Lapses of lingy…

Typically, there are three kinds of dog lovers, self-proclaimed ie…

One, pedigree magnets with their eye on a fashionable canine such as a basset hound, beagle or a great dane. eventually, they may abandon once it when it contracts a deadly disease due to neglect or perhaps old age.

two, street dog saviours who vaccinate, bathe and offer other solutions for a fee.

three and finally, genuine dog lovers like this elderly gentleman in the picture. without fail every morning, he arrives on his moped and he feeds these three street dogs paneer and milk. no wonder, they are such tadga (tough) fellas’!

No 1 reminds me of my time at animal shelter Friendicoes a while back. We were busy walking the doggies here – they come in all shapes and sizes and breeds. like the little pedigree being tickled by volunteer Divya. it was abandoned by its owners sometime back. her sadness breaks your heart into a million pieces.

then this little one whose jaw was broken through an accident that morning. a kindly person brought him in. though the flesh was weak, the spirit was not broken. soon he was trying to stand stall and scamper around much to everyone’s chagrin.

this little monkey’s mom fell from a tree and died. he now lives in a cage with a doodoo bottle and a swing. if you stoop close enough, you will hear him whining silently.

many of the volunteers were shocked to see the sadness in the eyes of the animals at the shelter…that is because

many are abandoned pets. in fact, such a dastardly act took place right before our very eyes.

several people bring their pets to see the vet and amidst that crowd someone stole in, tied their Pomeranian to a chair (in the most convoluted manner) and stole out. the little pom was a cheerful fellow but very soon the cheer turned to anxiety, then panic and eventually, that awful feeling oscillating between hope and betrayal. it tried to run away and six of us sat around it for a long, long time. finally, the shelter took in the animal, who was howling in despair. what must it be like to be abandoned from a loving home?thrown on to the roads to fend oneself or into a cage with a bunch of other howling animals? shudders.

friendicoes receives mails everyday from families who can no longer care for pets asking them to find homes for them. some just leave their animals tied outside the shelter, make like a tree and leave.

The silver lining on our doggie’s day our event at the shelter was that I met some pretty like-minded people who wish to do something for animals, but don’t know where to begin. well, there are several ways, which don’t involve actually adopting a pet, because that’s a fulltime occupation and needs full commitment.

Lending a helping hand during adoption drives is one way. A couple of hours at the Puppy Love Stall by NGO People For Animals, stationed in the compound of MGF mall, Saket, will leave you both amused and bewildered. A couple of weeks back, there were three pups – two aged 2 and a half years of age, one fella aged 4 months, and six wee kitties, waiting to be placed in loving homes. Sadly that was not to be. People came, cooed, tickled, stroked, enquired and but none took any of the little ones.

I suppose getting a pet home in a city is a big, big deal, akin to having a child. Yet, these few hours gave me a good insight into how people relate to animals. One little boy wanted to play with one of the pups – but he was getting rather impatient that the pup was doing nothing. So in a misplaced attempt to make the pup do something, he would grab its tail or slap a bottle against its belly.

Another was grabbing a kitty, as he would a toy. Very soon I knew why. His mom was prone to grabbing too, not understanding that these were flesh and bones!

I requested her to handle with care and showed the little boy how to stroke a puppy on its tummy, gently. The puppy responded well and the little boy was elated. Overall the handling of the animals was rough and I gathered that they had never held a pet nor a baby!

So, bottomline: everyone wanted some interaction, and perhaps did not mean to be rough. yet, I realised that there was a sea of people out there who are not animal-savvy at all, and needed to be gently nudged into the world of kitties and canines.

I showed the kiddos how to gently strokes these little ones and mentioned that grabbing will only result in one of the two – a bite or a scratch. I found that they were willing to listen.The puppy love stall is open every wednesday, saturday and sunday between 5 and 8 pm, and they do need volunteers.

The other way to help is to choose a dog or two in your neighbourhood and feed them everyday. Vaccination and neutering is also a good idea. it does not cost much, perhaps the price of a few drinks on a sat night, which one can jolly well sacrifice. hungry dogs can be aggressive, but if they are fed it’s one way to make the neighbourhood safer.

Fostering a pet for a few weeks is also possible. This usually happens in the interim when a puppy’s immunity needs to be built up for a few weeks before it can enter a shelter/ be adopted or else an abandoned pet, like our little Fluffy in this pic who is our house guest for a few weeks can be placed in a forever home. he was abandoned by his old owners and rescued from a ditch by an animal activist called Minu. he was in a bad, bad state but is recovering very nicely. he is potty-trained, which is a Godsent and very sweet in his disposition. we shall be sad when he goes, but then this isn’t about us, it’s about him.

Now, this vet who claimed to make house calls for the love of strays, obviously did not feel the same.

I asked him to vaccinate Daffy, and he did not as much as pet him. Daffy growled suspiciously and the doc seemed more intent of giving him his pokes and taking off.

One vaccination later, Daffy was yelping like a puppy because the doc poked him where it really hurt – on the very bone which was damaged when he was a kid. the doc did not seem particularly bothered but kept repeating his stance of loving stray animals, somewhat like a broken record. After one injection he was packed off.

One more observation – many individuals in the pet/ dog/ kitty circle of life don’t understand the value of a gentle approach as opposed a rough/ aggressive one. this includes vets, volunteers, helpers and even animal activists, who often do any of those chores themselves. My advice: be gentle.

Now, let me sign out with this wonderful video which captures the rescue by animal activists, of beagles that have never seen the light of day. Known as the Beagle Freedom Project by an organisation called Animal Rescue Media Education (ARME), the main aim is to rescue and rehabilitate two-year old beagles that have been kept in cages in labs for testing cosmetics and medicines. they are known by the tattoos in their ears and not by names…until the rescue of course…interestingly, one little beagle is named Freedom…
warning…it’s one heck of a heartwarming video and tends to leave softies (like moi) all teary-eyed…