{"id":122945,"date":"2014-04-09T00:02:25","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T18:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=122945"},"modified":"2014-04-15T23:01:12","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T17:31:12","slug":"our-stray-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/our-stray-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Stray Dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\">Fahima Sahabdeen<\/a> &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_122946\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Fahima.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-122946\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-122946\" alt=\"Fahima Sahabdeen\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Fahima-150x150.jpeg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Fahima-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Fahima-50x50.jpeg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-122946\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fahima Sahabdeen<\/p><\/div>\n<h1><strong>Our Stray Dogs<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>I worry about our stray dogs,<\/p>\n<p>not because they must live off their wits<\/p>\n<p>and be chased from kades with brooms<\/p>\n<p>and compete with beggars and crows for food,<\/p>\n<p>but because they live on the edge of sunned roads,<\/p>\n<p>stretched out if you please, for afternoon siestas<\/p>\n<p>or their equivalent of hot stone therapy,<\/p>\n<p>inches from roaring traffic.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>They sprawl at officers\u2019 feet at army checkpoints,<\/p>\n<p>the dogs under arrest as muzzles meet,<\/p>\n<p>and I worry about chance gunfire,<\/p>\n<p>as in Russian roulette<\/p>\n<p>but nothing happens.<\/p>\n<p>They seem to be laughing at fate<\/p>\n<p>with their wide grinning faces,<\/p>\n<p>panting against the heat.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But our first highways<\/p>\n<p>have opened as part of our post-war vision,<\/p>\n<p>a five-hour journey reduced to one.<\/p>\n<p>Our dogs carry on with their spas and siestas<\/p>\n<p>and Vicki my stylist at Cutting Station<\/p>\n<p>counted seventeen dead dogs,<\/p>\n<p>each flattened like cardboard,<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Once all our stray dogs are killed,<\/p>\n<p>I need not worry any more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":122946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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