I was waiting for the school bus with my sister. The rains had left puddles all around. A thin dog was nosing around in the garbage. Soon an unshaved man smoking a cigarette came along. I recognised him as the drunk who lived nearby. When the dog sniffed around him, he kicked it mercilessly. The dog fled yelping.

I boarded the bus thinking about what I had just witnessed. I remembered a rainy day... there was hardly any place to walk without getting into a puddle. The street had changed into one big lake and I was going home but my bus stop looked different this day.

People with big umbrellas walked past me. As I turned into the alley that led to my home, I was soaked to the bone. I had started feeling sorry for myself. But in that alley I met another creature, which was in a much sorrier state than I was. It was a white dog that was drenched and starving. Patches of its short fur were missing.

The dog stood shivering but made an effort to bark at me. As I walked, it came after me. I got a little scared and stood still fearing it would bite me. But the dog passed me by. I was relieved but it went a few steps and looked back.

It kept doing this and if I didn’t follow its lead, it came back and followed me. I soon overcame my fear and began to admire its brown eyes and white chest, and named it Pegasus. When I reached my house, Pegasus stopped and stared at me as if to say, “Must we part now?”

I opened the gate a little wider allowing it to come in. To my joy it came in hesitantly. My dog at once started growling at it. I told my sister I had brought home a white dog.

“o it was you who brought that creature inside!” she said. “I drove that brute of a dog outside. It’s dangerous to bring in stray animals.”

I rushed to the window just in time to see an animal with dirty white fur disappear into the mist. That was the last time I saw him alive. I found him the next day dead, outside my gate. I wanted to blame my sister but I know it is dangerous to bring in stray animals.