A Man and His Dog

A Man and His Dogs

            Once upon a time there was a man who owned vicious and aggressive dogs.  But, he was a strict, sometimes cruel master, and the dogs soon learned to control the aggression, and to behave.  While they chaffed under the man's cruelty, the man also cared for the dogs with love.  They're bellies were full, and they wanted for nothing.     One day, a stranger came by.  Because the dogs were under the man's control, the dogs appeared docile and tame.  They licked the stranger's hand, and offered their belly for the stranger to pet and rub.  Then the stranger noticed the strict way in which the man controlled the dogs.  He protested, but the man said he did not understand the nature of the dogs, and the stranger should mind his own business.  The stranger became more and more agitated. 

            Unable to bear it any longer, one night the stranger, released the dogs, helping them to escape.  The dogs, now free, first attacked their former master, killing him.  The stranger looked on, confidant that, though it was a tragedy, the man had gotten what he deserved, for had he only been kinder to the dogs, then they would have appreciated all he had done for them. 

            The stranger was sad, but resigned.  But as he died, the man looked at the stranger and smiled, as if he held a secret that the stranger couldn't comprehend.   This disconcerted the stranger, but he tried to put it out of his mind. 

            The stranger continued to come to the man's home and visit the dogs, with which he had developed such a fondness for.  He assumed they loved him, especially now that the stranger had helped to liberate them from the cruel master.

             Then one day, the dogs, unrestrained by their former master saw something in the stranger, something they despised.   When the stranger came closer, full of love and charity, the dogs attacked him. 

            The stranger protested, how could they do such a thing?  But the dogs didn't listen.  The stranger tried to explain how it was he that had freed them – they owed him, but this only angered the dogs more.  They soon tore him to shreds.  Before he died, the stranger remembered the man, and his smile, and cried a bitter cry.