My olfactory senses are heightened, thanks to Mr. D. The visits to the nearby pet hospital, for picking up his food, toys or sometimes taking him for a check-up (which was few and far between), has had me more sensitive to the smell of the pee, dogs do to mark their territory.

In a recent walk in the neighbourhood where he would be taken for a walk, I could see myself sniffing (yet another trait heightened, thanks to Mr. D) when I smelt the pee of dogs near different trees. This brought a smile on my face and memories of a couple of incidents of Mr. D, when he would be walked. In both incidents, I wasn’t there but heard a blow by blow commentry of it.

He was possible a little over a year and still a puppy (by chronological age standards). He was taken for a walk by my older boy when the leash broke and that’s it. Mr. D just took off. It was like freedom unlimited :-).. When Mr. D runs, it is like the gallop of a horse. Ain’t easy to catch him and it needs a lot of running behind him until he is tired out. After quite some chase and help of a couple of people, Mr. D was caught. With no leash available to walk him back, Mr.D was carried back home. Almost a 10 to 15 kg of a tired out and panting double hound, carried for about half a kilometer – wouldn’t have been easy to carry him and walk it.. Oh well, hearing about his running sent some chills down the spine. It was indeed fortunate that it was in the later part of the evening and therefore not much traffic.

A year or two later, yet again on a walk, another leash of his broke and this time it was my husband who was walking him. His running behind Mr. D would not have been as fast as my son’s. However, Mr. D’s speed of running was the same – gallopping like a horse and the more he was called, the more he would run. With no leash to rein him in, it was freedom galore. Freedom is certainly power!!  With freedom comes responsibility certainly – his responsibility to his being free 🙂

No amount of calling his name got him back. Instead, when he was called, he would stop to look and take to a run again :-). It was one of those quiet lanes with barely a traffic and he would sniff near a tree, mark his territory and run again.  Unfortunately during both times of his leash breaking, his treats which he would find hard to resist  wasn’t taken during the walks; and nothing else would be so tempting to get him to come back to the person walking him. The only thing worth reconsidering his freedom would be a treat :-).

Finally came a couple (total strangers to Mr. D and my husband) in a two wheeler, who had a liking for dogs. They stopped by and engaged with Mr. D. This made it easy for my husband to quickly get a hold of Mr.D. I don’t recall how he tied the leash back on Mr. D to get him back home. He did though and with a huge sigh of relief, he walked Mr. D back home. Hearing of this incident sent some fears within us but it wasn’t as intense as the first time – our own confidence of ourselves and him, played a big role, I guess.

In both instances, strangers with a liking for dogs were a blessing in disguise. As for Mr. D, being off the leash was something that he loved. Gave him space to explore different places, mark his territory and more importantly the freedom to do what he wanted to do. At home though, he has never been on leash and was free to roam around everywhere, except the kitchen.

These are times when I have felt and wondered if we are doing justice to Mr. D. He is meant to be free and in the open, exploring and finding his spaces. What are we doing by keeping him on leash and making him be the way we would like him to be? It didn’t seem fair on him yet I have felt that if he was left in the open, he may be a prey to many; especially given his nature – gullible and vulnerably sensitive. These are the times when I have felt that he and us found a lovely home in each other.

These two incidents with Mr. D have made me draw parallels to us human beings as well, especially the part of being leashed.

Leash for us is being bounded, by someone else who is holding our freedom. While some of us are comfortable with being bounded because it is easier for us, some of us aren’t comfortable. If we are comfortable being bounded by the leash, we may not run when the leash breaks; we will continue to walk alongside the person who holds the leash.

When we feel we are not comfortable being bounded,  we think that we don’t have the freedom to do what we want to do.. we feel that someone is breathing down our neck.. we want to break free from being bounded and that is the point when rebellion starts. However, the rebellion starts internally before it is demonstrated externally.

When we break the bounds is when we feel a high sense of freedom, making us want to run far and wide, helter and skelter – not wanting to be bound by anyone anymore. Perhaps that is why someone coined the phrase – with freedom comes responsibility – being responsible on how to, where to, when to, why to use this freedom; and what to do when we have this freedom.

Needless to say, sometimes we are the ones holding the leash on ourselves. We bind ourselves and we want to break free from ourselves. As was a dialogue in a movie, “I am ‘in’ my way.” A line that says it all!!

Mr. D – if not for him, this blog wouldn’t have been penned. Always grateful to this kirukku..