Rat, cat or dogs, or any animal really can be deadly - vicious. It’s in their nature, they are animals. And, this is a little story about feral dogs: gone wild, come to harm. It is not easy to tame a dog, and once it is done, it is not easy for it to go wild. Once a domesticated one becomes feral, it is much more dangerous than one that has always been stray from the beginning. They are blood hounds regardless of breed, something I have come to have terrible dreams and thoughts about. How this began, how further back it begins and where I should start from is a tad bit confusing, however I will do my best to pen it here as true and real as I can.
One Ali Khan was very fond of these creatures, kept them as his pets, as his hobby, as a source of disposable income as well by breeding and selling them. He was a dog person for life, and I can respect that as that is much better than being a cat person, is what my personal opinion is in any case. Even in this one, where all ended in literal heart wrenching and pools of blood. As I understand it, these were thought to be most behaved and adorable. Most seemed more likely to die for their owner, trying to protect him and themselves, but failing terribly; except for the few big ones: Alsatians, pit-bulls, wolf-dogs and such. When is it ever that it is as it seems? Or perhaps, I am not much for signs and foresight.
Khan used to live with his cousin in the suburbs whilst his family was back home in another province. He was in the city to study. To keep the expenditures in check, he had his cousin as a tenant, and used to work full-time at night for international customer service. He was busy and his schedule had very little space for anything other than his job, his university, and his dogs. Being an otherwise very laid-back person his whole life, this soon took a toll on him. Air and water less clean than he was used to, a rather unhealthy diet, and drinking enough to try and cope with all the pressure lead to a flu induced pneumonia in the winter. I cannot say why or how as I am far from what is and should be considered a general practitioner or doctor. He was also going to the office at this time, during which he also caught this deadly virus going around for a few months. No vaccine had been successfully created yet, or was not at least in circulation at that point.
The virus and the serious flu made it near impossible for him to recover. He was dead within ten days of contracting it. The family had offered his cousin, a Hassan Ibrahim, to stay and take care of the dogs until they were all sold out. This was a very considerate offer, and would have helped him a lot in terms of finances and convenience. However, at the time he felt it all too much and couldn’t get rid of this impulse to go and leave it behind. Ibrahim had stayed for a week, giving the minimum attention to the animals. There were no walks for the dogs within this week, and just barely enough food. After this week, he up and left the house with his belongings to a friend’s flat. It was a week before Khan’s family found out there was no one at home from the overdue bills and notices, and after confirming with the neighbours via phone and email. In this time, a couple of the smaller dogs had died, and the only big one that wasn’t curious or hungry enough to feed on its kind.
Having only just got back a couple days ago, someone needed to go back and check on the property and the possible animals left in it. And not being able to go away due to work, and the mother being unwell, the father had to settle on his daughter going alone to get matters sorted for now. He was confident in her ability to keep a clear head and not waste time looking into it, but as a father he was worried about sending his only other child to another city by themselves. Thus, Khan’s sister, bearing the name Iman, arrived to their second home by late afternoon the day after. She opened the outer main metal gate and let it remain open to feel more safer and comfortable. She was coming here after quite some years, and wanted to go through the house before closing it for the night. Soon as Iman opened the inner door to the house, all happened within a span of not many minutes. I think it to be the sudden sounds, the appearance of a stranger, the appearance of anyone within a week, the stranger being short and not heavily built, the starvation and maybe even hope. A lunge, and attack on the throat sent the others lunging and taking a piece as well, but only a few bites before their escape to the natural park near the neighbourhood.
A total no more than eight were suspected to be part of the feral pack, however it is more likely to have only been five or six. However, just the thought of one existing and roaming around in the earliest of daytime or late at night was enough due to the gruesome accident, or murder as some - perhaps at times I have as well - have considered it. Days, no weeks this time, passed and each day was as if living in a very different and suddenly even more unsafe world, this time again caused or indirectly furthered just by nature and less directly by people. And, as it was days, not even a week as is the norm in this narrative for this or that for a reason I have yet to fathom, the fear was at it’s peak in the local community, the society of the city. Parents who wouldn’t have thought much of their children walking to school as schools had yet to be closed around the state, would not let that cross their mind as a sensible possibility now. Life had become more tedious and worrisome. Within these days, that were five or so, most of the suspected dogs that been caught and killed by the local animal control department as they were deemed too dangerous to rehabilitate and to be considered safe enough to be around a family of human beings. The department caught around seven dogs, and a dozen were killed by the local residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods.
To think of burying both your children, only children, who died in the same location which was considered a home at a point, I would have got rid of it, too. The house was put on sale and was bought surprisingly early considering the belief in the paranormal and supernatural of the people there and then. The Khan siblings’ parents survived the both of them, with the mother dying a year and a half following the debacle; the father, more than two. The house now a something of a home to children who don’t have anyone else that can provide them a roof currently. Sons and daughters of fathers and mothers who are in another country, prison, dead or the like. Child, kid, youth: is all in that house now for now. No further dogs, or any other animals there or in the cities nearby for now. Children who, as I understand it, are thought to be most behaved and adorable, and the older ones among them potentially resourceful and respectable.