We knew right from the start that Damian was different from the many many dogs we had before him in the family. He would not nibble on shoes, belts and sofa legs like the puppies usually do but when angry or upset would tear clothes sometimes even chew on cloth pieces for hours, rip bedsheets, cushions and destroy things around. He demonstrated from the start that he was a free spirit that would be tough to tame.
He was strong, muscular and fearless, anyone that saw him even as a few months old pup knew to stay away. He would often chase away strays, strangers on the property and wouldn't hesitate to even attack anyone new seen around our house. Many started to fear visiting us, like the post man for example and a few would even avoid coming home. My dad swiftly realised that he cannot be trained by us irrespective of all the experience we had with dogs before him so he hired a professional trainer to help.
The trainer insisted on training Damian or "Dami" as we called him now a few meters away from the house where none of us could see him anymore, he was just a few months old and quite a handful but still a pup. He made good progress, was understanding commands, showing signs of being tameable and to live within the civilization and we were all thrilled.
Dami seemed to change, he started to get more quiet and no longer was his hyper full of life self running around and all happy. He became more drawn in like a scared kid refusing to go to school. He would shirk on the sight of the trainer and try to hide and make sounds almost like a cry. None of us had a good feeling and wanted to know why.
My dad had sent someone to see what was really happening, he stood a few feet away so the trainer wouldn't notice him and saw him in action. When he narrated the whole episode my dad was not just furious but uncontrollable. To give the reader's a little bit of context, my dad is one of the nicest people you could ever meet, whatever the situation and circumstances he would always keep his cool and be so ever polite. Everyone loved him and would always talk about how composed he was. Back to the trainer, my dad couldn't bear to see the man who was using a taser to train our beloved Dami, he was fired the very instance.
Back to square one, we took it upon ourselves to work with Dami and threw in the towel on trainers. When I say he was a trouble maker I didn't mean he wasn't disciplined, he was neat, hated mud, stayed away from rain and loved to stay clean and behaved well and followed commands now. Problem was when he noticed trespassers, whether it was strays, humans, pets or anyone and anything was all the same to him. It was tricky to hold him back once he has his protective mode on then stopping him was next to impossible.
Believe me when I say he hunted strays, killed snakes and even took on animals twice to even six times his size and never back down. He had no fear and knew no bounds, he was like a beast and territorial to another level. During one of his hunts, he cought a snake by his neck but it wriggled and bite him on the snout, it was a poisonous snake. Dami was rushed to the hospital, the doctor almost gave up on him, gave him the antidote and told my mom to keep cleaning his mouth daily with a solution he prescribed as it was swollen, red and foaming. For a week Dami hardly moved, ate and kept lying like still water. Everyone though it was the end of Dami but he came back with a bang up and about in a week but now he had a permanent droop on one side of the snout where the snake struck him.
Pigs were a permanent nuisance on our farm, many pig rearers would lead them to our farm and leave them there to feed. The pigs were reared for meat so obviously over fed and over sized, we had a chicken farm so lots of fodder and food accessible for animals which drew the pigs to our land.
It was a scorching hot summer day when pigs entered our farm as usual, but now we have Dami a fully grown, strong and fearless beast. As it was very hot and getting difficult to sleep we brought Dami into the house where it was so much cooler and nicer. Often Dami would stay asleep until 3pm and then would be fed and let loose in the evenings. We all were going about our usual things when suddenly we noticed the gate was left open and what many in the family forget was Dami was loose sleeping in the house. Dami could always hear and sense the animals approaching meters away so he quickly knew pigs had entered and in a fraction of a second he was out the door even before we could comprehend or react.
Watching him in action was like watching national geographic, he ran like a cheetah and pounced like a tiger, it was hard for any to even stand a chance. The pigs were huge, almost thrice his size some even bigger stood slim chance...in no time the brawl begins....
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