By Ahmet Abdulaziz……..
I think all of us have written an essay about “My Pet”, and most of us written about “My Dog”, when in primary school. I too must have written then, though I never had any pet of my own, because I never liked to have one.
But now, after more than 50 years, I am once again writing an article about “My dog”, though still I am 
not very fond of having pets. However, during my 30 years of married life, there happens to have been more than one pet in my house, since my wife and children are totally opposite to my anti-pet attitude. So during this long period of time, I have learned how to continue accepting pets in my home.
For the last 20 years, there has always been a dog as our pet, at home. Dogs of different ages, different breeds, different colours, gender and sizes came and went. Some of them were noisy and some not. Some lovable and some not. But my overall attitude towards all 
of them has always been the same. I had had to put up with them, and interestingly they all knew that. Perhaps they have also been putting up with me, and looking upon me as the odd man out.
Well coming back to the point, we have got a pitbull in our house. My eldest son had brought it some 5 years ago, when it was a few days old. He has grown up in our backyard, and has been the best friend of all the family, except me. I never had any close connection with him, not even patting or touching even. He too never tried to come close to me.
But one day I found myself all alone with this dog. My family had gone out of the country for a short period of time, and I had to take care of the dog. Taking care of him meant, taking him out of the house for a walk, twice a day. Giving him food daily was not a big issue in fact, but the duty to take him out for a stroll in the morning and evening was what I had never thought of.
But there was no way out of it. I had to do it. So I did. The early days were very upsetting for me, and of course it must have been for him too. But we both found ourselves locked in a love/hate relationship, since there was no way out for either of us. For the first few days we both tried to understand each other. We tried to work out a working relationship. On every walk out, he had been pulling me to his way, whereas I was trying to pull him towards a better place from my point of view. In a couple of days we ultimately found a mutual walking course.
Now it’s about two years later, and our mutual understanding has become a formal sort of friendship. Though still our mutual friendship is miles away from what he has got with my other family members. But now he listens to me, and of course I understand what he cannot say.
In short I can say that I do not like dogs, but I like this dog.
