Animal Activities #44

A dog called Rondo. The brown coat of his had grown dull with age, and his pace was no longer quite as lively. Once he had been a faithful rice paddy guard, barking loudly whenever wild boars sought to run them off or destroy the rice fields of his master, Mr Darma.

Yet with the years the fields were abandoned. Darma had aged, his children had gone off to the city, and there were weeds and no rice paddies. The house found Rondo, and the house lost the cat, Rondo, loyal to the house, though now he was accompanied by only silence, every afternoon.

One day, a bony kitten turned up, trembling in the rain. It cowered beneath the barn - frightened and starving. Rondo was silent. Strange, but he felt sorry now—"feeling sorry!" a feeling he hadn't had for a long time. That night he made Rondo drag chicken bones for the little cat. The cat was scared at first, but hunger defeated its fear.

So they became friends from that day onwards. The little cat Mimi was named by Mr. Darma. The Rondo who had once been alone now had a new friend. They were inseparable — sleeping under the barn, or sitting on the porch watching the sunset, or running around in the yard after it rains.

The seasons turned.Rondo aged,his eyesight failing,but Mimi never left him.When Rondo drifted off to sleep one still afternoon,Mimi nodded off on his side,quiet,as if aware that the other cat would never awaken.

Mr. Darma laid Rondo to rest beneath the mango tree where they sat. From that moment, every night Mimi was there—gazing at the orange sky waiting for the sound of barking that would never come back.

Years passed, and the village transformed, but the tale of the friendship between an elderly dog and a tiny cat remained in the townspeople’s hearts. They need not teach more than one simple lesson: that love has neither shape, color, nor type. There are times when a little gathering in silence can saturate with the greatest void.

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