Cukri looked like a Jack-Russel terrier, but he was smaller with pointed big ears, spotted skin and fur. I adopted him when I was 17, and he was the cutest puppy I had ever met. While taking him for a walk later, children` s reaction was: `Look mum, a rat! `Next time: `Mum, a raccoon! Then: `What`s this? A cat?`

So, he had lived on the street before, until hit by a car, then he was taken to the Dog shelter where I had been working as a volunteer for a year, cleaning kennels, feeding dogs, taking them for a walk. Unfortunately my parents did not let me have any, even if that was my dream. The instruction was clear: `Dogs are not allowed in flats` -they said. I thought that was nonsense as a lot of people keep them in flats and they usually live longer there. So, being a willful teenager who just wanted to care about somebody, I took him home.

The first week was the hardest. I had to lock my door, my parents were knocking and shouting outside, my grandma refused to visit us, and I was just sitting in the middle of my room on the floor with Cukri, who was barking at them from my lap. We were shaking but fighting at the same time, and this was the first time I realised that our dogs respond to what we feel. I was scared and so was he. But I knew I just had to wait as time would solve everything, and I was right. My brother became my first ally.

After I put a big nylon on the top of my wall-to-wall carpet, Cukri learned in a week to signal when he had to go out, and when I was not at home I asked my brother to take him for a walk. He was not happy about it at all first, and asked why I didn`t bring a dog which actually moved. (Walking at the beginning was just about putting him on the grass, where he did not do anything as he was too scared.) But the girls they met said: `Ah, how cute, what`s his name? How lovely he is.`

So, arguments started soon about who takes Cukri out.  As everybody wanted to, my brother needed his own dog, my parents bought him one, and my grandma started to cook for both doggies.

(The Hungarian translation of the story is available on www.onbizalomfejlesztes.hu .)

To be continued….