Spitak the Armenian Protest Dog (Summer 2016)

YARP hello from Elise! This story will be from Spitak the dog’s point of view who accompanied crowds of protesters since July 17th, when the protests started in Yerevan. “Spitak” means “white”.

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Shouts filled the air at the protest. The scent of humans filled my nose. Wherever I  looked, there were humans. The whole place was full of them! Then one of them bent down to me and said, “What are you doing here, you stray?” I just sniffed his paws (feet). “You silly!” It said and rubbed my ear. “Shoo now, go!” I obeyed. I looked around. Humans everywhere, still! This is paradise.

I ran ahead of the group of people when I bumped into yet another group. This group was holding some kind of a shield. They wore red berets and blue uniforms that said ‘POLICE’. Will someone tell me what that means? Maybe the ‘police’ knew. So I asked them. Jumping up on my hind paws, I barked and waged my tail. One of the ‘police’ just pushed me off with his shield. Such rudeness!

I ran back to the nice group of people, dressed freely, and carrying whatever they want. When I jumped up on my hind legs barking and wagging my tail at them, they would rub my ears, feed me, and talk to me. A blond haired she-human (a woman), called me over to her. “Spitak! That’s your name. When we call it, you come. Alright?” I barked and stuck my tongue out. “Good dog.” She said and gave me lavash, Armenian bread.

Some of the ‘POLICE’ people have dogs too! Most of them are friendly, although one is mean to me. The dog I’m closest with is Sevouk. We talk together, laugh together, but very rarely. Usually the ‘POLICE’ shoo me off. When that happens, I go to warming comfort of the nice people. One time I gathered up the wits to go and bark in the face of the ‘POLICE’.

My white fur was now almost grey, even though I washed it every night. But that didn’t matter to me. I had bigger problems on my mind. The ‘POLICE’ was mean to the nice group of people. They yelled things at them with big microphones, threatened them, and sometimes even threw things that erupted in mid air at them. The people didn’t like that though. They were furious! I caught a glimpse of TV stations interviewing a lady who was shouting her head off. You could practically see the the smoke coming out of her ears.

The nice humans and I, we were all one big group, which reminded me of a one angry DOG. That one DOG would fight against the ‘POLICE’, which were all one big synchronized group of chained dogs, and unkind humans, which reminded me of a  man-made human-dog robot, capturing and hurting the one big angry DOG. And they would fight together, and feel the wrath of each other, and that fight hasn’t ended yet.

I still have hope though, since the thing that happened that day, around a week ago. The same blond haired lady spotted me and called me over. “Spitak! Come here for a minute.” So I trotted over to her. “Listen Spitak, I have hope. Hope because of you. You give me hope, you are like a symbol of peace walking around on legs. You’re my mascot. My little white mascot. I had a dog like you once,” Then sirens wailed and the ‘POLICE’ shattered the memories that were being made. “Hurry now, the police are coming. Get away while you still have the chance, Spitak! I’ll remember you all my life, just shoo, get away!” Her voice faded away as the sirens became louder.

I have no idea what’s going to happen to the one big upset DOG, or me, but ‘till then, we will continue fighting this fight together, until we work out a solution. I always wonder if the blond haired lady still remembers me, but I always remember her. And I still have hope, I will continue to have hope until this fight is over.

One thing to know about me: I have a Facebook Page, whatever that is!

https://www.facebook.com/azatutyun/videos/1229077390470969/

https://www.facebook.com/spitakthearmenianprotestdog/