coco got a home!!!!!

Around last october ( 2007) i would pass a building almost near completion on my way to work. right outside the bldg, was an open gutter, where a dog had littered a lot of pups, i couldnt count them, but there seemed to be quite a few of them. i used to see thenm everyday, on my way to work, and tried feeding the mom, but she did not eat, and since she was a stray, i did not dare go near her. i was feeling helpless as i saw those pups in the dry drain, everyday, but could not do anything, as our indian mentality is normally to adopt a labrador or a gsd ( they say they want good bread dogs, dont even know how to spell breed, and still they want labs!)


one fine day, i got response from a girl, who was willing to adopt a local pup, and she wanted a FEMALE pup!!!!!!!! what a pleasant surprise, as normally a lot of people want to adopt male pups( just like human females are treated, same in dogs, atleast spare the dogs!!!!!!!!) so that they dont have to bother abot females coming into heat, and delivering babies, although now, it can be taken care off by sterilisation. i went to check on the pups, the next day, after i got a response from pratiksha, and i was in for a rude shock! there was no pup in the usual place, and no deaad bodies also. i went around asking the shopkeepers in front of the bldg, as to what happened. one of them told me that the workers in the bldg, had taken the pups and kept them safe. when i went to check on the pups, their condition was really bad, 4 out of 7 had already died, and these pups also would meet the same fate. they had opened their eyes, and were walking, mayb just a month old or so. one of them, had got an open wound on her tummy, and it was like a hole. the other 1, little blackish, was very still, and hardly moved. the only fellow who was little better, was a complete brown male. i wrapped them in a piece of cloth that the workers gave me, and took them to a vet. she saw their condition, and gave medicine. she poured ivermectin on the maggot wounds, and gave some vitamins. she was not ready to tell me if the pups would live for more than 1 week( the condition of the pups was so bad)
next day, pratiksha came with her friends to take a look at the pups. she picked the black, most sickly pup, who was hardly moving, and decided to adopt her. we later realised that the pup had got a maggot wound near her ear, and it was filled with moving maggots, and that was the reason that she was lying still, and not moving at all! still pratiksha took the pup, and i was almost expecting a call within the next 2 days, saying that the pup had not survived. surprisingly, even after a week, when i called her, she told me that the pup was alive, yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee if the pup had lived for 1 week, it would surely survive now.

how many efforts partiksha put in to make her COCO survive, i came to know of later. coco was taken to a vet, given a bath, to get rid of the fleas, which were all over her body, given medicine for the maggot wound, and some vitamins. maggots were coming out the next day, so were the fleas. one can only imagine the care that pratiksha took for coco, just to keep her alive!


as i write this blog, coco is 6 months old, sterilised and very healthy. i wish that a lot of people learn from a college going girl, like pratiksha, and adopt more of our local dogs. coco, is not longer a stray dog, she is a pet now!!!!!!



ONE MORE HAPPY ENDING :)

note- as for the other 2 pups with her, 1 of them died after getting crushed under a car, and the male has started roaming on the streets, sadly i could not manage a house for him.

Chinky finally got a family!!!!!

around holi, in march 2005, rani( my old bldg dog) gave birth to some 7 puppies. that time, i was not too aware of the dogs in my bldg, and did not care for them regularly. after these pups were born, i started feeding rani regularly and tried to take care in any way i could. our society has a row of chawls in our compound, where a few families used to feed rani daily. one of the familes, owns a sand shop, and rani always went and gave birth at the shop. the babies would be kept on the wet sand, so they dont feel too warm or clod. the guys at the shop also cared for the pups and rani.
out of the 7, 4 of them died. the other 3 were very healthy. 2 were brown, n 1 black. i tried looking for homes for them, but at that time, not many people were interested in adopting local breeds. luckily or unluckily, in sept 2005, when the pups were 6 months old, i got a reply to my ad. someone wanted to adopt the black female, and was ok with her being a stray!!! yippeeeeee i finlly managed to get atleast 1 of them a home, what i dint know at that time was, it would be the beginnig of a long sad tale.

since it was my first time with a dog, i called an aunty who would help me take the dog to lower parel( i m at vile parle). we took her first to spca, to get the vaccinations done and then took her to the factory where the guy was going to adopt. he named her chinky. he loved dogs, but was not able to keep one at home as his wife was not too comfortable with pets. chinky would b kept at factory initially, and then gradually, when the family members were ok with her, she would b taken home. i left chinky with a heavy heart (she is one of the most calm and quiet dogs), hoping that she has found someone to take care of her well. since she was the first dog, i kept calling him and asking if chinky was ok and if she has adjusted. it took only 3 days for chinky to make new friends, and learn toilet training. she was very friendly, and loved everyone at the factory. they used to get food for her from home, and the owner also got dog food, sticks, chewbones etc for her. i knew that i had done the right thing in getting her adopted, and was very happy. but this happiness was short lived.

one day, i had gone to attend a wsd seminar on treating sick dogs, it was a sunday, and i decided to check on chinky, as normally when the factory was working, she would be taken care off.that day, i decided to check on chinky as it was a day when factory would be shut, and perfect for me to check how she is kept. when i went to see her, i was in shock!!!! she was kept with the watchman. she went and sat at the place where she used to be tied. that area was covered in cement, and her hair also had a lot of cement on it, which she licked to clean! her food bowl was also lying outside. it had some milk and bread, and chinky was eating from it, the only problem was that the bowl was put there in the morning as her breakfast, and now at lunch time, it was covered with red ants!!!!!!!!!! chinky was eating stale milk and bread from a bowl full of red ants, my god what had i done.........................
i couldnt control my tears. that time i talked to the guy and told him that this is not what i expected to see. if he cant take care of her, she should be returned. he told me that he would take care in future and not ignore such things. i thought of giving him a second chance. i kept calling often, and would also go and check on her every 3/4 months. i kept guiding him to what care should be given, bathing, food, vaccinations etc. everytime i went, there was some or the other problem with her that i kept noticing. sometimes her white socks were green, from god knows some kind of infection or something, other times, she was kept in a conference room with ac on, but she was alone in a 5 x 8 feet cubicle with lots of files around her for company!
last may 2007, when i went to see her, i could not take it any longer. i wanted him to take care of her in such a way that i no longer needed to keep a check on her. it was not possible for me to check on her every few months, and come back with a nagging feeling that she being ignored. i told him that i cant see her in such a state and if he cant care, he shloud return her. he immediately told me to take her back, and i was on a new job, to find chinky a HOME. he did care and love chinky a lot, but it was not possible for him to spend time with her and care like we do for kids. she was given food, taken for vaccinations or treatments to spca, given a bath, but all this was done by the peons. how much is a guy working for you going to take care of your dog?
finally in oct 2008, i got mail from a girl who wanted to adopt chinky. she was in mumbai, and was a parsi. i was so happy, that someone is going to finally take her home!!!!!!!! farzeen and me, met at parel and picked up chinky. people there, including the watchmen, had tears in their eyes. those guys were loosing their night time company. i also cried. i didnt want to take chinky from the place where she had stayed for 2 years, but the conditions were just not good for her. on our way back, we had to cross the road, and chinky came willingly. even when the taxi door was opened, chinky jumped in and sat between farzeen and me. she was so calm even with a stranger(farzeen) that even she was surprised! chinky would keep looking out of the window and sometimes looked at us, but never did she bark or show any aggression or any other behaviour. she was an absolute darling! after reaching parle, the cab broke down, and we had to take a rick to reach malad. i was worried if she will jump out or misbehave, then what were we to do? but again, she kept sitting between our legs and watched cars and dogs go by, patiently. even if other dogs barked at her, she never responded. we finally reached farzeen's house at 10 pm, after almost 2 hours journey. chinky was welcomed by farzeen's mom and sister. chinky took a round of the new building and went home........... FINALLY CHINKY WAS AT HOME!!!!!!!!!
farzeen's mom had made chicken and rice for them. when chinky was given her share, she gulped down the chicken, and left the rice, and looked up at us asking for more :) this was the first time i was happy for her! i left their house feeling happy for chinky. i still kept calling to know about chinky, as i used to do earlier. but this time, every time i talked, i had a smile on my face :) chinky was being pampered. she would not eat food unless she sat on the sofa, and she would not eat if farzeens mom didnt feed her, on hearing this, my happiness had no bounds!!!!!!!!!!!
today, on holi, chinky completes 3 years, and we are celebrating her bday. i m taking a chicken cake for her, and will be taking a few pics which i will upload with this blog. i hope this is a happy beginning....................

CHINKY'S BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!!!


OUR BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!!!


CHINKY WITH HER MOM- FARZEEN


CHINKY WITH ME, SHE STILL LOVES TO COME AND SIT IN MY LAP :)


CHINKY WITH HER NEW FAMILY :)




after going there, i came to know of a few things, which i am really happy to share with all. chinky, sleeps with them in their bed. when granny goes for bath, or has left chinky and gone shopping, chinky takes one of her slippers, and climbs on the bed and sits there till she comes back home :) chinky also gets her breakfast in the bed! granny holds the plate while chinky has her breakfast, man is she pampered or what! when granny shouts at chinky for misbehaving, chinky gets upset, and dosent eat. then she has to be pampered and pataoed to make her feel speacial, and only then she will eat again!
i hope all strays and abandoned pets in the world get loving families!!!!!

how Bittu came home

we stay on the ground floor, and mom n me are very fond of gardening, so we have a lot of potted plants in our balcony, which are kept in the grill. one day, when i went to water the plants, i was shocked to see a black and white cat sitting inside the grill on our parapet!!!!! it was my first experience with a cat so close! i immediately shooed it out, and to avoid such happenings again, we put a member in our grill so that she could not come in again. we never were into pets at that time, and though we did not hate animals we never loved them or fed them also.

after a few weeks, there was no electricity, and we had to have lunch with open doors. again, we saw that this cat had entered our house!!!!! we sent her out again, but what we did not know was that she was looking for a place to give birth to her kittens, and that she was going to change our lives forver!!!!!!!!!!!

bittu was just a day old when my neighbour spotted him and his 2 siblings, in a corner of our building. since she used to feed their mom, she kept a watch on the kittens, and told me at the end of the day, that his mom has not been nursing the kittens. we decided to wait for a day and watch the kittens. the next day she told me that the cat was injured and would not go near the kittens, so we decided to feed and nurse the kittens and became first time mommies!!!

both of us wanted to help, but didnt know anything about cats except that they drink milk. so we got some warm milk in an ink dropper and started feeding the kittens. they were so fragile and cute, that we were worried that if we hold them a little tightly, they wud die, so we were very careful while handling them. they had also not opened their eyes and were very vulnerable. the kittens were put in a makeshift home that the building kids had made out of discarded chair seats. every child in the building wanted to do something for them and wanted to play with them, but their parents always played spoilsport. after about a week, one of the kittens was missing, so we took extra care of the other two. we got a small sheet of sponge for them to sleep upon, and placed a newspaper with it. we would then place the kittens on the sponge for warmth, and covered them with a cardboard box with cutouts so no one could harm them. we were actually very surprised to see that even without any training given to them, they would always sleep on the sponge and go potty on the newspaper! my neighbour and me shared duties and she took the kittens home in the morning and me in the evenings. it was good fun to watch both of them play and make mischief. but even when they were at home, they did not litter anywhere. we had to provide a newspaper in a corner of the room, and only then they would go potty. even if the paper was in the centre of the room, they would just play with it and not spoil our house.they never ceased to surprise me. they had not opened their eyes for almost 3 weeks, but when we went out with milk, they would just run directly to the person who had the milk bottle! it was amazing to see them grow, but as fate would have it, this happiness did not last long. we were naive and did not have any information how to bring up animal babies, so we never dewormed them nor did we give any vitamins. we just kept feeding them milk with water, and that was our biggest mistake. after two months of taking care of these wonderful babies, one of them died due to worms. the worms had eaten away the internal part of the stomach, n even though the vet gave saline n treated it for almost 3 hours, it did not make it till the next morning.that was the day when my sister went abroad for work and bittu lost his sister. that night bittu came home and changed our lives forever!!!!!

we are gujarati jains, so for us getting anything other than vegetarian food for bittu, was unthinkable. so till bittu was around 9 months old, he was only on rice, dal, cerelac, khichdi, milk, biscuits etc. everthing that a cat is not supposed to have. by this time i did get guidance from ppl around and also took him to a vet. but we were not ready to feed him cat food, as we could not have non-veg at home. things got really bad when bittu became seriously ill, and we had only two options, to get cat food home or let bittu go. after taking care of him for 9 months, i could not let bittu die just because we did not have non-veg food, so finally we got cat food for him. but the damage was done due to our negligence. cats need taurine in their food for good eyesight and liver, but bittu never had it in his food. so he is not able to see properly, and cant digest all cat food. he also became lactose(milk) intolerent. so much so that now even if he smells milk, he vomits. he now stays on royal canine fit 32 or hills pet food, which suit him and he really loves it. we try and pamper him the best way we can, but we can never forgive ourselves for our ignorance for which bittu is paying such a high price.


now more about bittu. even though he dosent see properly, he goes around the house checking each room atleast 5/6 times a day. for him, we dont move the furniture, or else he just goes and bangs against it! he has his own chair kept near the window, where he climbs and informs us that he wants to sit in the window. he did not have a mother to teach him how to jump up, so he can climb only upto seat level, then we have to pick him up and put him wherever he wants to go. he uses the bathroom mori to pee or potty and shouts when his litter tub is not available. he never does anything without informing us. even when he climbs to a new place, he shouts and lets us know about his whereabouts and wants us to check on him, almost like a small child when he feels that he has done something that he would be patted for:) he always needs a pillow to sleep on, and if it is not in its usual place, he will sit there for a minute or so and then shout out loud, asking us to put it in its proper place. the moment the pillow is put, he just puts his head on it like an elderly person, and goes off to sleep:) he also needs a clean bed, or he will not sleep there. his water bowl needs to be washed everyday, or he dosent drink from it. he realises when i m going to give him a bath or give him a deworming dose, and hides below the cot so no one can spot him. also when its hot, mostly during summers, he will sit in front of my dad when he is reading newspaper and look towards the ac:) if my dad dosent notice, he just shouts loudly, and the moment dad gets up, and turns the ac on, he would go on the bed and go to sleep. also if the ac is on the fan has to be off, if dad forgets to switch the fan off, he again shouts and calls attention. these are just few small things, but it really makes me wonder whether we are correct in stating that we are the smartest of all. these animals cant speak, but they have a way of telling us about their needs and they also express their love. we only need to keep our eyes and hearts open to them, only then we will be able to love them, and probably ourselves too.


even though there were many times when our building people objected to us having a cat home, since cats are very inauspicious, it has not deterred us ever. infact i feel that after i got bittu home we have actually started 'living' our lives. we have come close as a family and stay very happy. bittu has also helped me in interacting with our building kids and teaching them that we should not hurt but love our four legged friends. bittu is the star in our building, and all kids come and play with him in the evening, so much so that they sometimes just come to our house when bittu doesnt go out, and play with him.having bittu at home is the best thing to have happened to our family, and i hope that he remains with us forever.




if you have gone through the whole blog, and want to see more of bittu's pics, then click on the link below, and check his latest pics.