Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Bye-bye dog year, welcome new year

I expect more of myself this year. Less couch-potatoism. More action. I did start with my favorite activity... a walk, so yay!

2013 was the year of the dog for me.

It started with the hubs and I coming across Barfi when we went for our nightly stroll with Mojo and Phoebe. She suffered from severe mange. We took her in, fed her and arranged for all her medication. The watchman tirelessly bathed her and applied medication, and she was fit and fine in a few weeks. Eventually, we spayed her and the maid her took her along where is well cared for, among other animals.

We attended our first ever stray puppy and kitten adoption camp. We grabbed 3 puppies off the street, bathed them, and took them across town with the help of a friend. We got incredibly lucky, and all 3 of them were adopted!
We also started feeding 4 puppies and 2 adult female dogs that lived at a construction site on the way to work. We wanted to get them adopted, but they all were very shy of humans. The mother dog bit the hubs and me when we tried to pick up the puppies and take them to the adoption camp. I've been bitten twice before, but had never taken any medication. This time, though, we got one anti-rabies shots.

In the mean time, I shared a lot of posts about abandoned/lost pets and tried to help them find homes. There was one particular lady who took in a bunch of days-old pups and nursed them and nourished them and found them good homes. We fostered one of those pups for a week too. A brindled-coated boy named Jimmy. He peed in our bed and got very naughty with Mojo and Phoebe, but we had a good time with him.

Our first set of great-grand-pups were born in August 2013!
The pups: Mojo x Phoebe
= The grand-pup: Muffin (among others in the 2nd litter)
+ Muffin x Mac
= The great-grand-pups: Dawn, Ninja, Sunshine, Cinnamon, Hazel, Mocha, Scooby, Sugar, Pearl
I made a trip to Bharuch to meet them when they turned one month old. Can't thank Muffy's human parents enough for having given us this gift!

Around the same time, I tried to get myself to run... not walk... run. My cousin helped me with the first push, and I had barely run for a week, when I came across 3 abandoned kittens. We had to take them in! They obviously took priority, and with the long nights, I couldn't carry on with the running any more. :(

Unfortunately, we lost 2 of the kittens after about 10 days... they were too young, and could not survive without their mother's nutrition and warmth. The last one was a fighter, though. He was diagnosed with a severe kidney infection, but responded well to medication and bounced back. He lived with us for more than 3 months, and towards the end, had begun to think that he owned us :P

Soon after we got the kittens home, my dearest Phoebe, so concerned for them, started lactating! She fed the kittens, but the milk was too much, and it hurt her. So, we wrote to an animal lovers' forum asking for orphaned pups who could do with some mother's milk. We found one, and she came home to stay with the kitten for a few weeks. The first week was harrowing, but as they settled down, we had fun watching them interact and play with each other. It was so adorable to see a cat and dogs live together and love each other!

We took the kitten to a couple of adoption camps... he got adopted at the second one. In the meanwhile, he had started accompanying the dogs and me on our walks... it was so cool!


Barely a week passed, and we got the opportunity to help another set of abandoned puppies... 4 siblings, who we housed in Mojo-Phoebe's crate. They were found by a lovely couple, who had a great network of friends and animal lovers. All the pups got adopted within a week!

Then, as the year waned, I participated in an intervention, where we spoke to the owner of an abused pet and tried to explain that his treatment of the dog was unacceptable. It escalated into a shouting match, but we could manage to leave with an understanding that the pet would be monitored over the next few weeks. If its condition didn't improve, the dog would be confiscated and put up for adoption into a family that really valued him.

I hope to be more active in helping out with stray animals this year, among other things. Health is another factor that I can no longer ignore. And then there's this feeling of sticking around in a place longer than I should... some action is required on that front too.

2 comments:

Peeves said...

It really was a dog year! Good Luck with the New Year! I am sure you will be able to provide more help to the canine and feline world! Happy New Year!

Pallavi Sharma said...

Awww. And wish you a happy, healthy, and fun new year full of bonding with you-know-who ;) Hugs.