INDog near Pench

Not a very good picture I know...but my recent trip to Pench (yesterday) was very rushed and I didn't have time for my usual dog-watching.

This dog lives in a village called Bandra. Yes, like our Mumbai suburb Bandra. For me the name has even more significance as one of my dogs is named Bandra.

The village is near Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra. Interesting fact: this is one of three award-winning villages that have been judged the best in Maharashtra. It has exemplary sanitation, waste disposal and rainwater harvesting systems. The inhabitants are mainly Gond tribals.

Many Gonds seem to like dogs, but then many other tribes like dogs too. In the days when they lived in their traditional manner, dogs were their hunting partners. Even now, though hunting is a thing of the past, you will often see dogs living as pets in Gond households. As watchdogs, livestock guardians and just as companions.

Incidentally, dogs that kill poultry are not tolerated by villagers. I've heard of dogs being poisoned when they show this behaviour. Not in Gond villages specifically, but in Nagaon and in Moharli (near Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve) and other places. Since village dogs grow up in the company of chickens and other domestic animals like goats, they are socialized with them, and however strong their prey drive might be, it is rarely if ever directed at these species. Which is why chickens walk quite confidently around dogs and sometimes appear in my INDog photos, as in this one.

For more pictures of dogs in tribal villages, click here, here and here. Please note that in the post "Village dogs of the Satpudas," some of the dogs are mix-breeds (mongrels) and not INDogs/Indian Pariahs.

Near Pench Tiger Reserve,
Maharashtra/Madhya Pradesh border

Honey needs a home

Honey was part of a litter of seven pups that Charu Shah had earlier put up for adoption. Thanks to Charu's efforts, five of them have got good homes. Only Millie and Honey were still on the street.

Millie has recently disappeared and is completely untraceable, though Charu has made several trips around the neighbourhood to look for her. A street dog at the best of times leads a risky life.

Please help find Honey a home to save her from a similar fate. She is around 6 months old now, a mix-breed and quite small in size. She's very sweet-natured and friendly, as you can see from the photos.

Contact Charu on shahcharu76@yahoo.com if you'd like to adopt Honey.

Photos: Charu Shah
Mumbai

Pups abandoned in a dump, Ahmedabad - please help find homes!

Another heartbreaking story of helpless and homeless pups. This appeal is from Priya Shastri, Ahmedabad:

A friend of mine found 9 cute puppies abandoned in the dump outside her house a week ago. The mother has not showed up making us believe that she is ether killed or someone left the puppies in the dumpster deliberately. Right now they live outside my friend's house and have very little food or protection from cars and other dogs.

They are adorable. Please help us find a home for them.

Priya Shastri
shastri.priya@gmail.com

Excavations

One of the first things Kimaya did after her adoption was to dig a largish hole in an obscure part of the garden. I almost fell into it while taking a walk that night.

Luckily it was shallow so no damage was done beyond my getting a bit of a jolt.

Digging is a dog's birthright...so sad they don't get to do this in our cement-and-concrete jungles.

Below: Goa INpuppies Raju and Deepa sniff out a site and start a very serious dig



Below: Satisfied with the fruit of their labours, both pups pause and pose



Below: Far away from Goa, another Deepa digs another impressive hole. In search of an old bone or a rodent perhaps? A journey to the centre of the earth?



Photos: Pups Raju and Deepa - Tina and Godfrey D'Souza, Aldona, Bardez, Goa
Deepa - Nicole Poyyayil, Doerflingen, Switzerland

Sticks

You never know when a stick might come in handy, so why not collect a few on one's travels. Here are some cute pictures of Deepa picking up twigs and sticks around her home in Doerflingen, Switzerland. Busy girl.

More photos of beautiful Deepa here.

Photos: Nicole Poyyayil
Doerflingen,
Switzerland

Vicky

This is our newest member, Vicky. He belongs to Santhosh Sastry and lives in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh.

He's a superb example of an Indian Pariah Dog/INDog. Enter "INDog" in the search box of this blog and go through the photos I've taken around the country - you'll see the resemblance.

Santhosh was cycling home from college with a friend when he first saw Vicky, then a tiny pup, playing in sand beside a busy road. He'd always wanted a dog and particularly loved Pariah dogs. So encouraged by his friend, he decided to adopt the little creature then and there.

Vicky is now two years old and living with Santhosh's family. There's only one thing missing in his happy life: his Favourite Human currently lives in Pondicherry, where he is studying. And of course, Santhosh misses Vicky terribly (we can all empathize with that). On his visits home, Vicky is ecstatic and the two are inseparable.

Santhosh tells me Vicky is very intelligent, active and playful. He isn't very enthused by ball games but loves hide-and-seek.

In his own words, "Vicky is the nicest friend for me, given by God."

Photos: Santhosh Sastry
Vijaywada,
Andhra Pradesh

Dora

Meet our new member Dora.

This smart, cute little INDog-mix is seven years old and lives in Mumbai with owners Arati and Prashant Nadkarni, and the family cat Billoo.

Prashant tells us Dora's unusual adoption story:

"Dora was being raised by our neighbor in Chennai. The neighbor was an old lady who suddenly fell sick and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, due to which she did not recognize the dog she was raising. Since Dora was so friendly and had been kept for at least four years by her, I did not want her to end up on the streets, so I adopted her and brought her home to my Mumbai residence."

Soon after bringing her to Mumbai, the Nadkarnis adopted Billoo. Dora is devoted to Billoo, as you can see from the photos. She is a very affectionate dog and plays with all the children in their colony.

Prashant adds: "She has the uncanny ability to sense that we are coming home, so she starts to bark when we reach our building. Also she recognizes our ring tones and starts barking as soon as she hears them."

If you've been following this blog for some time, you will have noticed I am rather a "cat person" and I absolutely adore dogs who get on well with cats! For more dog + cat pictures, enter "The Indi and the Cat" in the search box on top left.

Photos: Prashant Nadkarni
Mumbai

INDogs of Orissa

Some pictures from my recent trip to Orissa (20 to 23 August).

Below: Unimpressed by the exquisite ancient sculpture all around him, this dog settles down for a late morning nap. His bloodline, after all, is definitely more ancient than this temple. Rajarani Temple, Bhubaneswar, 11th century A.D.







Below: Another temple dog. This one lives next to the famous 13th century Sun Temple at Konark. I wonder how he lost his tail...



Below: Pregnant bitch, Sun Temple, Konark



Below: Goatherd with his livestock guardian dog, near Satkosia Tiger Reserve





For more Orissa INDog pictures, click here and here.

Friends old and new

More glimpses of the puppy formerly known as Hugo, and now known as Pete.

This was taken by his rescuer Lisa Warden in her house in Ahmedabad. Hugo/Pete with his friend Piccolo.



Lisa's video of him wrestling with her dog Penelope:



Click here for more puppy videos by Lisa!

Below are Sarah O'Neill's pictures of him wrestling with Canaan Dog Jorja, at his new home in Ottawa, Canada. Yes, this pup likes to wrestle.







And here's a really sweet one of Pete and Jorja. Sharing a bowl on their very first day together!



Photos, video: Lisa Warden, Ahmedabad, India
Sarah O'Neill, Ottawa, Canada

Hugo's incredible journey

Remember little Hugo Boss? The feisty pup in this adoption video I posted a couple of weeks ago?

Life has changed rapidly and dramatically for Hugo, and I haven't been able to keep up with posting the updates, thanks to my recent hectic trips here and there.

Hugo has travelled to another hemisphere, a new owner and a new life. He has a new name too: Pete.

He's even become quite a media darling! The Times of India, Ahmedabad, wrote about him thrice:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/ahmedabad/Ahmedabad-slum-dog-finds-home-in-Canada/articleshow/4917160.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/City/Ahmedabad/Ahmedabad-bids-Hugo-tearful-goodbye/articleshow/4947129.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/ahmedabad/Slum-dog-from-Ahmedabad-wins-over-Canada/articleshow/4966312.cms

And here's his story covered by the Ottawa Sun: http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa/2009/08/30/10680601.html

Hugo/Pete's new owner is a photographer, so we are going to see brilliant portraits of him quite often, I hope. Here are the first ones. The beautiful adult dog in the pictures is his new "sibling" Jorja, a Canaan Dog.

Photos: Sarah O'Neill
Ottawa
Canada

Photos by Sarah in this blog: Street dogs of Santo Domingo