Soker

He is winter-born and my oldest memory of him dates back to the day when I picked him up and got him home. I was studying in Sri Ventateswara College (Venky), DU. Someone by the name of Kavita walked up to me and my friends with a pup in her hand. She said that all the siblings of the pup had died and this one was the only survivor. She wanted someone to take him home. When I took him in my arms it was no "OH MY GOD" experience but honestly I had no idea what I was going to do. I asked my brother, who used to study in the same college. We both decided that we should take him home as his paws where bruised badly. As for Mom, "Manaa lenge" ("We'll persuade her").

He sat in my car really scared. My brother called my mom and said "Mom, didi has a surprise."

To which Mom replied, "What has she done now... has she gone bald?"

I still remember standing with him on the door step not knowing what was going through my mother's head. She looked at the pup and gently called out to him. And then I asked her "Can we keep him?"

To my surprise she immediately said "YES!!!!!!!"

That was that. Like they say, life changed at that moment.

My Mom used to call me: "Soker climbed his first stair," he did this and he did that.

Now he is a pampered little thing... has to sleep with us and can't stay a moment without us. He is the baby of the house. At four years, he is mentally still a little pup. He jumps for joy each time someone calls out to him. Many of my brother's friends and my friends who didn't have a liking for dogs or were scared of dogs, went through a sea change after spending time with him. They all enter our house now and the first thing they do if they don't see Soker around is call out to him!

Soker is a fussy eater, and I have somehow come to believe that the kid thinks love and air are enough to survive.

Thats the story....

Oh yes, and all my efforts for the pariah breed are because of him. He is the one who taught me all my compassion towards this breed. He is the reason why I started paying sooo much attention to the lovely dogs around... And that's why this adoption craze of mine... So all I'm doing is because he inspires me to do it. He helps me see the beauty and life in them.

Malleka Gupta
Delhi

Malleka works very hard for the cause of pariah dog adoption. She has recently found good homes for Xena's six siblings. Do help her by spreading the word about Xena and the tiny pups. Her blog:
http://indianbreed.blogspot.com/

Bini completes my life

Bini used to live on the street below my house, Regal Cinema at Colaba. Her full name is Binodini; she was named after the heroine of the film Chokher Bali, which was showing at Regal at the time. (If you've seen the film, you'll understand why - Bini has the same melting eyes). She was energetic, lavish in her diplay of affection and completely besotted with my pet dog Ronnie. One day I found her sitting very quietly, only to discover that she had blobs of pus where her nails should have been. Even after a month of medication and dressing there was scant improvement, so on the doctor's advice I brought her home. It took her six weeks to recover and her address permanently changed from Regal Cinema ground floor to Regal Cinema second floor.

Binodini has been with me three years now, and I've seen so many avatars of her. Bini the shredder - she was equally fond of decimating bed sheets and new dogs in the area. Bini the affection dispenser - I just step into the house and she's all over me. Bini the scavenger - no matter what I feed her, the contents of the dustbin are always more alluring. Bini the coward - she can't handle our ginger cat Champak. Bini the race horse - she runs through my passage in a flash.

Its funny, when I had my earlier pet Sonia, also from the street below my house, I thought she was the most beautiful dog in the world. She was jet black, sleek with erect ears, she was quiet and undemanding, just the way a dog should be. Bini's all white except for a patch of brown on her. She has beautiful expressive eyes; she is vivacious, maddeningly affectionate; aggressive with strangers and sometimes friends - just the way a dog is meant to be.

Daisy Sidhwa

Meet Myra

Dogs have always been a passionate dinner topic for me with family and friends. When I met my husband I knew he was the man on hearing his love for our four-legged friends. The first five years of our courtship we craved a pet but considering our lifestyle at that point (he a sailor and I a hotelier from another state settling into the Mumbai way of life), it was impossible to do justice to a pet. We waited.

We married and sailed the seven seas for a few years. On one of our jaunts we a saw a stray dog at a port in the Middle East who came running to us like he was there just to receive us. We both looked and knew on our return home what we had to do. We missed having a pet. So we started discussing how we were going to go about the selection. Friends of ours had adopted a couple of kittens from the SPCA. The decision was made to visit the SPCA and look for our pet. But even before we could schedule a visit came a pup from a garden close to our home (in a then upcoming colony). She was a bundle of love caked in red mud .She licked me and approved of us as her adoptive parents.
The kids in our neighbourhood were crazy about the pup. They wanted her down all the time when they were playing in the garden. We used to get calls throughout the day to visit her or bring her downstairs to play.

Myra is a mix-breed, white and black with brown and black patches on both eyes, which are just like her personality – colourful. She is our proudest possession. She is spoilt and has managed to train us to wait on her. We’ve had her for 3 years and more. She tries to emulate her human counterparts, loves girls, is scared of boys who bully but the gentle ones are her darlings. She is the self-appointed watchdog for kids in the garden. Any stranger approaching the kids is unacceptable. Her rule is that no adult is allowed to chase and play with the kids, only kids can play with each other.

She loves to lick babies in the stroller. We always try to focus and prevent this, but somehow she manages to distract us and steal a quick lick! No amount of “no Myra” will do it. Most of the people in our society are Myra converts. Earlier they would find it strange that we brought in a “stray”, but Myra had a plan and today she has conquered many hearts. She is the most unruly, wild child who has brought everyone around to accept her.

Kids come up with their friends and explain their Myraisms. “When Myra barks look around there will be a C-A-T.” “ If you ever see a cat don’t say the hindi word (billi)! She will bark even at that.” Most of the time the kids put their parents fears at rest. And explain at length why they shouldn’t be afraid of her. I am always pleased by their sensibilities.

Lata Bajaj