BISCUIT WALKS

At the appointed hour--seasonal in nature--Sando, my dog, bays out for his daily walk. Or what my mother calls his "newspaper reading time"  (It seems that dogs need their walk not only as a physical exercise, but as a social one too: where they sniff around to learn what fellow four-legged ones in the area were up to.)

Sando, unfortunately, unlike the late Kalu, is not a popular dog. We cannot pass by most streets and houses without being greeted by angry barks. And in some lanes, dogs would actually chase us! I think Sando was the problem (he growls at the hostile ones and turns up his nose on the friendly ones). Finding enemy-less routes was not easy-- we were experiencing a route crisis.

Until biscuits happened.

I did the old-fashioned thing of bribing our way -- literally -- for this unsocial dog. And now he was the new Mr Popular. Well, not exactly, but at least his sight was welcomed by the biscuit-bought dogs.

A particular pack of three, were his most loyal watchers. Irrespective of who (my parents or brothers) walked Sando, for these three mutts he was the highlight of the day. They enacted a small drama around him everyday: dancing in circles, sniffing him up, yelping excitedly, and of course, gobbling up the "bribe."

One day, I noticed a pair of tiny tots from a construction site nearby following this road show. I tentatively gave the kids a pack of biscuits, and the next day they reappeared. Sando had new followers.

Now the neighbourhood's most detested dog has a guaranteed fan following of three dogs and two tots.