"Good news: Tofik in blind in both eyes now.", someone who had also been (nearly) mauled by the beast informed me when I arrived in Obsendorf.
I didn't even know he was blind in one eye, I just thought the strange look was the evil eye.
The next day I met the small, off-white dog. He was moving slowly in the middle of the road, heading my way. When he heard me, he veered at a strange angle towards the side of the road. He didn't bark; it seemed he didn't even think of it, not to mention biting. He reached the grassy verge and stopped momentarily; it was clear he knew it was the edge of the road only by the different feel under his feet.
He stood there with visible anxiety, waiting for me to pass. His head turned in the direction of my footsteps, the pupil of one of his unseeing eyes aiming north-north west, the other one - almost at me, missing just by a few degrees.
But it did hit the target: my heart. Suddenly I felt for the beast. Now that his malice had been pacified by the weakened body, I finally saw him as a fellow being, part of the same creation, a work of the same person - a kind of brother.
And I understood that the character may be the Devil's, but the existence is always the Lord's.
PS A little earlier I talked about Tofik with my mom who can be a bit self-ritghteous at times (but has more reason than most to be self-righteous). "Strange", she said, "Tofik has never been nasty to me". A shiver went down my spine and I moved a little away from her.
