Champu and Jebo

Champ

To provide some context, I live in Pune but my family also owns a house in Goa which we often visit. On one such trip, my parents decided to let me adopt a dog. Something I'd wanted all my life. It just took about 26 years of persistent nagging.

So that fateful weekend in Goa my parents and I trooped into a Rotary shelter, determined to bring home a canine companion. A visit to a dog shelter is always overwhelming – this one particularly was a cramped space with over 50-60 dogs and a few cats. Amazingly the cats seemed to have a more generous space with soft bedding; none of the dogs had that luxury. Feeling extra-generous towards my mum, I let her do the choosing. Anyway I would have been completely useless in this pursuit; there wasn’t one dog I saw that I did not want to take home.

The first dog that my mum went gaga over – was this tiny, fluffy bundle of white. Barely about two months old, she was hurt, whining and pacing around the cage. The volunteers told us that she was abandoned at one of the busiest intersections of Panjim – obviously, whoever left her there, wanted her to be run over. And she was. However, the man whose bike she got under was kind enough to immediately rush her over to a vet and was then advised to take her to the shelter. She had been here for just over a week, and was undergoing treatment. It was quite a pitiful sight and you really just wanted to scoop her up and never put her down again. But the volunteers were reluctant; they advised that since she was still undergoing treatment, we should look at other 'healthier' dogs.

We continued down the line and asked to see several other puppies – details of which I would rather not get into. We finally got to the dog that we would take home. At first look, there was nothing remarkable about these two lanky puppies in this one cage. If you ask my mum why she chose the one puppy over the other, she wouldn’t be able to give you an answer. Unlike some other pups, who were flinging themselves onto the cage doors in a desperate attempt to get out, this young pup was backed up against the cage, reluctant to get out. When we picked him up it was clear that he was petrified and would much rather be in the cage. But mum decided - this was the one we were taking home.

So with a new brown pup in my arms, we got back home. I immediately named him Champu, short for Champak Lal. To say he was afraid is an understatement. The minute we would put him down he would run away to the nearest corner and cower. Fear spilled from his big brown eyes. After his first bath he even tried to jump off the balcony – it was such sheer torture!

The first corner Champ found at home

While I got busy with Champ and his vet visits (he was malnourished, had a skin infection, refused to eat for the first few days), mum could not stop obsessing over the tiny, hurt, white bundle we had left behind. She couldn’t get her out of her mind. So the next day, she went back to the shelter and took the puppy to the vet to ensure she was getting proper treatment. The feisty little bundle even bit the doc when he dropped her by mistake. My mum was enamoured some more!

Taking her to the vet - broke our hearts to leave her behind

The puppy was dropped back to the shelter, evidently with my mum’s heart. She obviously wanted to adopt her too, but we were not prepared to take two dogs home – not immediately at least. Amidst this chaos, one of the doctors showed concern that Champu could be suffering from parvo virus. This put the house into turmoil. Other vets also showed concern that parvo was a possibility (none of the shelter dogs were vaccinated). So the shelter suggested that I should leave Champu back in the shelter and consider adopting another dog. I wouldn’t have it. Champu was now my dog, and just because he might be sick, I wasn’t about to leave him there to die. Worse still, there seemed to be no test available to confirm that he was sick. Looking back now, maybe that was a good thing; the doubt made my parents let me keep him.

Champu loved to sit on my shoulder and just hide

So there were many ideas being floated around – do we adopt both dogs, do we not adopt Champ or choose the other dog (who was doing much better than before). I kept updating a friend back in Pune on the conversation. My distress was obvious. Then he suggested that he could adopt one dog – hallelujah! With much difficulty mum agreed that Anoop would adopt Jebo, short for Jalebi, and we would keep Champu. Jebo was got home, both dogs were vaccinated, and then we were on the road back to Pune.

Jebo - getting ready for the road trip

Champ sleeping in the car on the way to Pune

However, this was not the happy beginning that we all hoped for. When we got Jebo home, she was, for lack of a better word, listless. She would not respond to any sounds or sights. She would just plop down and not move. If anyone petted her, she would get up and plop down at a distance. She did not like being held – she just wanted to be left alone. She even ignored Champu who was very eager to play with her. She was living with Anoop by then. A string of vets told us that she could be blind 

and/or deaf, or could have irreparable neural damage. Once again however, no one could confirm this.

Jebo at the Goa house. Despite all Champ's attempts, Jebo
refused to play. She actually looked sad.

So it was a wait-and-watch game. And time was very kind to us. Turns out Champu was just weak and malnourished and Jebo was in shock. All the vets were proved wrong. Both dogs are now perfectly healthy and extremely naughty. They love going for their morning walks together, love fighting with each other and rule over our families!

This is the short version of the story. There is so much more to it. The story of how Champu pursued Jebo relentlessly. The story of how of my parents turned into ardent dog lovers. The story of how Anoop’s world changed. And this is just the beginning – the happy kinds. There are so many more stories to come!

Both pups soon after adoption

Four-month old Jebo chewing the iPad. On the screen is her
own first picture!

Jebo baby pics - above and below

Champ - those big brown eyes

Champ in Goa

Jebo 

Champ strutting

Jebo now

Jebo - look at them ears!

Champ - anything for a biscuit!

Story and photos: Neha Arora
Goa, Pune

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INDog Site Record

My INDog Project partners have pooled our observations and created a chart recording sites where we have seen pure, unmongrelized INDog populations.

We are only listing villages and very small towns. Although one can find pure INDogs in cities, there are many mix-breeds as well, and one cannot consider big city populations unmongrelized.

There seems to be a clear connection between new money and dog mongrelization. In both urban and rural communities that have recently become affluent, modern breed dogs are probably acquired as status symbols, but allowed to roam unsupervised in 'village dog' style. We see mix-breed dog populations in such areas.

Obviously there are millions more sites around our subcontinent. We have listed only those we have visited personally.

Click here to view the list.

Here's the link to an earlier blog post about the distinct genetic profile of INDogs.

This is an ongoing project. We hope many more people will contribute their observations to the list. If you would like to contribute your records, please email me at rajashree.khalap@gmail.com with details and photographs of the dogs. 

Do read the criteria for listing.

Thanks!

The 'mating season'

This is a good time to share what I've observed and read about the INDog reproductive cycle. 

Like other aboriginal breeds, female INDogs come into oestrus once a year. INDog-watchers (including me) have observed that the reproductive cycle seems to be seasonal and synchronized. 

For more about their reproductive cycle, read the paper 'The Indian Native Dog' by Gautam Das. Research by Dr Sunil K Pal and by Reece and Chawla also points to a seasonal breeding cycle. Late monsoon seems to be the peak mating time, with puppies born in the dry cool season that follows. 

In our part of India, late monsoon starts now. And far away in the US, a young adopted INDog female, not yet neutered, has come into her first oestrus. Interesting that she's on 'Indian time', though she's a hemisphere away from her birthplace, Chennai. 

In Indian tradition, the monsoon has long been considered the 'mating season' for dogs. Strangely many urban dog lovers dismiss this as a myth. Not that strange on second thoughts...since urban people usually get to observe only Eurobreeds at home. And the street dogs they get to see are often mix-breeds. 

This is a young female INDog I saw on the Mumbai-Alibag highway last week. This village is called Pezari. 

The female is a pet, with a collar and a healthy, clean coat. The male's coat wasn't in good condition; he had hairless patches possibly caused by flea-bites, a common problem. Almost definitely not a pet. Even when village pet dogs don't have collars, I've found one can usually tell the owned ones from the ownerless from the condition of the coat. 

The black female had a scar on the back of her head. She must definitely have had human help for healing that wound. Dogs can't reach there to lick and heal themselves. That's why head and neck wounds are common sites for maggot infestations in street dogs. 

In cities I'm told black dogs rarely get adopted, because they are considered unlucky or some such rubbish. But I've known of villagers who prefer black dogs, because apparently they look more intimidating and so make better security dogs. Lucky for this dog that her owner doesn't have the urban colour bias, nor the usual gender bias.

Two more dogs were sitting at this construction site nearby.

We saw the same black dog two days later, accompanied by four male INDogs. So we'll probably see some lovely INpuppies there in a couple of months. I hope at least a few get adopted!

This is a mating group I clicked on Nagaon beach last year. Second from the left is the female in oestrus (white with brown patches). The black dog is her son from a previous litter, quite correctly looking the other way! The other four are her 'suitors' come from far and wide. They aren't permanent residents of this part of the beach.

And this is a mating fight I clicked in a different part of the state, Vidarbha (Central India). It was in a small tribal village. 

Males fight frequently during this time, and I believe this is a common reason for bites to humans. We all know that in the heat of a fight, dogs can redirect their aggression on to anyone passing by. In villages people stay at a distance, but that's not always possible for pedestrians on our congested city streets. 

It would be interesting to know whether dog bites shoot up at this time of year. Public health officials and spay-neuter organizations could easily compile this data if they are serious about reducing dog bites. If it turns out there IS a link to dogs mating, the solution is pretty obvious.

Pezari, Nagaon, Vidarbha

Maharashtra

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Walking on water

Nagaon beach last saturday evening. We all got drenched because this lovely sunlight was interrupted by sudden showers - three times - but the dogs had half an hour of fun anyway! And we got to see this surreal merger of sky, water, sand and dogs. 

Can you see the rainbow? It became a complete circle soon after this, and we had the strange feeling of walking through it!

And see those specks in the distance? That's something a bit uglier: a crowd of noisy tourists. This year there are tourists even at this season, at least on weekends. Last monsoon we had the beach all to ourselves...This lot were playing cricket (a common tourist activity here, actually). I find it funny that people want to do that on a beach, instead of swimming or walking or just looking at the sea. But that's just my opinion. They really didn't bother us that far away.

Nagaon 

Maharashtra
Clicked with my phone!

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Native dogs of Myanmar

These gorgeous pictures were clicked by Jura Cullen on Ngapali Beach, Myanmar. Thanks for letting me post them, Jura!

'I was in Burma a few months ago where I saw some lovely pariah dogs who generally seemed quite loved and well cared for. This lovely one - affiliated with a little restaurant - adopted us whenever we were on the beach.'

More dog pictures in this slideshow in Jura's blog.

This seems the typical village dog lifestyle one sees in India and other parts of Asia. Dogs have their own territories, are often befriended by humans there, and are often pets, but they roam and breed without restriction.

Have you seen Jura's pictures of her own stunning pariah dog Tala? Tala was adopted in Sudan but now lives with her owners in Hanoi. Here's a post in this blog about her. And many more in Jura's blog (link at the bottom of this post.) 

Photos: Jura Cullen
Myanmar/Burma
http://juraphotos.wordpress.com 

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