The old lady next door had two dogs. One of them was never seen on the road perhaps he never went further than the back door. Ut her second dog was quite friendly. He liked people and liked to be out doors. So I took him for walks. We went together so often that I could say putty was my dog. Putty … yes, which is what the dog was called. He was brown like a fox and had putty over one eye. That is what gave him his name.

Putty had big and brown eyes and he was full of goodwill. Sometimes, when I was out playing on the grass with my friends, he quietly came and joined us. At such times, he got over –excited and got between our legs. It looked he was going to bite us. But we were never in danger, for he never bit anyone in anger. We believed that he could never do that. He looked so timid. Infact, I even thought that putty was afraid of everybody. He looked to be afraid even other dogs.

Image by Brian Hillegas via Flickr

The truth was putty did not like fighting. There was a white grey Alsatian belonging to another boy of the village. If this dog was out on the road and putty saw him, he would slip over to the other pavement. But he liked small dogs and when my friend jimmy got a Jumpy, putty was delighted. They killed each other and Palpa, jimmy’s dog, and putty became great friends.

In the middle of our village, there was an open square with an –ice ream shop in a corner.

One Sunday morning, we were waiting for the ice-cream shop to open. I suddenly noticed putty behaving in a funny manner. I thought he was trying to hide somewhere. I looked around. There was the big Alsatian, scratching the ground and making terrible noises.

Just then the Alsatian’s tail went up and he came trotting over to us. Palpa pulled loose from jimmy’s grip and went up at the big dog. The next moment the Alsatian attacked Palpa.

“hey, call you dog back’’, shouted jimmy. But the stood across the square and laughed.

Right then, putty ran across the square and went for the Alsatian. There was a big fight, suddenly a dog cried out in pain. I could not see which dog had cried, because now one of them was on top, now the other. But soon we saw the Alsatian running for his life, tail between his legs. Putty had bitten him badly on the nose.

I called out to the other boy across the street “my dog is going in for an ice-cream. When he comes back, he is going to fight your dog again’’. The boy turned his face away and quietly walked off. When we came out of the shop with our ice-cream cornets, the square was empty.