If you can sense any beauty at all, you will know what I am going to talk about. There is just something about a relationship that a nine year old girl has with a big ferocious masculine dog. It is something to be studied I feel. I tried to make some sense of it from the bench I was sitting on. But about a minute into it, I gave up and just started admiring what I was seeing.

Now this is a big, super aggressive dog I am talking about. He is a cross breed between a mongrel and a german shepherd, I think. Off-white in color. People absolutely fear him. And with good reason. His barks are deep and full. His growling could easily be that of a wolf’s. The look in his eyes makes it double clear that there is no love lost there. Quite honestly, unless you are a thorough bred dog lover, this dog has nothing you could love him for. I am yet to see a person he is friendly with, leave alone playful. I also hear he has quite a few dog bite victim feathers in his hat. I, somehow, have some sort of an equation with this guy and he deals with me with a little more civility than others. Like he will only stare at me suspiciously but not growl. Or he will allow me to pet him for 10 seconds before he starts barking madly. I don’t know why he is so tender with me. Could be just because I am not as afraid of him. Whatever. And yet, I can safely say that I have never felt at ease with him. He flies off the handle and gets jumpy and growly in no time. I try and put on a façade like I have seen it all, but I am sure he can sense my fear. Anyway, I digress. That’s about the dog.

Now the girl. She is a huge brat herself. Knows she can get whatever she wants from whoever she is talking to. Throws tantrums like it’s a bodily function. I suspect she doesn’t have too many close friends at school. Has a nasty habit of never talking straight. She’ll keep saying the most inappropriate things all the time, assuming she is going to get away with it. I have heard her ask a dark person why he is so ‘dirty black’ and laugh. She is everything the word annoying has ever meant. Cute, but annoying. Now I have some equation with her too. I don’t talk as much to her anymore, because I know sooner or later she is going say something extremely inappropriate and I am not going to be able to ask her to shove it. But apart from that, she is quite fond of me and usually comes up to me and indulges me in some idle chit chat.

So there, an incorrigible young girl and a nasty big dog. But put them together and you’ll know why I don’t hate either of them as much as someone would. The dog never utters so much as a semblance of growl when he is with her. She will run towards him and jump on him and pull him by his tail. He will only be mildly amused by it. She will pull him with his snout and his ears. And he will pretend like he doesn’t have the strength to fight her. He will pretend to try to get away because he sees some stranger needing to be barked at. But she will not let him get away and will jump on his back and close his eyes with her tiny palms. She will walk around her house with his collar in her fist and the sweet guy will follow her everywhere, pretending like he is being dragged. He is her dog, in every way. Then, there will be times when the dog will come and jump on her little body, begging her to come play with him. When she is with him, she will not care about anything in the world. He clearly means more to her than her bicycle, her sister, her tennis racquet, her hairpins, everything. I have heard her mom get wild and yell at her asking her to leave the dog be and come in for dinner at 10 o clock in the night. I suspect she also talks to the dog and he listens. I have seen this. But I couldn’t tell if she was talking to him, or if she was just humming a song while she was with him.

So there is something there that I can’t put my finger on. There is a girl that I don’t particularly like. Hardly actually. I can see her grow into a brat who will think the world is her private bathroom where she can do as she pleases. And the dog too is hardly my favorite, as far as dogs go. Now, the dog doesn’t do anything that he shouldn’t do. But even so, he’s not particularly endearing, is all. Yet, I love the chemistry they have. He acts so protective of her when she is talking to someone else. I think the only reason he grants me some latitude is because he has seen me interact with his girl and has detected a somewhat non-negative vibe between us. So I made the cut, so to say. But other random people dare not go and start talking to her and playing with her while he is not on the leash. I find that sweet. She too, is a little less of a rascal with me, because she sees some similarity between us (being fond of the dog). I always thought I would love to have that sort of an equation with someone. Anyone. A person. Or a dog. Where I don’t care what the whole world thinks about me, as long as the ones that matter understand.

I feel all girls should have a dog.