New IDA pup Mishti

This beautiful little girl is Mishti, our new addition to the puppy pen. Doesn't she look the picture of innocence? She's actually very energetic and naughty. Mishti's has a special skill. She can leap straight up like a lamb in Springtime! When we sit down in the puppy pen to play with all the youngsters, this is exactly what she does. Leaps straight up and into your lap! She's almost two months old and in perfect health that matches her lovely nature. Check her out on the IDA Adoption site. This one's a gem!

3rd October, Celebrations Continue

This was the afternoon session, which was literally all fun and games! Dumb Charades was hilarious and the Quiz made everyone think a bit. After a good lunch, we conducted a Foster Care Workshop and the participants were provided with some good material to help them through foster care problems. In the last picture, you can see Lulu and Daisy, both part of the demo on foster care and then so tired, that they collapsed among their toys! They are really laid back and sweet and had no problem relaxing in the middle of all of us.

The workshop was a success and one young lady immediately opted to foster a sickly little pup from the Centre and subsequently took good care of it for ten days. Just what that baby needed.

International Day of Prayer for Animals, 3rd October

This was a really special day for all of us at IDA Deonar. The world celebrates the feast of St. Francis of Assissi, a wonderful person who regarded all creatures as his brothers and sisters. On this day, we thought it most fitting for all our charges to be formally blessed. We prevailed upon Fr. Joe D'Souza to come and bless the Centre, all the IDA workers and supporters and last but not least, all of our dear animal friends. Father obliged, and came all the way from Jacob's Circle Parish to extend the blessing. After the general blessing, he went around blessing all our animals in the different enclosures and can be seen in front of one of the maggot wound dog enclosures, doing the needful.

We were also fortunate to have among us, two Homeopathic practitioners. One was Dr. Prakash Lulla from Chembur. A well-known doctor for humans who extends his skill to treating animals as well. Ms Suneeta Tol is another person who has treated stray animals with homeopathic medicine for almost a decade. She has had great success in the treatment of a number of ailments, being especially successful treating skin diseases. She demonstrated just how easy it is to administer this medicine by putting a few drops of liquid onto a biscuit, instantly consumed by an obliging "patient", Pinky, standing nearby.

IDA Celebrates World Wildlife Week

On Saturday, 2nd October, IDA organised an activity packed function for all our supporters who attended.

We started by showing a great wildlife movie called "Two Brothers", followed by a veggy lunch and a demo of vegan cooking by an expert we invited.

Ater this, we all pushed off to the Zoo. At the entrance we joined Zoo Education Officer Mr. Panranjpe in taking the pledge to see to the welfare of all biodiversity, witnessed a skit by a group of enthusiastic young men on how to treat confined zoo animals with respect and finally went to the Snake House.

This was our main destination as we are looking at ways to enrich the lives of the captive animals at Byculla Zoo and make their living conditions more bearable. They are after all simply prisoners, behind bars for the entertainment of the human public.

We had prepared an info sheet about Indian snakes and also taken along a young expert on snakes to give a small talk at this venue. In addition, we had prepared suggestions for enrichment of the snake enclosures. We handed this over to Mr. Paranjpe and Mr.Anjankar, Zoo Director. Some time ago, we had done the same thing for Shiva the lone rhino. We'll keep on visiting as this type of inspection might bring about some much-needed improvement in the way all the animals are housed and cared for.

Just one more wonderful footnote: As we all trooped over to say hello to Shiva, we noticed a crow frantically trying to stay afloat in his water pool. Of course, we all called for help, as even IDA members can't enter the rhino's enclosure - he is too dangerous and fast moving, even in his old age. Anyway, we all persisted in our efforts to get the crow rescued. First Shiva had to be lured out of his pool, poor chap! This was done by a helper, hiding inside his "room" and ringing the dinner bell. This was enough for Shiva to lumber out as he knew a treat or his meal awaited. Not until he was safely in his room with the door shut, could the rescuer go into the enclosure and see to the crow. He was scooped up soaking wet and safely deposited in the middle of some foliage to dry off. I'm pleased to say, that this helpless bird's life was saved because IDA was at the Zoo that day.

IDA Pups Sharmili and Masti

Brown and white Sharmili has the sweetest nature. Every time a smaller pup is brought into the puppy enclosure, she rushes to check it out, then gives it a good wash, gently licking the little face with her tongue. She has lovely velvet black eyes and a smiling face.
Masti lives up to his name! He's a devil in disguise and is up to mischief all the time. He was rescued at the height of the monsoon as a tiny pup. He had a maggot wound because he had been living in the open along with his mother and brother and getting wet all the time. He was fostered and bounced back to his present good health. That's all it took. A little love and care and plenty to eat! And now for the best news. Masti has just been adopted! That's all that we are waiting for - a good home for each of the wonderful animals that are presently in our care.

Foster Pups Lulu and Daisy

Hi! I'm Lulu, the one with the lovely black eyes and this is my sister Daisy. As you can see, we have both learned to 'Sit'. Don't we do it nicely? Our foster mom taught us this trick quite quickly because she uses small tasty biscuits as a reward which we like very much!
Daisy, my sister, is a little noisy when she's playing with me. I'm quite quiet even when I'm playing. We have real fun with all our toys but we like our old sock best! We really like to play and run around; it's fun, but after about ten minutes, we get very tired. Then we both decide to have a nap. We share a mattress which is very comfortable and sleep for a couple of hours. When we get up, we know it's time to eat again. We are always hungry! But as you can see, we have learnt to be "calm / submissive" before our meals as well. We are really good girls, even if I say so myself!!