I am Tension

Life feels eternal. I don’t have problems lazing around a, what I think is, circular building. Never been to the other side, I have better things to do. Anyway, I am, of course, Tension. I remember it being Tyson; whatever happened to that.

One thing I learned living with humans in my 10 years of existence (not mentioning my age because of the ladies) is that humans are moody. I am not okay with that. The smaller ones are generally very nice to get me bread and milk from inside that building, but the older ones aren’t very nice. Some even tease me, giving me broccoli. I wonder if they are just dumb. They should be taught to not mess around with their elders.

But those are the dark moments of my life. I am actually very happy. A couple of leaps away, with all my effort, I reach a shady corner. But it’s the nicest to me. I see many going in with pain; never understood why. I think it’s mean to humans because us dogs have a feast whenever we see a human lady coming outside with a brown tray.

By dogs, I mean me and a fellow skinny black dog who I don’t really like. He sticks around way too much. I know he is just there for the food. Argh! Why can’t the good, old days of being surrounded by ladies come back? I have completely lost my charm and only attract losers. I can’t even talk to any women!

Let me tell you about my recent affairs. I have fallen for this tiny, brown whiskered lady who looks just like my type. But the problem is she has too much attitude. She walks so elegantly, yet so narcissistically. She barks so cutely yet it’s so scary. In all my life as a ladies’ dog, never have I seen someone with so many guts to resist my charm. I think it’s because I’m getting old. Hmmm…

Or it might just be that other dog. He has been my sworn enemy since more than I can remember. He has to come join when I have my chance with my love. A small, dark man brings him straight to us. These dogs with round things around their necks just trigger me. They don’t deserve to stay with me and my ladies. We have had bark offs quite a lot of times.

I think that age is making me less scary every day. Even the skinniest dogs have the courage to come laze around next to me. If I was young and healthier, I would bark a mighty one, making them sprint for at least 5 gallops. Those were the glorious days. Now, however, I feel very irrelevant.

Let me tell you about my day. I wake up with the humans dressed in white and grey banging the round building’s door for about 10 times transporting with them a very arousing smell. I chase them around for some time in hope of some reward for my commitment. But all I get is kicks on my stomach. Sigh!

But my day is quickly lit up by the smaller humans. They give my first meal of the day as they take a lot of time scavenging food for me and finally coming out with a piece of bread or a cup of milk.

Then, I walk for quite a while until I reach another building which is isolated on its own. I see a lot of humans with very less hair on the top. But there is one human with long hair with whom I walk for quite some time and it’s mostly uphill. She is very nice to me and feeds me my second meal of the day. Another reason for me going there is because my love also lives there. Thus I take it upon myself to walk her human so I get noticed more.

After I have conducted my duty, I walk down at my own pace and it’s time to sleep. I see shade in my favorite spot; thus, I collapse over the hard concrete. The sunlight wakes me up just in time for a human lady to bring the brown tray which I am forever thankful for. I look to my side and I see my so-called “friend” and we fight over what the brown tray has to provide. That concludes my third meal of the day.

Then I find another area of shade until humans come running down and often hitting me with big, bouncy balls. They won’t stop playing; but, weirdly, I notice that humans start walking down slower as they get bigger.

I get tired of getting harassed by them; thus, I go to a place with much more humans but at least I don’t get hit. People often run away from me but many don’t realize I am vaccinated. I am not harmful at all.

Anyway, I come back to my usual mat outside the round building. The world diminishes as I start to doze off once again. Life goes on and on.

Photos by Dhrubhagat Singh