The Visitor in the Puppy Pen

Our Resident cats at Deonar have discovered the charms of the puppy pen, namely that they can always get a handout when the pups are being fed and all of them love to eat dry Puppy Food! Here's a handsome orange and white male, quite at home among his young canine friends, waiting eagerly for his daily snack.

These tiny little pups are exactly six days old. As soon as they were born, they were put in a plastic bag and flung in a garbage bin. A garbage van came along and the bin was about to be emptied into the van when a kind passerby heard a small noise. He saw the bag with the pups inside and quickly removed it. Next a truly wonderful person, an elderly lady who is a supporter of IDA India took them into her home for fostering. After that she contacted us. As we couldn't manage to make arrangements to collect and care for such tiny pups, (most of our staff is missing due to the festive season), she was requested to keep them for a little while. She did not know how to care for such tiny pups, but that wasn't a problem. She consulted a Vet and her friend who was experienced in such matters and actually managed to get the little ones to drink from the bottle. This is vital if they have to have any chance at staying alive. After four days we arranged to pick them up and a young man, who is very involved in caring for animals, collected them and kept them overnight, even giving them a 3 am feed. Next day they were brought to Deonar Centre but as the vital staff member was missing that day, they were again taken into foster care by a member of the Managing Committee. When there is no one else, we manage among ourselves. Now the pups are shining clean, well fed and warm. Even if some of them slowly pass away, they will be among those of us who really love and care for them, instead of slowly dying, crushed under the weight of piles of Mumbai garbage. This is why sterilisation is vital for these animals. Now there is a mother in mental and physical agony as her babies have been taken away from her the moment they were born. If the criminal who did this had got her operated instead it would have made a world of difference. But he thought of his horrific disposal plan instead. That's why all of us have to get involved in getting dogs sterilised and safe in every way. We found this small litter. How many litters are not found or die slowly unnoticed in this very way? Please help in every way you can to make the ABC Programme a success.

Our Fattest Resident Cat is quite enormous but very agile. He jumps up, over and down with amazing ease. You can see him relaxing near the water tank by the front gate at Deonar. In the other picture, he is sitting pretty in the Puppy Pen, another favourite hang-out for our cats, probably because they love Puppy Pedigree dry food which they snack on in here. But his best place of all is just outside the kitchen where all the meals are made. That's why he's so fat!

One way to provide entertainment to our little ones at Deonar is to pop them into the small garden when it is a bit sunny - quite rare these days. They start wagging their tails and the braver ones at once get down to exploring. They go quite far away from the small group and love all the exciting smells and all the mud. The timid ones stay put. You can see the smallest brown pups not budging from the small basin. Better safe than sorry!

the Male Pom Pup : Remember the small family that was saved by IDA India some time ago? A beautiful golden Pom/Spitz and her seven little ones? There were six sisters and one brother and of course he was snapped up and adopted at once. The females had to wait so long, that even though they were adopted, none of them survived. Our ABC Centre is not a hospital for babies. Anyway, this lovely little chap was taken as a first pet into a family where the young son was determined to adopt him. It didn't work out because sadly the rest of the family didn't care for the little one. He spent two months in their house and then the young boy was forced to return him to IDA. It was really sad, or so I thought. When he came back, we started at once to see that he went into a safe foster home until adoption time. So the very next day foster care was arranged. the pup was brought to one of our homes to be transported and then a phone call came. A family had lost it's old Pom and immediately wanted to adopt another. (My kind of people!) They were asked to come straight away as he could not be kept overnight due to some difficulties. The pup had been frantic all day, running and trying to hide and snapping when approached. Our wardboys had pronounced him "dangerous". Two sisters came in a rickshaw from very far away, at 8 in the night, in pouring rain. I was quite apprehensive as to how he would react. As soon as one of the girls entered and sat on the couch, this pup took one leap into her lap and held her tight with his paws and started licking her face in ecstasy! It was simply amazing. It was as if he had lost his family and had at last found them. When she reached home, she phoned and told us that he had raced from one family member to the other, greeting them in turn and was delirious with happiness. Wanted to share with all of you. This was truly a one of a kind adoption and we are so happy it turned out like it did. May all our little ones find their forever homes in just the same way.

A Fond Goodbye to Russell: We are sad to tell you all that Russell one of our Sponsor Dogs passed away a few days ago. He came to us long ago when Fizzah Shah, our President rescued him from a garden at Breach Candy. He was just a playful youngster, whose very life was threatened by the gardening staff at that location. He came to our Deonar Centre and had always been one of the big boys in control of all the other resident dogs, along with our Jumpy and Jacky. We are happy that he lived a good life at Deonar and lived for a long time. A few weeks ago, he had visibly slowed down and had got an infected ear. Thankfully that was cured by our Vets at the Centre. He found time to walk up to his visiting friends and wag his tail in welcome and a few days ago, Russell peacefully passed away due to old age. Like all our other dear friends who have left us, Russell will be remembered and missed always with love and fondness.