Who let the dogs out?

Tiburcio Gonsalves

My mother was just a Primeiro Grau, but unlike most lesser educated people she always mocked at by our superstitious village folks and challenged the status quo whenever she encountered situations which required simple logic instead of following absurd superstitions. Simple chores like sweeping the floor or lending money at night were some of the things that I remember her doing without a semblance of hesitation. In fact she would go a bit further than that and tell us that her mother strictly followed the superstitions and did exactly what the blind belief demanded.

It was her attitude towards these silly superstitions followed by teachings in school about the same absurdity in ancient India that helped me understand them better and reason out the truth or the lack of it behind such practice. But a crow cawing on the huge mango tree in front of our house was a different proposition as it was keeping her on her toes thinking of some uninvited guests, a letter from the postman or some good news, which made me believe that she somehow believed in the positives in some of those superstitions.

I grew up learning that June is the month that marks the onset of monsoons as much as it brings frogs out of hibernation. July brings the monsoons to its full glory and the agricultural activity in full swing. My mother would say “Agosto é mês disgosto” rather sarcastically suggesting that August is an unpleasant month. But I always wondered why August was called the month of dogs. It didn’t take me too long to know the answer though. But having seen dogs doing what they do over the years I have realised that it’s not just August but the entire monsoon they are in focus for all the wrong reasons. Mating isn’t the wrong reason that I’m talking about, defecation in the middle of the road definitely needs to be dealt with as we can’t avoid roads just as the dogs can’t help doing what they do.

Recently, a friend of mine told me about this idea of keeping ‘coloured water bottles’ around the area dirtied by dogs. Initially I rubbished his claims calling it some silly superstition. But the results are unbelievable. A few days after I kept these bottles, I didn’t see dog pooh on the road at all.

How could that be possible? I asked a dog expert who didn’t give me a very convincing answer. “It could be psychological” is what I got to hear. That could perhaps be true. Are dogs colour blind? Or is the colour range they perceive limited compared to the spectrum we see? Whatever the reason, it’s really amazing to see the simple trick working wonders on them. Now that our defunct government is unable to solve minor problems faced by us, I only wish someone came up with a trick as effective as the one that works on dogs, to keep ‘mamoos and mummies’ with clear water bottles away from open defecation!