I'd like to tell you a story that once again proves that dogs aren't just loyal and devoted friends, but also very intelligent and resourceful animals that can truly surprise you. My grandmother had long wanted a dog. It would be a guard dog, so to speak, and a loyal friend always nearby. She didn't care whether it was a purebred or not, as long as it had a kind soul. But so far, it's never gone beyond talk.
One day, Granny was returning home from the store. She turned around and saw a funny little dog trotting busily behind her. Shaggy, disheveled, and dirty. Big ears, crooked legs, and a curly tail. Granny took pity on the stray, fed her, and moved on.
Imagine her surprise when she saw the "big ears," having gobbled up the treat, racing after her with all their crooked paws. They caught up and calmly fell in behind her. And so they walked home together. Our grandmother thought: since the dog had chosen her, appearing so unexpectedly, maybe she should take her faithful companion with her. She thought about it and did so.
An ordinary mongrel, no royal breed. But imagine our surprise when we decided to give her a bath. The dog happily plopped down in the trough. And her face reflected unearthly bliss.
The stray turned out to be quite a nice person. They named her Dinka. They equipped her with a whole house so she could live comfortably and cozily. While they were setting up her new home, Dinka watched everything attentively, as if she owned the place. Apparently, she was pleased. Clean, well-fed, and content, she climbed into her kennel and immediately fell asleep.
But the next day, some strange sounds coming from the dog house caught Grandma's attention. Dinka was chomping, snorting, scratching, and gnawing. Grandma didn't pay much attention to it; who knows what kind of domestic dog activity there might be. Well, scratching and scratching.
Grandma has plenty of other chores to do—the garden, the house, the farm, the children, the grandchildren. And now she even has a dog. It takes a lot of time to get everything done.
But a few days later, she discovered that Dinka had chewed a whole hole in the floor of the kennel. Not right in the center, but in a small corner. She was surprised, of course, but didn't pay it much attention. She reasoned, as a matter of fact, that the dog knew best why she was doing it.
Things got even more interesting. Dinka started scratching in her little house at night. The silence of the night was regularly broken by scratching, loud fussing, and busy snorting. Of course, such sounds sometimes interfered with sleep and were even irritating, but Grandma was calm. She didn't care much.
From the very first day, she was certain that Dina was incredibly intelligent, and therefore trusted her completely. "If she's so passionate about her work, it means she knows what she's doing," her owner would say.
But we were incredibly interested, curiosity was running high, we wanted to know what Dinka had been doing there for so long.
A few more days passed, and everything became clear to us. It turned out that Dina had been cleaning her kennel every night. She'd been clearing out all the trash, dirt, sand, and hair that had accumulated throughout the day. The sounds of this thorough cleaning were what we heard at night.
But the most important and interesting thing about this story is that the housewife put all the trash she scraped out into the hole she dug. In other words, she didn't want her house to be dirty. It immediately became clear that she had a clean nature.
To say we were surprised is an understatement. And the proud granny, stroking the shaggy, neat little thing, said she always knew that if she raked it in, it meant she needed it.
It seemed the dog had planned everything out in advance and had already begun to act. Not every housewife keeps her house as clean as Dina does in her kennel. She always keeps it neat and tidy.
After this incident, we realized how smart and resourceful animals can be. Even some people can benefit from the skills our four-legged friends possess. For example, Dina's diligence and cleanliness.
In general, everyone lived in harmony, and the grandmother was completely glad that her dog was not only a smart dog, a loud guard and a devoted friend, but also such a practical nature.
