Faithful Dog

From “A Transcendental Diery”

Srila Prabhupada said there is nothing lower than a dog, yet even dogs have one good quality — faithfulness. And he told me a story about a man, a dog, and a baby.

The man had to leave his house for a few minutes, so he placed his baby on a bed and left his dog in the room to guard it. When he returned a short while later, the room was empty. He was horrified to find a trail of blood leading out into the garden. Following it, he suddenly came upon the dog running out from the bushes, its mouth covered in blood. The man was shocked. He thought that the dog must have attacked the baby, dragged it into the bushes and killed it.

He angrily rushed inside, got a gun, and returned to face the dog. As he pointed the gun at the dog, the animal sat obediently before his master, making no attempt to run away. Bang! He killed the dog.

But at the loud report of the gun, the cry of a baby rent the air. Confused, the man ran inside and found his child lying under the bed, unharmed. Now perplexed, the man retraced the trail of blood into the garden. Behind the bushes he found the body of a dead fox covered in blood. It was clear what had happened: The fox had threatened the baby, so the dog put the baby under the bed to protect it. It fought and killed the intruder and dragged it out into the garden.

The man lamented his hasty action. The dog was so faithful that, although he knew he had fulfilled his duty in a valiant way, still he did not protest when his master shot him.

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