![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/1611387837379-300x207.jpg\")
Afraid of dogs in general, Ahmer found the dog as scary as any adult hound could be.<\/p>\n
And every time she heard the bark, the \u2018fierce\u2019 face of the dog, she faced in the street daily, rolled before her eyes.<\/p>\n
One night, there was no barking.<\/p>\n
Ahmer had a peaceful sleep.<\/p>\n
When she woke up in the morning, she was wondering about the dog.<\/p>\n
\u2018Why has the dog stopped barking? Maybe the fairy Mommy always mentions took it away!\u2019\u00a0<\/em>thought Ahmer.<\/p>\n She soon left\u00a0for\u00a0school in her neat white shirt and checkered, purple skirt.\u00a0Holding her mother\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n She was looking here and there for the dog she was so used to seeing and being scared of daily.<\/p>\n But the dog was nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened to the dog, Mommy?\u201d Ahmer could not resist asking anymore.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no barking in the night and the dog is not in the street now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe the dog went somewhere,\u201d the mother replied.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you missing that dog?\u201d<\/p>\n Ahmer didn\u2019t say anything.<\/p>\n They were about to reach her school when Ahmer spotted the dog caught in the wild bushes covering a plot some distance from their home.<\/p>\n The dog looked helpless and scared.<\/p>\n It looked back at Ahmer and her mother.<\/p>\n \u201cMommy, look. There is that dog,\u201d Ahmer shouted.<\/p>\n \u201cYes. He seems to be in trouble,\u201d said the mother.<\/p>\n \u201cShall we help him?\u201d Ahmer asked.<\/p>\n \u201cYes. Let me\u00a0fetch\u00a0something to get him out.\u201d<\/p>\n Ahmer\u2019s mother caught hold of a long stick and went closer to free the dog. Ahmer stayed close to her leg as she worked to help the dog.<\/p>\n The dog was free.<\/p>\n He looked lovingly at them and rolled on its back to express its gratitude.<\/p>\n Ahmer was back to being scared. She shouted and went even closer to her mother.<\/p>\n Later in bed, Ahmer was recollecting\u00a0everything that had happened in the morning.\u00a0There was a bark,\u00a0but Ahmer was only half scared.<\/p>\n It was Sunday the next day. Ahmer was glad she could play all day.<\/p>\n \u201cLet us go to the park today,\u201d her mother told her.<\/p>\n Ahmer could not wait to leave for the park. While her mother was still inside, she\u00a0sneaked out of their gate to wait for her in the street.<\/p>\n From nowhere, a fully-grown dog appeared in the street.\u00a0He\u00a0was\u00a0coming closer to Ahmer very quickly.<\/p>\n She wanted to rush back inside, but the gate had closed and she didn\u2019t know how to open it from\u00a0the outside.<\/p>\n Ahmer froze.\u00a0Tears trickled down her chubby cheeks. She finally managed to scream at the top of her lungs, as she closed her eyes\u00a0out of fear,\u00a0and fell to her knees.<\/p>\n She heard an identical bark.<\/p>\n Ahmer\u00a0opened her eyes only to see the\u00a0dog they had helped standing closer to her and barking at the stranger,\u00a0who ran away as fast as he could.<\/p>\n Ahmer felt a sense of relief. She knew she was not alone.\u00a0She looked at the neighbourhood dog,\u00a0and, for the first time, she was not scared at all.<\/p>\n When her mother\u00a0came out, Ahmer was smiling at the dog.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The barking of a dog disturbed Ahmer\u2019s attempt to sleep, once more. \u201cI am scared, Mommy,\u201d she told her mother, as she tugged closer to her. \u201cIt is nothing, Honey. Do not be afraid,\u201d said the mother. It was a peculiar routine for Ahmer and her mother. The dog barking and Ahmer feeling scared. It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[327,328,9,205,13,154,12,11,8],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-ahmer","tag-bark","tag-children-stories","tag-dog","tag-fairytales","tag-friendship","tag-inspiring-tales","tag-kashmir","tag-kids-stories","enable-dropcap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/IMG_20211204_225624-300x254.jpg\")