I miss Madras. I miss waking up to the crows cawing. I found them extremely annoying when I lived there but now I miss them. The only animals (not that I love animals) I come in contact with are obese cat and huge, mutated squirrel. I’m glad that I don’t have to deal with cockroaches and lizards in this country. But I did have a little somethin’ somethin’ with the bed bugs. On a cold night. With no comforter. Not a very pleasant experience.

I may not come in contact with too many animals on a day to day basis but I do find myself running away from the most perfectly behaved dogs. The dogs here are creepy. They are so well trained that they do not bark. At all. I find this unnatural. In Madras where I lived there was a dog on my street that would bark at and chase every moving vehicle that went across. Ok, that might have been the rabies barking, but still, I’m used to stray dogs growling at me. That gave me the reason to cross the street to the other side. Here I don’t have a reason to run away from the dogs and that irks me to no end.

I live in an apartment that is dog friendly and I jump a mile when there is a dog in my vicinity  This somehow insults the dog owners and they tell me “It’s okay, he’s friendly.”.  I get that lady, but I’m not friendly.

There are some dogs that sens my dislike even behind closed doors. I have a neighbor who brightens up my mornings by playing the piano. She/He also has a dog in her/his house. This dog has the sixth sense because every time I walk outside his door he CAN SENSE ME WALKING AND HE BARKS EVERY TIME. And I run every time, but you know that already. Maybe I might lose some weight that way. Just keep a doggy at the end of the treadmill and watch me fly!