Me and a street dog :HIs lost purpose

I was walking alone along the road pushing myself as fast as I could, staggering all through my way with my legs running as fast as my hear beat. The hooting sound of the owl and the screeching sound of a wolf with a dog at a distance squalling like a small child gave a chill though my spine. I was stuck in a limbo for a while and my soul lay under the apprehension of some invisible satanic power. The night was almost dark with no street lights and unfortunately, most part of the moon has decided to break that night.

The rustling of leaves of long oak trees with a street dog passing in the other lane with his brown eyes turning as red as blood in that gloomy and frightful night. He growled and screeched his teeth in vengeance. It was the same dog who under the scorching heat of the sun was bullied and pelted with stones by the boys and the passer-by. He beared the agony and frustration of the people on his body. He suffered hits and wounds with an empty stomach.Still,he didn't bite anyone.Today,even in the darkness of this dreadful night, I took a calculated risk.I slipped my hands in my bag and searched for my lunch box.The food was left intact and untouched due to my hectic schedule.The lunch box had some stale chapattis with stuffed rice which was not stuffed anymore,a oily sabzi with some nutritious carrot as salad and some pickle was everything, I had managed in the morning.He,the natural sniffer must have sniffed the presence of food in the vicinity.He starting barking looking at both ends of the roads as to bully away the other scavengers.

This dog was tall,long-bodied and long-legged.His lean posture made his rib visible and made clear that he was starving.The jungle adjacent to the city didn't have stored much for animals like dogs.Mostly it had scavengers who fed on smaller animals which were not easy to find since the humans started invading their homes for food and shelter.Most of the animals like dogs usually started feeding on human thrown-away.The city didn't have many street dogs.Most of them were captured and thrown back to the jungle to die of starvation.Thanks to Municipality.Dogs once in the manger policy was today looking for some policy to live.
He came waging his tail which I took as a gesture of peace and acceptance.I opened my tiffin box,grabbed a couple of chapattis mixed with some oily sabji and threw away in the other direction.The dog should have run away in the direction of food but,instead it started staring at me with a little growling sound.I was dumbstruck.In know time I realized what he want.The whole food...?

I was shaking.I emptied my tiffin.To confuse the creature I threw the remaining chapattis in different direction but I forgot the little fact that a dog is a smart animal.After a couple of minutes I was holding my empty tiffin with nothing remaining but a couple of carrots.I realized that the dog has noticed the greediness in me.But I too had not eaten since morning.I threw the carrots too.This time to tease the dog I aimed the carrot for the sewer.The dog still was unmoved.His staring made me frighted and confused.What he wants now.I realized soon.The whole tiffin...?

I didn't earn much but I was able to afford another tiffin. Dishearteningly,I get rid of my tiffin too.It beared my name which I have written so that it doesn't get mix with the others.I thought of retrieving it the next time.The dog was not going to eat the metal,I thought.In order to fool him,I threw it in the bushes. Their was a death silence for a couple of seconds.I was staring his bloodshot eyes which were communicating in some language unknown to me.It started slavering and started waging his tail as if asking for more.I indicated my finger towards the emptied tiffin lying behind the bushes.Hoping it would go running towards the chapattis but,something unfortunate happened.

The tiffin somehow hit one of the wild dog resting behind the bushes.He woke up hastingly,jumped over the the wild and started howling at me.His barking soon turned into baying which attracted a pack of dogs not far away which was also looking for food.And,here I have thrown food in all direction.Thanks to my intelligent mind.I was growing disarray and insane.In no time I was circled by scores of dogs howling,growling and baying at me and him.Yes,he choosed to stayed with me.He too was barking at them with all his might.He jumped over them and soon a wild dog fight begun.The dust soon covered the darkness of the night.I was helpless.The poor soul was going to die,I thought.But he was fighting for his food and not for me.It was choice. Meanwhile,I choosed to run as fast as I could from that mayhem.I kept running but a thought befuddled me,Why he choose to stay with me in that commotion?

A couple of days has passed.I was on leave.The next day I was accompanied with a friend.I narrated him the incident of the dog and the tiffin.He replied coldly after hearing,"Yes,dogs fight over foods.It is in their blood".My heart was not ready to accept this fact.Soon I was crossing the same path again.No barking was to be heard,a death silence enveloped the place with the dark night making the place look frightening.But what is that smell?
The smell was terrible.It was  burning all the way down.Covering my nose with  my handkerchief i decided to inspect the place.I looked towards the bushes.The same place where I threw away my tiffin.The smell grew harder like that of a dead meat.I was happy to see my tiffin but,Alas!The dog,the same poor dog for whom I threw away my tiffin lay cold beside the tiffin as if protecting it.Tears flow down my cheek.I was stunned and stood aghast over the situation.His wounds and injuries were totally shocking.His front leg was completely torn open swarming with maggots.With countless bite wounds on his head and around his ears he must have been through hell before dying.

Dishearteningly,I left the place with tears in my eyes.Though he was an animal but he had a heart and he proved once again human's best friend.Today,I still think of the situation and my mind ask the samw question again and again,"Did he fought for me or the food"?My heart says,"He choose to stay on your side"...