Dog suntan centre

Above: Serial sunbathers Penelope and Button. Last seen in this blog lolling about on a balcony in Vung Tau, Vietnam.

The globe-trotting Indy twins now live in Jakarta, another nice sunny place as you can see from the photo above.

In the centre is Shakespeare (Shakers) Patel, a recent convert to suntanning.

All three were rescued by Lisa from the streets of Ahmedabad; Penelope and Button as pups and Shakers as an adult a couple of years ago.

Earlier posts about Lisa's Indies: Gujarati desert dogs play in the South China Sea, Indies in watercolour.
Photo: Lisa Warden
Jakarta
Indonesia

Brocoly

Pretty Brocoly lives with Tursha Sarkar and her family in Kolkata. She is three years old and the adored baby of the house.

Tursha's account of 'the best pet in this world':

My father is a civil engineer and a dog lover too. In fact I am from an animal lover family.

Three years ago my father was constructing a building here in Kolkata. One day he told me that on the ground floor of that building a dog had given birth two beautiful pups, one of them was Brocoly of course and the other one her brother.

After I heard that I started to visit the place almost every day. They were so small and gentle to touch.

Suddenly one day my father told me that they had had an accident the previous night, thanks to a drunk and irresponsible biker. Brocoly's brother died immediately because the biker had ridden the bike on to his stomach.

The next day I found Brocoly with a serious injury in her left paw.When I reached her she was lying almost unconscious on the floor. I picked her up and brought her home.

We spent a sleepless night. She was then just 20 days old. The next morning my father and I gave her a bath with antiseptic and baby shampoo, and in the evening we visited the doctor for a check-up and treatment. From that night she used to sleep beside me with lots of protection (pillows surrounding her, warm blanket).

Though my father and I both love pets, my mother wasn't as fond of them at first until the following incident.

I went to my aunt's house for a two day visit. On returning from there I found everyone very disturbed and Brocoly just lying on my mother's lap with eyes closed. The previous night she had vomited six times and been unable to eat anything. The doctor said that she had got a severe viral infection and had only a 50 per cent chance of surviving.

It was the worst day in my life, I didn't eat or even drink for three days.

After three days she started to recover very fast. And for five days she had saline drips twice a day. From that time onwards she has been the closest to my mother among all of us!

Story and photos: Tursha Sarkar
Kolkata

Kiba and Kimaya, the last two months

Kiba is now five months old, and almost Kimaya's weight and height.

The last two months have been eventful and not always in a nice way, at least at first. That's because of a habit he developed of eating inedible things - bits of paper, plastic, stuffing material from his toys, mud and little stones from the potted plants.

Of course we would stop him and take them away on most occasions, but he still managed to steal bits of such things when no one was looking. Eating rubbish led to an allergic rash on his head, which has still not gone away, though it's much better.

But the real crisis was on 15 January. It was a sunday and the day of the Mumbai Marathon. I was out on a day-long birding trip, and Kiran had a stream of visitors. Kibby managed to steal and chew a plastic bottle cap, and though Kiran took it away from him he feels a tiny part of it had been eaten.

That evening Kibby got stomach bloat, a lot of pain and breathing difficulty. The junk he'd eaten had obviously caused a blockage in his intestines somewhere. We pulled him out of it with an enema, but the next evening he got the same symptoms and suffered terribly for many hours. Finally he got some relief with a charcoal tablet and something to make him sleep.

A vet visit followed, and an alarming stomach x-ray. His intestines were absolutely filled with bits of junk, but luckily there didn't seem to be anything sharp. The vet said to give him Duphalac (a laxative) and mashed bananas for two days, and to bring him back for another x-ray after that. If the junk hadn't cleared out they might have to operate!

To cut a long story short we threw out all our waste-paper baskets, locked away all the soft toys, cleared our bedside tables and dressing table of anything he might want to steal, gave away the potted plants, got him a crate and started crate-training him to keep him out of trouble. I also bought him a real bone to chew. The pet store down our street has started keeping cleaned and dried bones. That really solved the problem. Gnawing the bone kept him occupied for hours. Wish I'd thought of this simple solution earlier!

A week later and two x-rays later his insides were declared clean by the vets. The rash on his head was quite bad for some time, but it's mostly subsided now and he doesn't get itchy attacks any more.



Above, below: Portraits of Kimpy and Kibby taken by our talented nephew Sanket S. Mhapsekar. They were clicked on 15 January. A few hours before the frightening intestinal blockage incident.





Above: 31 January, a chilly morning in Nagaon. This is the awful coat I mentioned in the earlier post. There was nothing nicer in his size unfortunately!



Above: One of the more pleasant events of last month was my family's visit. Kimaya adores my mother so that was three weeks of fun for her. And both dogs loved the biscuit handouts during morning and afternoon tea. Here they are on the lawn in Nagaon.



Above: 25 February, yesterday. Kibby is a volunteer pup in a dog trainer course being run by Canines Can Care. Here he is with one of the students.

The reason I volunteered him was really to socialize him to other dogs and make him comfortable around them. Kimaya is very scared of pet dogs (any breed, including INDogs and mix-breeds) and if he gets influenced by her, life will be very difficult for everybody, specially him.

In fact I believe if Kibby becomes confident around other dogs, Kimpy will eventually get over her fears too.

Mumbai, Nagaon
Photos: Sanket S. Mhapsekar, Kiran Khalap, Rajashree Khalap

Kimaya in winter tee

Not a very elegant garment, this bulky tee, but it was really chilly in Nagaon on our last trip and the dogs needed clothes at night and early morning. Kimaya looks almost fat in this, but she manages to run gracefully as always.

The long-leggitty puppy at the end of the video is young Kiba, who grows taller every second. Like bamboo, Kiran says.

Readers in Canada and Siberia and other freezing places are probably laughing their heads off at our idea of 'chilly'! Well, Mumbai dropped to 9 degrees C a couple of weeks back, and Nagaon must have been lower, and that's miserably cold for me!

Coming up soon: a photo of Kiba in an awful winter coat.

Nagaon

Gorgeous Indian dogs looking for homes - Delhi/NCR

Posting an appeal from Delhi animal lover Madhu Goyal:

Those of us who have adopted Indian dogs know what wonderful companions they make. They are highly intelligent, extremely loyal and their love for their humans is boundless. They are also funny, playful and so very entertaining. Really, everyone should adopt at least one of these delightful beings! Not only will your home and family experience years and years of happiness but you will also give these dogs a much-deserved chance at happiness and security.

Here are some beautiful ones to choose from. Call Ajaydeep at 9810268665 if you'd like to take one home.



Above: Elegant Choti, a brown furry girl



Above: Shy Lilly in the red coat, 3 months old girl



Above: Pretty Jiya, 6 month old brown girl



Above: Intelligent Chuchu, 3 month old chocolate and white boy



Above: Silky-haired Blackie, 3-month old girl



Above: Bubbly Brownie, 3 month old boy

Contact: Ajaydeep on 9810268665

Samson the Valentine

The model for these beautiful Valentine's Day pictures is Samson, once a street dog in Pune!

Owners Kristin and Lee are travelling and Samson has been staying with friends of theirs. This was his Valentine's Day greeting to his mum and dad and friends.

The photo is by Joy Baleisis, and the heart was made by Cynthia Kroening.

I wonder what all his former acquaintances from Pune would say if they could see this? I mean all the people who saw his miserable plight and ignored him. I'm sure most wouldn't believe he could have got all his hair and strength back, let alone grow into such a beauty!

Photo: Joy Baleisis
Minneapolis
USA

Samson and Achilles: an epic tale

I realize I've only posted one story in this blog this year. People probably think I've abandoned it! Sorry about that. I've hardly had any online time lately, thanks to a number of new duties including Kiba's care and education. More on that in another post.

So here we are back again with two beautiful Indy-mix dogs!

One of them featured in this blog a year ago: Samson the Hero. And here's a video, Samson in winter.

The second hero, gorgeous red-gold Achilles, appeared at the end of last year, again in Pune. And like Samson his fortunes changed when he met Lee and Kristin.

"Samson and Achilles were found (or each found us) within three meters of each other, two years separate in time," writes Lee.

Achilles made the journey to Minneapolis in December '11 and quickly settled down with his new 'siblings', Samson and the family cats.

Some pictures and videos to tell his story:



Above: Pune - just after rescue and a bath





Above: In Minneapolis. Look at that wagging tail!





Above, below: After a couple of days, the two become friends...





Above: With Samson on the day bed



Above: Achilles looking sweet and innocent in sleep. Apparently this appearance is highly deceptive (so often is with dogs...)

Looking forward to more updates about these two!

Photos and videos: Lee Sverkerson
Minneapolis
USA