Come here boy

My answer to the question, 'What would you do if you had all the money in the world?' is always 'I'd make an animal shelter, and I'd travel the world.'

In this fantasy of mine, I'm driving around in my hip little van, and picking up unwanted stray dogs off the street. Obviously in this fantasy, all the dogs are just super thrilled to hop into my van. Now, I'm a pet parent, and no one knows better than a pet parent that dogs never do what you want them to do. Even when they're injured and blood is forming a pool beneath their feet, they still don't want to be helped.

Which is what happened to me yesterday. I don't go to the gym in the evenings much. Mostly because it's really frustrating trying to hail an auto at that time of night. On the few days that I do go in the evening, I get off at Garuda mall and walk across the length of Magrath road to reach my gym. 

I go to Garuda mall fairly often. Even when I'm not on my way to the gym. It's a very well situated mall with some really convenient stores and a good multiplex. In all the times that I've been to Garuda mall, I must have seen a dog hanging around the premises maybe 1 in 20 times. In each of those times, I attempted to pet the dog. Because, you know, I can't walk past a stray dog without making some attempt to pet it. So, I know that most of the dogs that hang around the mall are fairly friendly.

Yesterday, I was in a hurry. I spotted this dog in the distance and thought, yeah, I'll give it a little pet on my way to the gym. When I got close to her, however, I realised that she was standing in a pool of blood. I examined her closely and saw that she had a deep gash on her stomach, and the blood was just all over the place. But she could walk, and she followed me to a ledge and sat with me while I petted her and gave her some biscuits. She also waited patiently while I called all the animal organisations that I could think of that would help. I found out that Karuna and CUPA are the two organisations that have a vehicle and will help an injured stray animal. Karuna did not have a driver with them that day. CUPA said that they would only be able to send someone in 3 hours. I also called Voice of Stray Dogs which is mostly a reporting organisation. But, the founder is extremely passionate and concerned about animals. He wasn't in the city but said he'd try to find someone who could get to the mall before CUPA. So, I prepared to wait with the dog for a few hours. She seemed fairly stable although she was bleeding quite profusely. She let me touch her and examine her quite thoroughly. But, I didn't really have anything to wrap around her stomach. After an hour, CUPA called and said that they were on their way, and they'd come and pick up the dog. In all my relief, I never once thought about how difficult it was going to be to get the dog in the van.

The dog was suspicious of the two people who came with the van from the beginning. I mean, she would be. Two guys in a van. They look exactly like the dog catchers who pick up stray animals to either neuter them or kill them. She tried running away. Moved to different locations. Each time, I went and sat next to her, tried to soothe her, gave her some water. I was the only person she let next to her. Every time a man came within ten feet of her, she would start barking and panicking. Finally, I told them that I would chain her myself. Just give me the collar, I'd put it around her neck. The minute she heard the chain though, she bolted. Without a backward glance, she ran so fast that I really couldn't keep up with her or see where she went. I looked for her everywhere, but she had hidden herself nicely this time. Finally, the CUPA guys said that they couldn't wait any longer because they had a lot of complaints to act upon.

I appreciate the fact that the CUPA guys responded as fast as they did, but I really wish they'd been a bit more helpful in trying to take the dog. Maybe they tried the best that they could, maybe they were really tired. All I can really think of is that there's this injured dog hanging around Garuda mall. I don't even have any time this week to go and check on her again. I'm only back from my yoga retreat on Sunday, and I can go and check on her then. My only hope is that she licks up the wound and then it stops bleeding and becomes dry and heals. We can only hope. Did you know that there are more than 300,000 stray dogs in Bangalore? How do you even make a dent in helping this population.

I have this colleague who is completing against feeding stray animals because he doesn't want them to be reliant on you. My reasoning is this, if I could make that one animal happy for one day by giving him a full belly, I will do it a hundred times over. Because who knows how long he's going to last in this shitty urban jungle.

(You can't see her wounds here, but this is the brave girl. Hope I find her on Sunday)