Dogs

“Really? But why don’t you let dogs inside the house?” She asked me with utter incredulity in her voice white petting the two dogs that she has had for the last 10 years. Her words were in response to my narrating the story about this very morning when I woke up because one of the two dogs licked my hand when I was fast asleep. I didn’t really know how to answer the question she asked. I mean what do I tell a German to whom a dog is part of the family. I tried nonetheless

“Well! You see. Its because dogs are……..

And I paused mid sentence and figured that telling her that dogs are considered unclean would be thoughtless and culturally insensitive so I dug deep inside my mind for another explanation

“Well! In our religion and culture dogs are kept only for reasons of security and therefore it is best if they stay outside the house” was all I could muster.

She looked puzzled and for the life of her could not understand why this was the case. And I was puzzled too because for the life of me I could understand why dogs could be allowed inside the house.