Urgent: Puppies for adoption, Navi Mumbai

These beautiful pups are the survivors in a litter of six. Their brothers are dead.

Animal lover Anupam Katkar took these little boys in to save them from being mowed down by traffic. Please help getting them good homes - circulate this appeal!







From Anupam:

"These pups were born in a heap of garbage. Their mother was/is in bad shape. She has half a tail and limps. They were a litter of six - ALL boys! Four were black and white, and two were white.

Whenever I would go to feed them, the mother would let the pups eat and wouldn't eat anything herself. By now, she had become skin and bones. The pups were in danger of vehicles running them over. People see pups and yet they just don't care ...

Yesterday, in a span of 24 hours, two pups died. One is missing, presumably dead. When I went to feed them, one of the black and white pups was lying in a pool of blood - roadkill. One of the white pups was lying dead in another trash heap - also dead.

Of the three remaining pups (these three), the one on the right had gotten run over by an MUV. He couldn't raise his lower body yesterday. He's standing and limping today and seems a bit stronger. I brought him home, then fed the mother, had her say goodbye to the two healthy pups (she understood, kissed them and then left) and brought them home too - before another tragedy.

Let's call them, from left to right, T2, T1 and T3. Why T? Well why not."

Contact Anupam:
anupam.katkar@gmail.com
08976011084

Navi Mumbai

Picolo snowfest

What a relief, after poor Ghattu's story, to read about a happy loved INDog and a caring owner with a conscience. It was therapeutic for me to post this, after the sickening case of Ghattu's owners.

Here's June's Picolo in Copenhagen, knee-deep in snow. Like many other Non-Resident INDogs, he seems to love the stuff!

Read Picolo's story here.

"We have lots of snow here in Copenhagen and temperatures have plummeted to the minus digits," says June. "The temperatures are the coldest Copenhagen has had in the last 20 years! Picolo's adaptability has surprised me. From a typical skinny short-haired desi dog, he has morphed into a furry winter dog."





"He loves the snow and can't stop playing in it."





"But there are days when he refuses to get out of bed and we have sumo wrestling competitions where we try to push him out of the door for his walk and he pushes back to remain inside."

(Sounds like what Lalee does in Nagaon early in the morning - without the excuse of snow outside!)

And here's a beautiful New Year card from Picolo. Thanks June and Picolo!

Photos: June Basar
Copenhagen
Denmark

Ghattu, victim of an inferior INDog-owner

Amid all the happy INDog stories, let's not forget that the third-rate low-life kind of dog owner is still flourishing all over the country (and of course the world), and many unlucky dogs of all breeds suffer because of this rubbish class of people.

It's a sad coincidence that this incident took place in Ahmedabad, because similar things happen everywhere after all. However, Ahmedabad seems to be particularly full of tragic animal stories, many about dogs and others about the mass butchering of birds during their famous kite-flying festival. Gandhi would have been proud of this city, wouldn't he?

Here's the story of Ghattu's sad little life, reported by my friend who witnessed it.



"It's a happy thing when a street dog becomes a pet dog and gets a loving home....but too sad when a pet dog gets abandoned and is forced to live as a street dog again.

"This happened to poor Ghattu....our 'animal-loving' neighbours' dog who was living with them since she was a small puppy. They'd been planning to move to Canada for a long time, and sometimes they talked about taking Ghattu along, and sometimes they said that a relative with a farm house will take care of her. I stopped asking them what would happen to Ghattu when they leave because I had the impression that they will take care of her or at least find her a place.

"On 4 December, the woman of the family asked me in the afternoon whether I knew anyone who would take Ghattu. She said she is worrying about her because they are leaving for Canada on the 5th evening. How stupid is that??? Hardly 24 hours before departure, it came into their minds to think about their dog....I couldn't believe it! When I told her that the idea of finding her a new home had come just a bit late, a day before leaving, she just ignored it and the next day, none of them said good bye to us."



"And Ghattu was on the road now. The very next morning, the grandparents kicked her out, kept a water plate and food plate outside the gate and locked it. That was it, Ghattu was thrown out after two years of staying mainly indoors, or semi-indoors, mostly on a tiny balcony...She was not toilet trained (that's why they kept her always on that balcony) and she was also not friendly with other female dogs, except the one in the colony who was her mother.

"Ghattu tried to enter many peoples' homes the next day, through any open door, she was inside...and was loudly shoooed off.

"Surprisingly, she didn't bark or howl at all after they left and after she was thrown out. I think she quickly realized what kind of people she had stayed with all her life and that they were not worth missing or mourning. The clever girl joined our society dog pack and the alpha male seemed to like her a lot, which meant that within a short time, she would have her own puppies because she was not sterilized. When I went for a walk with my dogs, she followed us but then spent her time on the garbage dump outside the colony gate or roamed around inside the colony. I hoped no-one would call the AMC again."



"And now she has passed away already.

"I hadn't seen her for a few days and when I asked the grandparents of the family, they told me she had had foam on her mouth and died the very next day. May she rest in peace. I hope she'll meet Bandra and other departed dogs and she can forget about the short and sad life she had among careless and hopelessly selfish people who pretended to like her but actually killed her by leaving her out on her own.
"Once again a sad Amdavadi dog story, one among plenty here. Let's hope for justice in 2011 and as you said, more respect for INDogs. But here, it has to start with the very basics such as that INDogs deserve to live...respect, care, recognition are still very very far away in this part of Gujarat...I never came across any Gandhian spirit here, it's nothing but ironic to call this city Gandhi's place."
I'm sure like most Indians (and unlike me), Ghattu's former owners are very religious people, observe all known rituals and consider themselves deeply moral. Here's my New Year message for all such hypocrites. Read the Mahabharata, it begins and ends with dog stories. If you are barely literate, ask someone to tell you how this great epic ends.

The short version: King Yudhistir reaches Heaven after a long and difficult journey across the Himalayas. His brothers and wife have fallen on the way; his only companion is a dog who has followed him faithfully to the end. But the dog is denied entry. And Yudhistir refuses to enter Heaven because to abandon the creature would be profoundly sinful.

Fortunately the dog is actually the god Dharma in disguise, and this was a test of the king's character.

Would all Indians - god-fearing, scripture-reading, holier-than-thou as they mostly are - pass such a test of character?

Possibly not. They fail it every day, every time one of them betrays and abandons an innocent animal. I piously pray for the same fate for all such human waste products.

Ahmedabad

INDog in the East

This year's first "success story" is about Shanti: possibly the first INDog ever to have travelled to Japan!

Beautiful red Shanti belongs to Scott Rothstein. I have to admit, I'm a bit partial to red dogs, obviously because of Lalee!


"When I was living in Delhi (2000-4) we found this dog on the streets," writes Scott. "At that time, she was almost dead. You could see every bone in her body and she was very sick.

"We took her in and she has been with us ever since."



"After Delhi, she lived in Tokyo for four years and now lives with us in Bangkok...

"Very happy people are starting to care about these dogs !"

And I'm so happy to hear of another loved and cared-for Indi. Hoping to hear of many more this year!

Photos: Scott Rothstein
Bangkok
Thailand

Hello 2011

Here's to a wonderful year, full of hope, and success, and fun, and friends, and lots of Indi adoptions.



A New Year kiss from Kimaya, for her best friend Brownie...



Brownie gets a kiss from Kiran too



My first post of 2010 was Lalee and Kimaya's "Salad" picture, which I also used as a card this year. Now here are Lalee and Brownie grazing on our lawn...





Read about Brownie in Lady and the Tramp

This dog is everything human men should be, but usually are not. Brave, chivalrous, very intelligent, strong, loyal, sweet-tempered and very gentle. Now if only he'd stop chasing cars!!! I'd have held him up as a role model for the human race.

Happy New Year everyone.

Nagaon