Street dogs of Santo Domingo, revisited

A year ago Canadian photographer Sarah O'Neill visited the Dominican Republic and clicked some beautiful pictures of free-roaming dogs. Some of them were posted here.

This year she made the same trip to Santo Domingo, and having some free time took many more pictures. Some of them are of dogs that are seen daily in the Colonial Zone area.

Take a close look at the four pictures of the black dog below. Picture 1 was taken last year. On this trip Sarah stumbled upon the same dog again. Her captions best explain the pictures.





"Picture 2 is her in the almost exact same position but one block east from where she was a year to the day."



"Picture 3 is a composite of her...as you can see she gets up because someone started a high pitch whistle further down the street that got her attention."



"Picture 4 is her playing with another female, notice collar, who looks like she has also given birth recently. Poor thing is probably a breeding machine. I'm thinking she is a roaming pet dog. She doesn't appear to have mange like some of the others and looks relatively healthy.

I was almost positive it was her...when I got back to the hotel, I opened my laptop and checked my blog from a year ago to confirm it was her. Same lump beside her right shoulder."

I agree with Sarah about the collared dog, she is probably a pet allowed to roam free. This kind of pet ownership (so like our Indian villages) is perhaps common in South America? I noticed the same thing in Peru, pets wandering around as they please. In some parts of India (for instance the Sundarbans) I've noticed the same marked difference in coat condition between pet and ownerless village dogs.























More posts on South American dogs here, here and here.

Photos: Sarah O'Neill
Santo Domingo

Ghana's aboriginal dog: the Avuvi

Emmanuelle Occansey's lovely photos of the aboriginal dogs of Ghana! Click here.

Apart from her own two gorgeous dogs, she's clicked Avuvis around Accra and elsewhere. Among my top favourites are of course the ones with her cat!

Check this earlier post on Avuvis.

Thanks Emmanuelle!

Phoebe: The Hippie, the Streetie, the Unendurably Mild(!) Just the same, a miracle to her mums

It wasn't a choice for me whether to adopt Phoebe or not, or so it felt.

She landed in my apartment thanks to my sometimes-generous roommate who rescued my little darling from pouring rain - and, well, left her in the balcony. It was like 10 p.m. when I got home and it was empty except for this tiny, wet, dirty and shivering ball of fur in the balcony. The rain was beating in to the balcony and she had nowhere to hide. The moment I took her into my arms, I just knew she was mine whether I liked it or not.



Above: Day 1 - Clean and warm under my petticoats

Of course I wasn't going to let my roommate have her after the way she had treated the poor pup and (ironically) mercifully, it wasn't her plan to keep Phoebe either. A one-time playmate was the designated role for the street pup. But me? Me, a mother? Me, who lives in the dream of entrepreneurship while living on scrapes of freelance jobs? Me, 21, with no career prospects, lifestyle of a nomad and purely nocturnal existence?

I was a horrible mother. Horrible beyond imagination. I was never up before 12 and was hanging out (working rarely) all evenings, so there was no question of walks. I had to lock her up in my hot room because the roommate and sparingly educated family weren't too happy with the dog. Though to give them some credit, they raised the issue of genealogy only once or twice (Thode paise logaoge tho market mein woh safed balon walla kutta milte hai, pata hai? - "If you spend a little money you can buy a furry white dog from the market.") And the worst part was I used to forget feeding her and then wake up in horror at 2 in the night and do it.

But Phoebe never demanded, never complained, never disobeyed, in fact she never uttered a sound nor offered token resistance. It was like she was sitting there silently with her warm eyes, knowing it all and waiting for me to grow up!



Above: It was I who did the littering and she the prompting for me to clean up!



Above: She chewed on me and not my computer wires (did she know they were important to me?) till I unglued my head from the monitor and mixed her some Cerelac.

She made me want to come back home on time, wake up early and run around with her on the terrace, taught me what responsibility is and made me think about other beings (animal and human) than myself for the first time in my life.



Above: Penance for this one time I yelled at a boy who was helping Phoebe out when she was stuck in the gate - thinking he was trying to kidnap her!

She made me move on from past failures and moved with me and my best friend/partner (who also adopted her) to Hyderabad in hopes of better opportunities.



Above: 12 hours in the train and not a peep from her. It it weren't for my mild-mannered sweetling, we wouldn't have made the journey 'coz we couldn't even afford to bribe the TC!

She made me want to be a better person and this is no cliche because it is the unerring faith my dog showed in me that is responsible for this change. No human is capable of the same.



Early days in Hyderabad. Above: Me and Phoebe
Below: Me, Phoebe and Satya





Above: Loving her new digs, meeting family and friends (well, grannies and aunts!)



Above: A tad overweight at present, having been pampered too much (I should stop atoning for my past sins!)

Story and photos: Sneha Koilada
Hyderabad

Connect with Phoebe and Sneha on Facebook: Phoebe's page, Sneha's profile.

Pup for adoption, Pune

Sameer Prabhakar has rescued a really cute pup and wants to find a good home for him. I'm copying the appeal from his blog:

I was hanging out near my friend's shop yesterday night around 8 p.m. when I heard the next-door shopkeeper trying to shoo away a tiny puppy using his big leather slipper. I went and picked up the poor guy and scolded this shopkeeper. The pup was so terrified that he had peed.

Well I did not know what to do so I took him to my earlier maid's house, she has agreed to take care of him for a few days while I find somebody to adopt this poor baby. Unfortunately I can't keep him because I am working 6 days a week and already have a dog.

The pup seems to have been picked up by somebody and then abandoned, he has a little rag-tag collar around his neck. He seems to be around 15 days old and in good shape. It is black in colour with some brown patches on its paws. I am sure he will make a lovely pet.

Please pass the word around...let's help this guy find a nice loving family to live with.

Contact: +919623556161 / findsameer@gmail.com

Sameer Prabhakar,
Pune

Maoists order tribals to kill their own dogs

Click on the image to enlarge and read this horrible story. I was never a Maoist sympathizer though I do understand why the movement started - but it has reached a level of brutality that simply can't be justified on any grounds. These people are Red Scum as far as I'm concerned, and those who support them from the safety of their big city living rooms are no better. The tribals who don't follow their violent creed are very much to be pitied, and even more so are the innocent animals that are butchered by them. Last year during the Maoist invasion of Similipal Tiger Reserve, these "heroes" beat up unarmed guards and tourists and then pumped ten bullets into an elephant belonging to the Forest Department. In West Bengal they've occupied a forest corridor used by elephants since time immemorial; the elephants are being chased off with firecrackers, and in desperation and hunger have started ravaging villages and fields in the area. Only humans have "forest rights" nowadays, wild animals don't. Last year some news reports also exposed the fact that Maoists are using the wildlife and timber trade to raise funds for their movement.

The move against dogs is hardly surprising, coming from these butchers. While I strongly oppose the tribal hunts which still go on (illegally) in the more backward parts of the country, I am always touched by the affection and respect for dogs that I've seen in tribal villages around India. In areas where hunting has long stopped, dogs are still kept as companions, livestock guardians and watchdogs. Ordering these people to kill their own dogs is inhuman and sick on every level!