By Fahima Sahabdeen –
Fahima Sahabdeen
Our Stray Dogs
I worry about our stray dogs,
not because they must live off their wits
and be chased from kades with brooms
and compete with beggars and crows for food,
but because they live on the edge of sunned roads,
stretched out if you please, for afternoon siestas
or their equivalent of hot stone therapy,
inches from roaring traffic.
They sprawl at officers’ feet at army checkpoints,
the dogs under arrest as muzzles meet,
and I worry about chance gunfire,
as in Russian roulette
but nothing happens.
They seem to be laughing at fate
with their wide grinning faces,
panting against the heat.
But our first highways
have opened as part of our post-war vision,
a five-hour journey reduced to one.
Our dogs carry on with their spas and siestas
and Vicki my stylist at Cutting Station
counted seventeen dead dogs,
each flattened like cardboard,
Perhaps it’s a good thing.
Once all our stray dogs are killed,
I need not worry any more.
Amarasiri / April 9, 2014
Dear Fahima Sahabdeen –
Our Stray Dogs? Thank ou for bringing is Para-Balla menace..
Are you talking about mammals? Or, are you taking about homo sapiens?
Some people call them, Paras, or Para-Ballo, “Foreign Dogs”
We have lots of Para-Ballos. Some are rabid. They bite.
Others are not rabid.
Anyway, our Para-Ballos have been biting each other for a long time, courtesy of another Para-Balla, called Maha-Balla, who loved in the 5th Century AD.
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Ceylon Moor / April 9, 2014
This is a broken record,, why not do something about it.. what about the so called animal lover champions who do a lot of lip services ? my children ,her Friends & I found a puppy almost starving to death in Polanaruwara ruins ,we took her home,I also vaccinated and sterilized her ,I also have provided refuge for two female cats and kittens of one .
So please do not give cheap talk, walk your talk.
“The Animal lovers ” if they are so true to their feelings, why not get a place and start up a transition home for animals ,like The Honorable late Mr.Musajee have provided down Kadawathe rd Dehiwala.
( no one talks about a deed like that, when it comes from a Muslim huh – but anything about beef & The cattle – it sure goes viral)
Anay our Sri Lankans ,good to talk ,but when it comes to their purse they are very shy people, except to spend in show off…(Sinhalese/Tamils /Muslims & Burghers all are same)
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Percy Jilmart / April 9, 2014
Next do a poem about our two legged dogs in parliament and the family of dogs in Medamulana. :)
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Nuwan / April 9, 2014
Dear Fahima Sahabdeen
There are Many Dog Charities in sri lanka.. Functioning on a shoe string Budget. And They always advertise in news papers for people to adopt.. But instead of you going to ‘Cutting Station’ to get a DAM EXPENSIVE HAIR CUT why not contribute that money toward these charities, or better yet adopt a dog.. No doubt if a person like you who visits a luxury stylist such as Cutting Station then you will rather be talking about exported Breed dogs rather than our street dogs.. So enough with the rubbish worlds and lets see action from that bleeding heart of yours.
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Sharmini Serasinghe / April 9, 2014
Nuwan,
Fahima has such a dog, she found in a drain. It’s name is Lucky.
Now that you know, please revisit the baseless insults you have thrown at her, and listen to your conscience, if you have one!
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ken Robert / April 10, 2014
“revisit the baseless insults you have thrown at her, and listen to your conscience, if you have one!”
Nuwan’s response is comparable to what a dog will do if one shows the dog a stone! (Fright, flight and flight)
Once we realise that our mentality is worse than a stray dog there will be universal peace.
Our rabid leaders are hell bent to keep the masses in a hell hole for their survival. Dog eats dog!
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Pakeer / April 10, 2014
Huh, enough problems in the country to think about and this woman is worried about the plight of stray dogs!I think the real catch here is that she wants the world to know that she has her hair styled at Cutting Station. And by the way, she also has a personal stylist called Vicky. And when Vicky is not busy styling her hair, she goes counting dead dogs on the highway. Shucks! Me thinks, both women have nothing better to do in life.
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Spring Koha / April 11, 2014
It’s all well and good fretting over the stray dogs on our highways and bye ways; will someone please do something about the fornicating dogs on Mt Lavinia beach, day after day. The morning constitutionals of us early risers are constantly spiced up by doggy-style exertions that only end in inevitable post-coital misery.
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paul / April 13, 2014
Stray or no stray, when did your ilk show sympathy towards these wonderful creatures- most of whom are more loyal to their masters than humans can ever be…
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Sinchuappu / April 13, 2014
Even if Rabies in dogs can easily be controllable through proper and regular vaccinations, human rabidity of current nature that the society faces today – is far from even being touched. That is the reason why it is seen, no proper mechanisms are set to control over the rapidly increasing crimes. 4legged poor stray dogs seem to be much less harm than 2legged dogs promoted by two legged doggy Rajapakse adminstration.
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Dawn Dale / April 13, 2014
beautifully written – our stray dogs seems to be so happy sleeping in all kinds of dangerous places, you have to smile when you see them stretched out in the sun close to a road uncaring of traffic but miraculously surviving…..
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