A encounter with an unlikely Golden Retriever

 

( The picture is not of a golden retriever but a good boy nonetheless : My Oskar )  

I’ve been trying to get my health back on track for a few months now. Daily abuse of junk food, smoking and polluted Kathmandu airs have done wonders against the effort. To counter those abuses, I decided jogging would be best as a start. For a few days now, Prashant Dai and Agya Dd have been taking walks with me in the morning. Today, only Dd came, and we headed towards Pasupatinath Temple, my usual destination. I jogged most of the way towards the temple and she walked. We both walked on the way back, talking about simple things in life. At Bhimsengola bus stop, just as we crossed the road onto our street, we came across a Golden retriever peering its head patiently above the front porch walls of a newly built home.  Patiently looking upon the people that passed by without turning its head to follow along, the dog held its head on the porch walls and let people pass by its sight. Dd, being a dog enthusiast, thought that she should pet the dog and we both crossed the road heading towards the Golden boy, who was now looking at two strangers approaching it. Just as we got within petting distance, it began barking insensibly, its K9 teeth showing off the color of youth. Seeing a golden retriever of all the dogs bark like that took us aback. Every other one that I have met was friendly and didn't think much for barking except to grab attention from an owner who would jokingly taunt his pet. This one was different. No stranger hands were to caress the lovely golden hair on its body. It did not stop barking at us. My mind immediately went on to guess how the owners must have kept the dog to get such a reaction from the world's friendliest dog. I saw the gates were closed, and the dog wasn't leashed, the owners certainly weren't the abusive sort. Even barking, the dog's tail wagged back and forth as if that was how it greeted strangers, as a warning with an anticipation to see who would dare pet it.  Dd and I thought it best not to try our luck with the boy who went on barking for as long as we stood there looking at it. As we backed away and were on our way, we saw the owner come closer to the dog, she walked from across the street probably witnessing everything since its first bark at strangers and as she closed in, the bad boy now turned into the goof ball that all retrievers were at their heart. Just as we turned away, out the house, came a Japanese spitz quarter the size of the retriever, with the slow pace and ease that the spitz's are capable of. Dd and I now understood where the Golden boy might have learned its behavior from and smiled at each other as we walked back.