A Dog's Journey Into Despondency

 

     I once read that animals, especially dogs, like humans, can be traumatized.

     Then, last week, Thursday afternoon, March 10, our small gate was left open, and our 11-month old beagle, as usual, took the opportunity and rushed out, and as he was crossing the street to go to the house of his BFF Chihuahua, a motorcycle barely avoided him, but a bicycle hit him. Fortuitously, the boy on the bike was able to stop before he could run over him. We (his owners and some of the neighbors) yelled at him to come home, and he came home indeed, looking very confused. He walked back to our house slowly and with his shoulders hanging down. We checked if he was hurt, and luckily he wasn’t—but he was traumatized.

     And for the next hours, he was lethargic and despondent and would barely move and eat, preferring to stay under the couch, embracing the sadness and the darkness and the hopelessness it offered. His favorite activity of looking out the window and barking at cats and other dogs also stopped. The brooding and the seeming depression continued on the next day, the bleakness and the despondency under the sofa continued to be his home and succor. I had to force him to eat, bribing him with his favorite treats and superhero movies. I remembered him barking and cheering and wagging his tail while we were rewatching Avengers: Infinity War and those moments when Thanos was winning over the Avengers.

     And the melancholy continued onto the next two days—and we started to think of taking him to a psychiatrist.

    But last Monday, suddenly, he was back to his old self—a dog who is energetic and one who loves to cuddle and kiss.

     But sometimes, I’d catch him desolately looking out the window, at the spot where he was hit by the bike, and then, I could see a shape that resembled a smile forming in his mouth, like he was happy and thankful for his second life.