Some Thoughts After Studying Canine Behavior

In an earlier blog http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2009/10/lost-puppy.html, I had mentioned my dogs. They are not exactly my dogs. They are street dogs which live in my shed and to whom my mom/I give a few slices of bread every day. The last few days have been quite eventful in their lives.

I will try to chronicle the events of these last few days as faithfully as i can (and try to do as good a job as Shirer did in “Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich”).

It started a few days back around the 15^th of August with the female dog starting to howl continuously and rather inconsolably. I went out to investigate and I found nothing that would irritate her. There were no new stray dogs, she had eaten the bread as usual.. I put down her behavior to possibly a headache or a stomach pain (you know, the way little babies howl because they have an ear pain or a stomachache).. Usually she howls when a plane flies overhead creating a huge noise. Both my dog and I hate the noise of the planes. While I am more restrained, my dog throws a tantrum each time. On the day in question and on subsequent days when she howled, there was no plane flying. I kept thinking about it but I couldn’t find the reason for this.

On the 18^th of August, I learned from a reliable source that the male dog was absconding and THAT was the reason for her display of emotion. I was shocked. Earlier when she had lost her puppies (4 of her puppies were never found and the last one died right in front of her), there was no such display of emotion. When the male dog was gone, I found her reaction totally strange and out of character.

This incident made me look at female (dogs) in a new light. On August 19^th, I found the male dog. He was hanging around with two other dogs. One was a female and I think the other was a male. This made me blush deeply. And I was upset that the male dog had absconded leaving his wife all alone. It didn’t bring out the sterling character that males are known for. I thought this DOG had let the males down by this single rather insensitive act.

On the 20^th of August, I found that my dogs had kissed and made up. They were snuggling against each other behaving like they usually did. I thought that dogs had more horse sense than we give them credit for. They had let bygones be bygones. Or so I thought.

On the 22^nd of August as I was leaving my house I saw in my shed two dogs sleeping next to each other. The female had a pleasant smile on her face. I thought all eeez well. As I was walking, I had a frown on my face. Something was nagging in my mind. Something wasn’t quite right. I went back to take another look at the dogs. The male was some other dog. Not the one which was the female’s “husband”. Aaaaaahhhh.

And then I started thinking...

Events of the last few days had left a very negative opinion about the male dog. And most of my friends with whom I discussed said that the male dog’s behaviour was not quite that would have made people stand up and clap. 
I wondered. What if the female dog had gotten sick of the male and wanted a “change”? What if she had made life kinda miserable for the male? What if the male took the hint and left home in the search for browner pastures? What if he had felt guilty or had pangs of love and came back to his “wife”? What if the wife had one more fling with the husband and kicked him out again? And settled down with a new guy? All this while earning my sympathy and those of my friends.  

Jesus...

-- Perry Mason often instructs the jury in a murder case that if an alternate theory (that absolves the accused) can be propounded which is consistent with the facts, then the defendant should be found "not guilty".