Dog Days

When it comes to animal, my principles are pretty straightforward. We are all creatures of the one God and we all have our own purposes in life, thus I believe no harm would come if we don't trespass each others boundaries. If a suspicious stranger is in my house, I'll stab him first then question, heh. So I think it is understandable for a grizzly to eat lost people in the woods or for a shark to bite should we come too close.

And as humans, God gave us the privilege as khalifah that entitle us to govern and do good and justice to all living creatures, among other more tedious entitles. We have responsibilities on them because that's one of the reasons of our creation.

Principally, I have no problem with coming near a dog. There are dogs everywhere on the street in Cairo and I walk normally if I see them in my path, but I don't make an effort to pet them like I would a cat. They are strays, their teeth might graze me and I'd rather spare myself the painful rabies shots.

That being said, I also don't make much effort to walk far away from the dogs I encounter. I just make sure they're not within lick distance to me out of the possibility of having to wash myself properly as per decreed, and I doubt I'd find a clean soil here in Cairo.

Come to think of it, I walk farther away from horses and likes than I do dogs because I learned the hard way that a horse's snot has the worst malodorous stench ever.

There are dogs I'm curious of. Kimi the three-legged collie who I helmed as the resident dog of our faculty, I wanted to pet her but again I had doubts about finding clean soil here so I didn't. I simply kept eyes on her.

But I think, if one day she comes near me enough, I'll probably give her a pet on her head and say "Good girl". Let's pray she doesn't lick me then (again, clean soil. I should buy one of those clay soap.)

---

We stay away from things we don't understand and fear and this fear may lead us to our fight or flight mode. Irrational fear leads to hatred that saw the inhumane treatments to the dogs on the street.

So first! There's the understanding of the whole shariah thingy behind interacting with dogs. If you get that, there shouldn't be any problem. Find out what Islamic scholars are saying about the issue of interacting with dogs. As a follower of Imam Syafei, I respect and stick with his views and I don't twist around to follow other imams' view because I don't fully understand the fundamental of their arguments to play around with.

Once you understand shariah and the nature of dogs, you shouldn't be scared of dogs and will treat them accordingly.

---

There's John the normal-legged collie my kid sis keeps in the backyard of our Klang home. Mom has been vocally against it, but I defended John when I saw him for the first time two weeks ago.

I argued that as a lost dog who resides in our gated backyard and can jump out anytime he wants but still choose to hang around, it means he had gave up searching for his owner and had taken a liking to us. It was too late to throw him out now, he will definitely come back. Now it is up to us to be kind to him and make sure he has food, clean water and a shelter from the pelting rain.

Mom was still not happy, but John stayed. And kid sis build him a shelter after I pointed that out so we're all good. That idiot anyhow went and kept some of John's food in the fridge and that made mom angry, but kid sis was on her own on that. Who in their right mind keep human food with animal's food? You don't even mix cooked and raw food in the same setting.

Not very bright that kid sis, I guess I am at fault for being born before her and taking all the smart points, bwahaha. Am I concerned she reads this and storms at me? Nope.

I have concern however whether the whole taking-John-in was shariah-compliant, and I am more concerned of the whole clean soil thing, because I have doubt about my kid sis's stand when it comes to anything shariah. But she told me with a doubtable tone that she wears a glove when dealing with him.

I took her words for it.