Every year before the annual Indian Navratri festival, my friends Krithika & Sunil Bhadauriya generously open their home for their friends to gather together and practise the popular Gujarati folk dance of Garba. These practice sessions normally go on for several weeks on end. An annual ritual where we friends spend time dancing, bonding and having fun!
A special member of the Bhadauriya household is Lili, a beautiful Romanian Shepherd mix that the family had adopted some years ago. She is a rescued dog and so is particularly particular. What I mean is that in all my years of experience with animals within their homes and around their 'human' parents, each parent has a story about how their 'child' has something particular. For example, one dog wants all the chicken cooked in the house and is a fan of butter. One doesn't like small children for some odd reason. One has a ritual of jumping for the first five minutes on the house guests etc. Lili has a whole lot of habits that I learn about as and how I get to know her better. She loves lying on the floor and showing me her tummy. She loves sitting by the window and observing the passersby and all the cats roaming the street. And she loves sleeping in the family car that's parked outside the house. She also only goes happily for a walk when there are several people walking her.
One afternoon during the buildup to the festival, I was present at the Bhadauriya home with my partner Johan. He was watching all of us dance while we were all concentrating on the choreography. For some reason which we couldn't fathom at that point, Lili wouldn't stop barking. It seemed like she was signaling that something was moving or happening outside. When she wouldn't stop barking, Krithika finally let her out of the house. They live on a very calm street and so it's safe for Lili to walk unsupervised around their grounds. We forgot about her as soon as she left the room and stayed focused on our dance moves. However, soon we realised that Lili had still not stopped barking.
Finally, Krithika stepped out to investigate what had caught the dog's attention. To our utter shock we found that Krithika's neighbour Nicole, a woman aged over 80 years was lying immobile on the footpath in front of Krithika's house. She had apparently fallen down and had also sustained some injuries from the fall. We couldn't see her from inside the house. Lili, on the other hand, had sensed the lady in distress and on being let out of the house, had headed straight to Nicole. Lili then stood guard next to her and kept barking until help arrived. In the end, Nicole was attended to by some of us and her wounds were cleaned by Johan, who is trained in providing first-aid while awaiting medical assistance.
Thanks to the strong animal instinct to detect danger and through her persistent barking, brilliant Lili had saved the day.
#animallovers #intelligentdogs #petsandpaws #romanianshepherd #furryguards
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