Rico and Lucky: Christmas album

Gino Santistevan just sent in Christmas greetings to all our members and readers - that's a greeting from Gino and of course his two canine children Rico and Lucky.

These beautiful siblings were rescued and adopted by Gino when he was living in Hyderabad. They all shifted to San Francisco over a year ago.

Read their story here.



"Rico and Lucky have been absolutely wonderful and have adjusted to the U.S. and to San Francisco beautifully," Gino writes. "There is not a day that goes by that people stop and stare at Rico and Lucky, trying to figure out what kind of breed they are and admiring them for their sleek bodies, super shiny coats, confident stride, alert attention, and their overall unique 'desi-ness.' When we go to one of the many 'dogs only' parks here in San Francisco, so many other dog owners are impressed by them and always ask me what kind of dogs they are and I end up telling them the short version of their story."

More of their Christmas pictures below!







Unlike Rico and Lucky, my Lalee simply can't bear clothes! I'm trying to imagine what she would do if I dressed her in anything. Probably tear her clothes to shreds! She hates her raincoat and barely tolerates the winter coat I got her for Nagaon.







Below: This one is of their Halloween costumes - Rico is a Yellow Submarine and Lucky is a Yellow Bumblebee!



Photos: Gino Santistevan
San Francisco,
USA

Rupee

How nice to have some quiet time to sit and update this blog! The last three weeks have been hideously hectic and I've hardly had any relaxed evenings at home. I'm totally enjoying myself, looking at one gorgeous Indi picture after another and thinking about the wonderful change in these dogs' lives.

Here's a lovely cuddly pup called Rupee (love the name and the pup!), adopted six weeks ago by Rina Peach and her husband in Canada. His original home was New Delhi.


His adoption was arranged through the vet Dr Choudhary and a Canada-based non-profit organization called AAIDD (Adopt An Indian Desi Dog).

"I was told that he and his brother were rescued from a drainage ditch during the monsoon in New Delhi," Rina writes. "They were kept at a kennel...and through AAIDD I was able to get him."

In the past two years 90 Indian pups have been rescued and adopted in Canada! That's not including Pete and Durga, who were adopted and taken to Canada, but not through AAIDD.
Rupee was 10 weeks old at the time of adoption, and a beautiful little boy as you see.





"He is very intelligent and is adapting well to our cold weather," says Rina. "When we had our first snow I dressed him in a green jacket and took him outside to play. He liked it so much he was eating the snow, running in circles and then started to dive, head first, into piles of snow and disappearing under."

I'm amazed every time I see photos like this, at the ease with which our dogs adapt to cold climates. Search for Deepa in this blog (Nicole Poyyayil's Deepa, not Godfrey and Tina D'Souza's) for more snow pictures. Also Durga in Canada, Rhada and Otis in the US and several more.



Above: Rupee with his family!



Above: "We also take him to a beautiful park and beach in the middle of the city of Vancouver, which is dog friendly. He plays with all the dogs there and there he met for the first time another puppy from New Delhi that was adopted a few days after Rupee. His name is Ben."



Above: Rupee is growing slim and long-legged, and it'll be interesting to see how he looks when he grows up. Like many big-city dogs, he is probably INDog-mix (with a bit of some other breed mixed with aboriginal dog); but it's often hard to tell what the mix is specially a few generations after the mongrelization happened, as the dogs revert back to a typical Pariah look.

Also the temperament seems very similar among INDogs and INDog-mixes, judging by feedback from many owners who have written to me. All owners so far have described their dogs as very intelligent and a little independent. Some describe a slightly nervous temperament, but that is probably due to trauma in the early part of their lives, and the dogs usually grow out of it in their new loving homes.

A big hug to Rupee and all our other Indi ambassadors!

Photos: Rina Pita Peach
Vancouver
Canada

Shalini and Somu's tea party

Look what happened to Nicole's morning tea when she left it unattended for a few minutes.



Shalini gets to slurp first...





Somu takes over...and Nicole decides to click instead of reclaiming the partially slurped tea...





And look how beautiful Somu's grown! Don't all Indies, when looked after well? Click here
for earlier posts about Somu and Shalini and Deepa (who now lives in Switzerland with Nicole's parents).

I really really like that Somu can now dig as much as he wants without getting beaten half to death for it. Yes, in Ahmedabad, it is sometimes the sad fate of pups to get battered and even killed for doing normal puppy things, like digging in people's gardens or chewing slippers. In case you're an Amdavadi reading this, please check some earlier posts in this blog before taking offence and deciding to sue me.

I look at my neighbourhood and I wonder, what makes most (if not all) Mumbaikars so much more civilized towards dogs than Amdavadis are? I think it's awareness. NGOs and animal lovers here are very vocal and the media has been supportive. There have been sensitization programmes here since 1993 (I worked on one myself in my animal welfare days). There are certainly lots of people in Mumbai who don't like street dogs, or any dogs, but few resort to violence.

Whereas the few active NGOs in Ahmedabad seem to have completely let down the street dogs with their silence on cruelty and welfare issues and their non-existent public awareness programme. What a pity and what a shame.

Well, Somu at least has had a lucky escape. In fact he has recently discovered that he likes sofas!









Photos: Nicole Poyyayil
Ahmedabad

The Indy and the cat, Part 8

This beautiful picture comes from Anindita Datta. The INDog is Buchkai, and Kitty is one of several feline family members.

Thanks for letting me use the picture, Anindita!

More "Indy and the cat" pictures here.

Photo: Anindita Datta

Rishi, Leela and Sipho on the beach

Yvonne sent me this picture of her dogs (Indies Leela and Rishi, AfriCanis Sipho) playing on the beach recently.

Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been in, with seals, whales, dolphins and penguins regularly seen on the coast. On this day Yvonne writes that there was a seal playing in the water, and a pod of dolphins doing somersaults and figure 8s - and then a flock of pink flamingos flew overhead to the nearby wetlands. Sounds like heaven!

Click here for earlier posts about this family.

Photo: Yvonne de Kock
Cape Town
South Africa