Man's Best Friend!

             Today what I am going to write about is a topic very close to my heart and I request and seek help and views from each one of my readers to help me with this dilemma or rather the helplessness that I have been feeling after these chain of sequences. It is not about a person or a situation. Nor does this require a very philosophical thinking. Rather this is a situation that needs practical thoughts and practical solutions.

               It so happened that, as I was returning home after a long gap of twelve years staying away from home, I had developed this new found love and adoration for the puppies. I would look at the magazines and photographs of some cute glamorous dogs looking at you with their puppy eyes, and I fancied owning and raising a puppy. My mother was quite adamant to not pet an animal if you can’t take full responsibility for it. Since I was still doing my fellowship, taking full-time care of the puppy and training it was not feasible for me. Hence I gave up the idea. One fine day while I was just strolling in our colony lanes, I discovered that a bitch who lived in our society had given birth to 5 beautiful puppies. I, immediately formed a bond with them. I knew my mom would not let all five of them in the house, but I did know that she has a heart of gold and would never deny any of them any help and food. I thought of gradually introducing the puppies to my mom. It wasn't even a week before feeding the pups and playing with them was like a routine and the most stress busting activity of the day. They had also started recognizing me by my whistle. The colony had become their home, so they would sleep opposite to our house, keep playing in the nearby lanes and come when we called (rather whistled) for them. It was a place where they were safe (or that is what I thought) until one early chilly morning.

               It was quite an early morning, the air was still misty and foggy. I went to feed these babies and I saw that all five of them were cuddled up in a small one foot sized shallow trench. I recognized them by their color. I had to wake them up, to remind them to drink milk. They hesitantly opened their cute little furry lids, winced and realized that it was time for breakfast. Then they stretched their cute little paws and one by one got up, stepping on one another came out of the trench and started lapping up the warm milk to their contentment. However one of them, the black one, the one, who actually loved milk and after being fed would be the only one to climb up my lap and give me a kiss each and everyday as if saying thank you, didn't get up. At first I thought may be she is just sleepy, but then I realized that she is trying to peep out of the trench but isn't able to get up. I picked her up in my arms and placed her close to the bowl of milk and she started licking too. I then realized that her sitting posture was a little different than the others. I took her in my arms and took her to my mother to ask her what was wrong with her. She saw her and said, both her rear limbs look paralyzed. I was shocked and devastated. I didn't know what to do. I made her sit in our wash area and asked my mom and dad if they could take her to a vet. They very happily did so (I told you, they have a heart of gold). I returned from work only to find that the vet told that she probably had got hit by some vehicle and her spine was broken causing her to have paraplegia. She  would never be able to move her rear limbs at all and worst still, she had also lost control over her bowel and bladder. We tried to nurse her the most that we could. A very nice lady who lived next door, who knew a lot about raising dogs was also involved and would help a lot. We tried giving her bath with antiseptic, making her wear puppy diapers but since there was no bowel/bladder control, she used to be soiled all the time. Then she had learnt to drag herself around to feed herself and play with other puppies which made her problems worse and she started getting sores and infection. Within a matter of 8-10 days she got very very sick and was admitted but although real fighter that she was, she finally succumbed to the disability that was gifted to her by a stupid reckless and irresponsible motorist. Somehow as we always do, in 4-5 days after feeling bad and being sad, we recovered from this loss.

             A few more days after this incident, I again found another one, the brown one, hurt. I was so so angry that I could have abused the motorist if I saw him/her. Still trying to protect him and after being so scared from the paralyzed puppy ordeal, we got him to the hospital immediately. So he was taken away by these people and was apparently treated there. The coming weekend, me being very attached to them decided to visit the hospital with my mom. This hospital that I am talking about is actually a charitable organisation which treats the sick animals with veterinarian doctors and care-takers offering help. They are supposed to feed them and keep them clean and help them heal. We found him in between the animals cramped up in a very stinky, small place. Dogs of various sizes and diseases were kept in a small, cramped up, tiled creche/ kennel which had thick iron rod door. Each kennel was very dirty with dog poo all around on the floor and a bowl kept for each dog with rotting food inside it. The dogs in the whole place were wailing or barking.The moment, I spotted my puppy, I whistled to him and he recognized me instantly and limped up to me and rested his head on my lap. I kept patting his head and mumbling “Its okay my baby”. I tried to feed him but he was so depressed or shocked with the environment that he wouldn't eat. I couldn't help but notice that he had become much more weaker and sad. We inquired about his eating habits and asked them to vaccinate him and release him soon. So now back home, we were left with 3 puppies.

 Few uneventful days later on another evening,I found that yet another one had being hit by a car. I tried to stop the car driver to give him a piece of my mind but he fled away. He was treated with some injections and healed leaving behind a slight limp. So again we were left with three of them, but one injured.

                Things were pretty stable for a while but then one fine morning,  when I went to call them for food, the puppies were hiding behind the cars and trying the reach me. Before they could reach me, the bigger dog caught one of them by his neck and banged it hard on the cement ground and kept doing it repeatedly. He did it so ferociously that the poor puppy was hurt very badly and wailed and limped away. I was so scared at this sight of cruelty that I just froze there and started trembling. My dad heard this commotion and had to come and shoo the bigger dog away. That night the whole night the poor puppy went through the same cruelty innumerous number of times, and I kept hearing his painful shrieks, trying once or twice to save him but failed. In the morning when we woke up and my mom opened the front gate door and the poor injured and blood bathed puppy and the other two ran and hid inside our home seeking for some safe place. All the three of them were scared to death and would not even eat or drink. My parents agreed to let them stay in the house until they were safe from the hounds outside. I called the municipal office innumerable number of times to request them to catch the bigger dog who was bullying these kids, but all I got was ‘this is not our job’, please contact the other department, etc. Different empty excuses but no results. That’s how Indian Municipal system works.

           With each of these tragic events that happened to these puppies, I was hurt very badly and emotionally drained each and every time. I was forced to think that what is the life of a stray dog in India. They actually go through so much of struggle each and everyday and even if they somehow manage to survive all these adversities and grow into dogs, they would be shoo-ed away, or hit by a reckless driver or get caught by some dog-snatchers or killed. They would lead a life without being loved, cared or respected.

           With my personal experience I have realized that dogs are very intelligent creatures. They have a unique way of learning which is called conditioned reflexes by which they can learn almost everything that you want to teach them. As we know that a tiny spark can lead to a fire, these tragic episodes lit a fire of ideas in my mind. I envisioned a place for all stray puppies who are born on the streets and there is no one to adopt them or keep them safe (especially in the city). They can be taken to this so called ‘School for Puppies’. Here, these puppies can be fed, taken care of and according to their developmental milestones, age-wise trained. They can be free to roam about, but at the same time should be taught discipline (which they can be trained to have). They could have a in-house veterinarian doctor who would look after the sick ones with a special care until they get better. Once these dogs are adults and have learnt some special skills, they can be given to the places where they would be useful and would also be taken care of and most importantly respected and loved. They can be taught to sniff weapons and risky goods and be given away to security departments like airports, hotels etc. They could be given away to police forces for various defense purposes. They could be useful to help blind people get around and walk on as well as cross roads. They could be placed as watch-dogs at old-age homes. In this way, not only would they be taken care of but also would be able to lead a very respectable and a loved life with a purpose.

           This thought is just raw, possibly impractical, too ambitious but it surely could do much better with some polishing. And your suggestions would make it shine and will keep inspiring and encouraging me to do something actually worthwhile for these best-friends of humans.