Tommy....

I never liked any pets and have never wanted to have any pets for almost 33 years. There were two street dogs, that somebody left on our road a week ago. One was a light brown dog (Tommy) and the other is a dark brown (Johnny).

By the way, nobody in our house liked any pets and my daughter was frightened by the sight of dogs. These two dogs started coming to "Aashraya" and my Dad and Ananya started feeding them with milk and rice. The two used to sign in early in the morning at sharp 6:00 AM. All this went on for a week. In between I had been to Shivamogga for my wife's PhD convocation. The first thing that I asked my dad when I called him was, "How are the puppies?"

Today, after a hectic day full of calls, I returned home by 5:30 PM. The moment I got down from the Car, Tommy and Johnny came to me and started playing with me. I played with them for about 15 minutes and came in. I saw one of my neighbors take Tommy and give him some food.

It was about 6:30 and I went to the road to check out something in my Car and I saw Tommy sleeping on the road. I had never seen him sleep on the road. When I tried to wake him up, he had slipped in to permanent sleep :'(. I still cannot believe that Tommy is no more. The pup with whom I had played with about an hour ago had been killed by a speeding car.

Tommy, we will miss you. The sight of Johnny crying over the body of Tommy is something that I can never forget in my life.

I do not wish to curse the driver of the car, but I have decided that I will be a safer driver on the road.