Shalini and Somu's tea party

Look what happened to Nicole's morning tea when she left it unattended for a few minutes.



Shalini gets to slurp first...





Somu takes over...and Nicole decides to click instead of reclaiming the partially slurped tea...





And look how beautiful Somu's grown! Don't all Indies, when looked after well? Click here
for earlier posts about Somu and Shalini and Deepa (who now lives in Switzerland with Nicole's parents).

I really really like that Somu can now dig as much as he wants without getting beaten half to death for it. Yes, in Ahmedabad, it is sometimes the sad fate of pups to get battered and even killed for doing normal puppy things, like digging in people's gardens or chewing slippers. In case you're an Amdavadi reading this, please check some earlier posts in this blog before taking offence and deciding to sue me.

I look at my neighbourhood and I wonder, what makes most (if not all) Mumbaikars so much more civilized towards dogs than Amdavadis are? I think it's awareness. NGOs and animal lovers here are very vocal and the media has been supportive. There have been sensitization programmes here since 1993 (I worked on one myself in my animal welfare days). There are certainly lots of people in Mumbai who don't like street dogs, or any dogs, but few resort to violence.

Whereas the few active NGOs in Ahmedabad seem to have completely let down the street dogs with their silence on cruelty and welfare issues and their non-existent public awareness programme. What a pity and what a shame.

Well, Somu at least has had a lucky escape. In fact he has recently discovered that he likes sofas!









Photos: Nicole Poyyayil
Ahmedabad