By Kritadhi Chakraborty

When Tisha’s dad came back home after his post dinner walk, he was a bit unusual that day.

He sat on the sofa with his eyes clothes and head resting on the cushion.

Tisha, an eight-year-old, lived with her parents on the fourteenth floor of a luxury apartment.

Every night, since they had shifted about a year ago, Tisha’s mom packs rice, curry and some extras from the day for the stray dogs.

In their society, stray dogs are not allowed to enter. Feeding stray dogs anywhere near the main gate is a big “No!” from the association as that seem to cause a lot of trouble to the residents.

Tisha’s dad carries the package to a nearby low lit street. There are at least some three to four regulars for the nightly meal.

“Today I was attacked by two bike-men you know?”. Tisha’s dad started saying after having two glasses of water. Tisha’s mom was shocked, “What?? Are you okay?”

“Yes! You won’t believe how I got saved today! I reached for my wallet and was about to give all the money I had to those men. All of a sudden those dogs started barking at the bike-men and many more dogs joined in no time. Couple of them climbed on the bike. Probably thinking that they may get into trouble due to the noise made by the dogs, the bike-men fled” Tisha’s dad took a pause.

“I can’t thank God enough for sending His messengers today to save me”. Tisha could see gratefulness and joy of being rewarded in the eyes of her dad that day.

She felt for the first time what they meant by saying, “Showing kindness to animals is an act of service to God”.