Kuber was picked up by Revathi five months ago and brought to my house because she works here and could keep an eye on him. He was the runt of a street litter and when she found him , he had had one broken leg and was covered with fleas and ticks, The doctors held out no hope and even less when they discovered that because of his starvation and other travails , his heart had enlarged.
Kuber grew and grew and turned into the loveliest puppy. He frolicked the whole day, stopping to breathe because his heart wouldn’t keep up with his body. He became the pet of the house , and two of the older dogs fought to be his mummy. When I played with him and then walked away, he curled around my legs and refused to let me move. Yesterday, he came and played with me while I worked at the computer. He lay down after a little while and I went into the next room for lunch. When I came back he was dead. His heart had simply given out.
Kuber represents every dog on the street. Each one of them is going to die of all the diseases he would have died of , if we hadn’t picked him up. They will be run over or beaten or starved or get parvo or distemper. 90% of street puppies die before they are three months old. Each one of them is a beauty. If you adopt them they will bring nothing but pleasure to your lives. They will have a chance to unfold their personalities and each one is unique and wonderful.
Crosseyed Jyothi came to me with a steel rod in her stomach that a child had pushed in. She has become a fat beautiful wolflike creature who runs when she sees strangers Jairam was a street puppy of three weeks when a collar was tied around his neck. In two years the collar was never removed or loosened and it bit into his neck so that the area around it became full of pus and finally his skin fell over and the pus spread all over his chest. He screamed and screamed for months till we found him. Today he is the alpha dog of the house and sleeps on my bed. He loves people and talks to each person with his head in their lap.
Rani was found as a puppy at the airport. She had rickets and a skin disease. Today, many years later, she is a beautiful brindle colour and follows me from room to room. I cannot walk three steps in my house without having Rani spring up and follow me.
Chameli was found with severe eye disease. Today she is a waddling matron. When the other dogs fight as they sometimes do she comes to me and apologises for their behaviour with large pleading eyes , asking me to forgive them for the mess they make.
Shankar was found in my own shelter. He was skin and bone, shook uncontrollably from a post distemper syndrome and one eye had fallen out of his socket. There was no way he was going to survive. Today he sits like a crosslegged lion in his one eyed golden splendour outside the kitchen waiting for biscuits.
Milly was beaten so much on the street that she lost the will to live and sat under a dhaba charpai waiting to die and too scared to come out even to beg for food. She is a gentle soul, she plays with the crows and sometimes when they drop old bones for her , she brings them to me as a gift.
Lakshmi comes in early in the morning and pulls the pillow from under me. She is not doing it to wake me even though I get up with a start. If I pretend to be asleep , she will put her paws on it and fall asleep as well. Pyari, the ducklegged, stays outside in the cook’s room. She comes to me only when she is hurt and stays in the house till she is well. She ignores me for the rest of the year.
Outside my house a mother and son often came in the morning to ask for food. The son was fiercely protective of his mother. He would take the food in his mouth to his mother who stood some distance away and if he saw me or anyone approach her he would stand protectively in front of her. To my utter shame, since they looked alright , I did not take them into the house. Now the mother roams disconsolately alone. The puppy was killed by a car.
Hundreds of rescued dogs have passed through my life and each one has brought grace and charm to it. If I had not taken them in they would have lived short, miserable, pain filled lives and the world would have lost these little flowers without even discovering their beauty.
Why don’t you go out onto the street and take a puppy in ? It is so much better for you and the world to adopt an orphan than to buy a pedigreed dog that has been grown like a tomato or pumpkin for your pleasure. Adopting a local dog will reduce the population on the street and bring wonderful karma to your life. If you do no other good in your life, at least do this. You cannot go wrong.
Hundreds of rescued dogs have passed through my life and each one has brought grace and charm to it. If I had not taken them in they would have lived short, miserable, pain filled lives and the world would have lost these little flowers without even discovering their beauty.
Why don’t you go out onto the street and take a puppy in ? It is so much better for you and the world to adopt an orphan than to buy a pedigreed dog that has been grown like a tomato or pumpkin for your pleasure. Adopting a local dog will reduce the population on the street and bring wonderful karma to your life. If you do no other good in your life, at least do this. You cannot go wrong.
