Don’t know how he
Understands time
As the evening clock
Strikes half past five
He wakes up with a start
Stretches his front paws
Way ahead of his snout
Suddenly energised
He bounds towards me
To place his paws
On my thigh
And begins a long un-ignorable whine

That leaves
Whatever I am busy with
Null and void
Leash attached, door locked
We embark on our evening walk

Nose glued to the ground
Initially it’s just a crawl
A short sniff here a long sniff there
Lamp posts, tree trunks,
Leaves and grass
Everything tells him
About the immediate past

A car may honk
Boisterous youngsters may shout
Startled he’ll look around
And as if nothing happened, carry on

Every day he encounters a cat
Perched on a bike
Whichever it likes
He leaps up to attack
Leash holds him back
Cat raises its tail and arches its back
And that concludes their
Magnificent bout

Nowadays, he just gives a passing glance
And the cat pretends to sleep
With half-open eyes

Gradually his sniffing stops
Our pace quickens
And when it’s time to go home
We both begin to pant
Though I don’t hang my tongue out
That long

As we both sit down to rest
The smartwatch rings a congratulatory chime
For completing steps in record time

Though I know deep inside
It’s my canine partner
At the other end of the leash
Who pushes me out to exercise
Watch is only smart enough
To ring a chime

©️ ShashikantDudhgaonkar