Faith, fur, and compassion

 

Every once in a while, something happens in the world that makes me feel good again. And what happened two days ago really put a smile on my face and made my day. In fact, it made my whole week.

I am an animal lover, and keeping pets is something that has given me joy since I was a little kid. At the moment, I have several reptiles and a dog. A couple of days ago, I noticed that my dog Gambi was walking with his head a little lopsided.

Upon inspection, I found that his left ear was swollen like a balloon and he would whine when I touched it. It didn’t look too serious, and he was active and eating like normal, so I assumed it was, at worst, an insect bite or sting.

I gave it a few days to see if the swelling would go down. But after two days, my kids noticed that he had a wound at the base of his ear, which could mean an infection.

So I called up a few veterinary clinics and found one nearby that would take walk-ins. I pulled up the leash, and we took a five-minute walk to the clinic. When we entered the lobby, I was greeted by two tudung (headscarf)-clad women.

The first one came right up and started petting Gambi (above), talking to him like a baby. The second one called me to the counter to register and asked me what was wrong. We then took a seat to wait for our turn.

Within five minutes, we were called into the treatment room. The doctor was yet another tudung-clad woman who hugged him around the neck and asked me what was wrong. And so I told her about the swollen ear and wound.

The doctor started her examination. Gambi whined every time his ear was touched, and the doctor petted him gently on the head to soothe him. She said the blood vessels in his ear were probably ruptured, and that blood and fluid were filling the earlobe.

It was most probably caused by hard scratching. The wound was too fresh to have caused an infection. The doctor said that this is pretty common and the solution is to drain the swelling and then inject a steroid, followed by several days of antibiotics.

No barriers to providing best care

The tudung woman who had hugged Gambi in the lobby came into the room and knelt to hold his whole body close to hers to assist the vet in administering Gambi's treatment. She spoke very calmly to my dog as the doctor pierced the lobe with a syringe.

The doctor said "Bismillahirahmanirahim" (In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful) and started the draining. There was a lot of fluid, filling a whole stainless steel bowl. Both the doctor and the nurse continued to talk to Gambi lovingly to keep him calm, which worked.

The doctor then hand-fed Gambi two antibiotic pills hidden in dog food. She told me to do the same for the next three days. I joked that Gambi is a halal dog, and she finished my sentence by saying “because he doesn’t eat pork, right?”

That would have been a perfect meet-cute for a romantic comedy movie! Just replace me, an extremely happily married man, with an available bachelor. We laughed, and after paying the bill and collecting the medication, Gambi and I walked home.

In a time when we see animals, especially dogs, being mistreated and abused, and when celebrity ustaz make public statements on social media spewing hate on man's best friend, this veterinary clinic run by a group of Muslim doctors and nurses renewed my faith.

We need more human beings like them who live their lives with love and care. God has always said that we need to love all his creations. Who are we, if not also among His creations, to say otherwise? - Mkini

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ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.