhi, he’s the one with the strongest sense of smell among us (now, I am the leader, but give credit where it’s due), started barking for no apparent reason. He never barks for nothing. On my command, my pack trotted over to where he was. The smell of the living! Impossible! Now, we are able to distinguish the smell of the newly buried from that of a person buried two days ago, that of a five-days buried from that of a one-month buried, five years from ten years; we’re good like that, you see. But this smell coming from under the earth was clearly that of the living!

Immediately, on my command, my pack started digging with all four paws. Imagine, eight dogs, all barking and digging the earth in unison. Thank God we managed to attract the attention of some passer-by; otherwise, the smell of the living was coming from deep below and who knows how much longer we’d have tried. There’s no telling if the human being would still have been alive by then. That man who saw us from a distance and suspected something fishy came near us. Thankfully he got suspicious at our anxiety and attitude. He ran out of the cemetery and came back with the police. A swarm of policemen, picks and shovels in their hands, they wanted us to stand aside: On my command, my pack all stepped aside. In a flash, they dug the earth we’d been pawing.

And what d’you think they found? A tiny human puppy! How happy we were. The police chief tagged me as the leader, and gave me enough bones to feed my pack. That was some lucky day.