Golden Fleece

Believe it or not, these pictures are all of the same dog: my own Bandra.

In August 2005 Bandra was admitted to the WSD kennel after his left foreleg was cut off in a train accident. At the time he had short fur, though much thicker and scruffier than a typical smooth pariah dog coat. He developed cancerous growths in the neck some months later, but I adopted him all the same (in March 2006). He was still a short-hair.

From May to November 2006 he was very seriously ill, and in fact lost all his fur with scratching. But in December, as he recovered, his coat started growing and growing and growing … until it looked like this.















My husband calls Bandra “Golden Fleece.” I’m not too thrilled by the fact that he obviously has more “western pure-breed” blood than I had supposed, but I won't deny that he’s very very pretty. Many people don’t believe he’s the same dog – the only resemblance to his former self is that he is three-legged and still has a rather puppyish goofy expression.

I’m told that under stress dogs don’t grow their full coat. Bandra must have been poorly suited to life on the street, though he managed to survive a few years there. Now he’s leading the life of a pampered pet, I think his Golden Fleece is here to stay.

Rajashree Khalap