As I have mentioned before, there are wild dogs all over the place in India. And, as one would expect, these dogs were once puppies. So, there are also puppies all over the place here in India.
This past week a particularly cute group of puppies was noticed on the main road above our neighborhood.
It started when I noticed a cute puppy running along the edge of the road on my way home from work. It was cute and had a mostly-black coat, with some beige colors on its legs. It was running along next to the chaos of the traffic, very cute. And certainly imperiled.
Then, a few days later I saw it running across the road on three limbs. Its back leg had been broken and was askew from its body. It made it to the edge of the road, which was about five inches high. It tried to jump up with just one back leg. It failed to clear the edge and flopped back onto the road. I was in the car, so that's all I saw.
Remember that these were seen for only a few seconds as I was in the back of the car. Just glimpses, snapshots...
Finally, I mentioned to Tara about the little puppy trying to jump and falling, just in casual conversation. She immediately knew what I was talking about. "Yeah, it's dead now. I've seen it." She went on to mention that there were a group of them living in the boulders up there.
We haven't noticed any more puppies up there recently.
It's one if India's big challenges, these dogs. Every year there are thousands of Indians who die of rabies from being bitten by street dogs. There are countless more that bite people and impart lesser diseases. And there are huge numbers who simply get bit by these dogs. We had a friend from Norway who was bit as she jogged. Another set of families live in a neighborhood where the wall around it is not finished, and wild dogs menace the place and even attack the pet dogs in that place.
For India to claim a bright future will only be partially true unless it works on things like feral dogs. It's a tragedy. And there is some guy whose mandate it is to control the dogs in the city, but he simply skims the public funds and sits in his house in Jubilee Hills. Terrible.
So, because we had this connection, albeit from a distance, to this group of puppies who died slowly, we're all the more glad that we have saved Ashoka. He's become a good bit larger now, and he's a good natured dog. Even when he is naughty (often), we enjoy him. Aidan calls him "my brother". Jonah tries to get him to sleep in his bed. Liam routinely dresses Ashoka in human outfits, and Tara really loves the dog. He makes everyone happy.
And he has a trainer coming three mornings a week, so he should be well-behaved. At least that is the goal. After his trainer left today he vomited in the middle of the living room, so we'll see.
And, he was saved from the streets as a puppy. We feel good about that. Thanks to Robyn for giving us Ashoka!
