20220409 : the prayer

Yesterday, we briefly lost our dog!

That must sound very funny - we normally use a dog to find things we have lost! 🙂

Anyway, we stay in an apartment - well above ground. 

She is very much a home dog - since it is an apartment and nowhere to go.

She is quite cuddly with known folks but very loud and fiesty with strangers.

When she gets to go for a walk, it is strictly on a leash.

I imagine her wondering where everyone goes everyday for hours. Her world starts at ends around the apartment complex with her walking rounds. She may be concluding we humans are totally mad to go out often for the same rounds for hours.

It is understandable she is curious, wondering if there is more to the world.

Naturally, whenever we open the front door, she rushes out, sniffs frantically around the lift lobby and runs back inside into the safety of her kingdom.

Yesterday late afternoon (probably around 3pm), we had a few folks over and in the commotion had left the front door open.

I don't exactly know when we realised, I don't think it would have been 5-10 minutes later), we realised she was not around.

Her curiosity must have gotten the better of her than usual. She must have taken a long stroll. If the stairwell door is open, she can go anywhere. There are bridges every few floors connecting adjacent block, she can make her way there as well.

Then the frantic search started.

Everyone at home and the visitors were running up/ down looking everywhere.

The atmosphere was very tense, my younger daughter started wailing.

One thing my elder daughter confirmed during the search was whether any dog had gone out of the main gate. The security guard had confirmed "no".

That was a big deal of a relief - she was having a party somewhere, but within the apartment complex.

Anyway, I think it was close to an hour before we found her - after her curious long stroll, in the floor above us.

Amidst all this commotion, sometime inbetween, I said a silent prayer.

I caught myself doing it.

It wasn't directed to any specific God or diety. It was a very generic one.

Something in the lines of "I pray she comes back alright".

When I caught myself praying, I asked myself - who am I praying to?

Despite all the upbringing and festivals and temple visiting, my rational mind now does not believe in that kind of a God. So who was I praying to? I have no clue.

What was I praying for?

 Even if there is a God/ a super power responsible for the cosmos, surely I don't subscribe to the belief that super power will interfere with day to day events of every human or animal. Surely no-one was going to whisper into my dog's ear and lead her back home.

So why did I pray?

I guess how much ever our adult rational mind grows, the instincts and habits formed in childhood rule us at critical times.

It's very handy to know that...