There were varying reactions from passersby toward Emeka as he walked his dog in the neighbourhood. The dog was a female bull-mastiff, tan coloured, bulky in stature, with a powerful, long snout through which a long tongue lolled and snarling teeth were bared. She was a very scary-looking dog, and had a fierceness to match; Emeka had appropriately named her ‘Beast’. But Beast was only a menace to strangers, and she reserved that maniacal bark and bared dentition for those faces she wasn’t familiar with. Otherwise, she was a sweetheart, to Emeka, his siblings and parents, all who lived under the same roof. She wagged her tail exuberantly and licked at their faces with her tongue and jumped about playfully like the little pup that she no longer was.

But none of these pedestrians knew that. All they saw was a monstrous animal that looked like it could snap them into two with its powerful teeth if untethered from the leash Emeka had on it. So many of them gave the man-and-dog duo a wide berth as they walked past. Some others gawked with admiration or astonishment at the dog’s impressive build. While a few others stopped Emeka to enquire about the dog’s breed and compliment its beauty; such causerie was carried out with the individual maintaining a safe distance, of course. (more…)