“Paw-Tales” l July-Aug 2006

My pet detective
What would you imagine if you thought of a famous dog detective? Some super doggy dressed up in a trench coat and solving crimes using his doggy senses. Yoda, my 2-year-old black Labrador would love to do that but his superb sniffing power is restricted not to crime but to discovering faulty electric cables.
A few weeks ago, my bundle of curiosity and me were out on our regular morning walk, reading pee-mails and sniffing around at his own casual pace. I had been working late for the previous night and just wanted to go back to bed but Yoda had some other plans. He stopped at a street corner… sniffed the ground aggressively and let out a small bark, tried to dig, yelped and jumped away… barked again at the particular spot, looked at me, and ran away… I wondered if he had seen or smelt an insect, worm, or something else. I didn’t give it much thought till I noticed something after few days.
The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) people came to investigate the fault on our street and I found that they discovered a burnt out cable at the exact spot where Yoda had barked a few days earlier. I was shocked and wondered if Yoda had been trying to tell me something on that particular day. Was he trying to indicate that the cable was faulty?
When Yoda reacted similarly at another spot, I told TNEB people to check and to my and their surprise, we found another faulty cable.
What keeps me worried is his safety. But I know, my Sherlock Homes – Yoda will not stop. Maybe I should buy him a detective coat and magnifying glass. Anything to keep him happy.
– Harsha