| CalufaTheWarDog Calufa The War Dog The Sights, Sounds and Smells of War Calufa (= Canis Lupus Familiaris) https://myindiastories.com/CalufaTheWarDog.htm In this story, the dog is treated as a
person. There was once a dog named Calufa (Canis lupus familiaris = domestic dog).
The owner thought he would be creative, so he used a portmanteau word by
combining the first two letters of the trinomial name. His four cuspids commonly called canine teeth are fierce when he
bares them to strangers. He is not the kind who barks for no reason; his bites
are telling in their depth when he sinks his teeth in the butts of the
intruders. The home-invading victims called him the dumb dog that bites. He was
no dumb dog. He served overseas as a military dog and now enjoys his retirement
in the suburb. He was trained to be nice to children and strangers, when the
owner properly introduces them to him. His service in the military is a legend. Once he ran after an enemy soldier, who
sneaked into the camp, bit his Achilles tendon, and ripped it apart. Down fell
the enemy soldier with his tendon in the mouth of Calufa. So fierce was his
bite. In the mess hall, he had special treatment. He would go around the dining
table and receive special treats from the appreciative soldiers. Some soldiers
had dog food sent to them by relatives so, they can treat the dog with goodies.
For smell and hearing, he was the top dog with no competitors. As he would
sniff a bitch in estrus a mile away, he could sniff an IED (Roadside bomb) a
mile away. No sooner than the enemy launched his rockets, Calufa would know
them by its sound bites. He knew the differences in air turbulences caused by
the different enemy projectiles, even before the soldiers would hear them. He
was that good. His keeper knew the nature of the weapon launched by the enemy
by the dog’s whining, bark, growl… His handler was so impressed that he and his
company recommended him for promotion to corporal and so on. He had a knack to
locate exactly the IEDs. He would sit beside the IED until his handler arrives.
Calufa carried a two-headed camera and a microphone on his backpack so the
handler could pick up the sights and sounds of Calufa’s peregrinations in
places man is too big or too exposed to go. He was the dog that would bark only
when necessary. He received training to rotate his tail when he picked up the
scent of narcotics, explosives, dead bodies… He knew the scent of a living
enemy to differ from that of his handler and his friends. He would swirl around
360 degrees twice, when he scented and spotted the living enemy some distance
away. The 360-degree rotation meant the enemy was in the target range. Where
his bark would give away the location to the enemy platoon, he would wag his
tail up and down and cock up his ears. The cameras would pick up the images and
forward them to the handler. There was onetime he urinated on a lighted fuse.
He was that clever and resourceful. As a war dog, he wore body armor. One time,
he dragged his handler’s backpack tied by nylon cord to his shoulders. He passed all tests in his training
sessions in the location of IEDs and the fake ones. Calufa saved many lives and
military assets were because of his uncanny canine ability. He was an acrobatic
dog. He could jump, skip, pounce, and bite on receiving commands from his
handler. He would crawl under concertina wire with ease and agility. He was a
true soldier. He was a good swimmer too. His ability to smell was remarkable. He
learned to identify noxious gases, combustible substances, narcotics… Once Calufa was gassed and dognapped by
the enemy soldiers, when he was injured in his hind foot. Taken to a military
base, the enemy soldiers tried to use Calufa against their enemies, the friends
of Calufa. The enemy soldiers called him Faluca (Calufa in reverse). He knew
the difference between Calufa and Faluca. The enemy chained, starved and
smacked Calufa with belt, a retraining program. The enemy soldiers could not
get the dog to work for them to begin with. After a few days, he pretended to
cooperate with them by identifying noxious gases, gunpowder… His mind was
always on escaping back to his handler and friends. His loyalty rested with his
old keeper. He had a muzzle on when he was not eating and had his paws covered
with leather shoes, so he would not scratch the enemy handler. He gained his
strength, and two enemy soldiers had two leashes on him pulling him from both
sides, when they went on their missions. One night when the enemy keepers were
napping, he gnawed on the leather straps, freed himself and ran as fast as he could
away from them and toward his friendly keepers. The frustrated keepers fired,
and the dog dodged the bullets and ran away. He took several days to locate his
original keepers and on the way, he ate leftover food from the cans discarded
by the soldiers. He drank water from nearby streams. On the way, he saw feral dogs, rats,
squirrels… He played with the squirrels and assiduously avoided any contact
with feral dogs. Calufa saw the cows look at him suspiciously and walk away
from him. The cows mooed out of fear, and Calufa coughed to show his
friendliness to them. The bears were a different matter. When Calufa was eating MRE (Meals Ready
to Eat) discarded on the fields, the bears ran toward him and stood up in their
eight-foot threatening poses. Calufa was resourceful enough to carry or drag
the meals to a foxhole and enjoy them without molestation from the big black
bears. The bears were speaking ‘Bearish,’ while Calufa spoke ‘Dogalish.’ They
seem to understand each other because they were polyglots. The chief bear said,
“This is our territory; you have no business to be around here. You are eating
our lunch.” Calufa in perfect Dogalish said, “There is plenty to go around.
What is your beef?” Since the bears could not break through the fox hole fortification,
they ran away to adjoining trees to steal honey from the bees. Calufa saw them
drinking beer and wine in the convenient brewery abandoned by the owners
because of war. He saw them do the bear dance in their drunken revelry. He was exhausted from all the walking;
he would nap on top of the bales of hay abandoned on the field by the farmers.
That is where he knew he would be least molested. He always had his ears cocked
for any intruders. After several days of walking and scavenging for food and
water, he reached the edge of the camp during the night. He slowly, steadily
and silently walked over to his handler in bed and sat beside his bed
throughout the night. He knew his handler by his scent. He made no sound, true
to his character. The keeper woke up, saw the dog, picked up and cuddled him.
It was heaven on earth for both dog and man. He received several medals for his
loyalty and service. Calufa, his handler and a few soldiers
went on a scouting mission. They went from one abandoned village to the next.
In one such village on their recon, Calufa ran forward ahead of the soldiers
and sat near a closed room. The soldiers and the keeper trudged with heavy
equipment on the backs and went to check on the dog. He was silent and looked
up to his keeper, who knew something was inside the room. They broke open the
room gingerly for fear of triggering explosive devices and found it was
chock-full of unexploded IEDs, automatic weapons, rocket launchers, controlled
substances and cash in foreign denominations. They took the cash for delivery
to the company commander and exploded the arsenal. If it were not for Calufa,
the soldiers would have been the target . On their way
back, they took the same safe route they used before. Everything appeared to go
well. Calufa ran and sat near a patch of freshly turned earth on the trodden
path. The soldiers dug up the IED, meant for them. Again, Calufa came to their
rescue. The war was winding down; the dog and
his keeper came back home; the town celebrated their arrival and gave them a
warm welcome. He was such a good dog. Both the keeper and the dog retired from
the military, lived well in the town, adjusted well to their civilian lives and
suffered no PTSD. The dog kept his protective loyalty so much; he bit one
intruder on his Achilles tendon and another one on his butt. Both retired with Veteran’s benefit.
Whenever there was a meeting of veterans, both were there to celebrate the
event. The city officials honored him; the ‘military brats’ were always there
to pet and play with him. Calufa enjoyed the company of children. He had his
protective gear and the medals hanging on the sides. He enjoyed the jingles,
when children were rustling his medals. Then, there was a parade of the
veterans. Invited as the Grand Marshal, the top dog Calufa was at the head of
the parade turning his head side to side and up and down acknowledging the
adoration of the crowd. If Calufa stood in elections for mayor, he would have
been elected in a landslide victory. July 17, 2016 Notes
Veeraswamy Krishnaraj |