For the love of Dog 🐶
Takeover #3: Nisha Ravi
In case you missed the announcement or are new here, I will be sending 2 emails a month until March 2022. One will be my regular newsletter and the other will be a creator takeover. This is our third takeover, I hope you enjoy it!
About the writer: Nisha Ravi, as you will gather through the course of this email, is an animal lover and a rescue worker. Growing up in Coonoor, a small town nestled in the Nilgiris, her parents put her through many lessons of piano, Carnatic music, Bharatnatyam, the debate club, theatre, and quiz teams. Now, she believes herself to be a jack of most and a master of pretty much none! She currently works as a writer and Marketing Consultant and resides in Bangalore.
I grew up with dogs and cats, most of my formative years. My mother is a crazy dog lady. She has a full time job in the defence forces and is a part time animal rescue worker.
She has a daily routine of feeding close to 50-55 dogs in the neighbourhood. And then she brings home the skinny, sick, or injured ones. We have always had a medley of animals at home. A few birds, an injured rat at one point, a wee tiny squirrel, probably a thousand cats and another thousand dogs.
To know the kind of passionate my mother is you will probably have to see her go about her day. You should not be surprised if you catch her saying any of the following:
1. Kalia will come at 7.30 AM so can you keep an alarm for me?
2. Rani eats only rotis, please don’t feed her rice.
3. Can you give July some rice first, wait for her to finish, and then leave this packet in front of her. She usually carries it to her puppies.
All in reference to her dog feeding routine.
So growing up, I was attached to all the animals that were home. I also grew to become extremely empathetic, action-oriented, and what you would call a textbook animal-lover.
When I moved to Bangalore for the first time, my independent rescue journey started with a dog named Lucky. We found him crying for help at Sony World signal, hit by a car and unable to move, at 1 am on a cold December night in 2010.
We found an auto that was to charge us 3X the cost to go to R. T. Nagar, the only overnight pet clinic at the time. We took him, got him treated, brought him home and nursed him back to health. We found an organisation called ‘Animals Matter to Me’ (that now operates out of Mumbai) and got him to live a ‘shelter’ life. We began visiting him every week and in the process, feeding all the shelter dogs.
Thus it began, really. And there has been no turning back since.
I have left college and offices midway to attend rescue calls. I have chased injured dogs all around Koramangala to get them treated. I have made makeshift muzzles, used lassos, thrown bedsheets on unsuspecting dogs to pick them up and all such shenanigans. If I were to be honest with you... it’s a gratifying life. But it kills you when you watch your rescue pass away or when they have to be put down.
I fed a 14-year-old Indie in Adugodi for every day of the 3 years that I knew her. Gigi was partially blind, old, and had acute hip dysplasia which left her uncoordinated and stricken with excruciating arthritis. She had an extreme case of Mange so her skin was dry as the desert and constantly ripping.
My routine was to feed her, medicate her, and make sure she was comfortable, until one day I found her immobile. At 11 in the night, we drove her to R. T. Nagar. Seventeen years is a long time and it was suggested we put her down for her own good. That was the day I let a fighter like Gigi go. Not going to Adugodi again, that felt like a huge blow.
But here’s the flipside… when you manage to save a skinny, tick-infested Mama dog with her 9 new puppies from the clutches of evil owners and find all of them loving homes. Now that’s what lets you sleep fitfully at night!
It was 2011 when my sister and I made an impulsive decision to BUY a cute dog we saw on the internet. A black Cocker Spaniel. Bug-like and cute. We named him Beetle. Because well... you know, he looked like a bug.
The day we picked him up was very eventful. He was delivered to us at a bus stop in a plastic bag. We laughed about it then, wondering why we weren’t allowed to see his parents and why he cost so little.
The first 2 years flew. He was a poster puppy. Fluffy, soft, cute, loving, and always smelling of cerelac.
It was a happy 2 years when we actually did not know anything about the dark underbelly of puppy mills, unethical breeding, and inbred puppies. But in the summer of 2013, something changed. Something in Beetle just snapped and overnight he grew into a cranky dog.
He was now constantly growling, even at us, if we stood near his food bowl or touched his paws or tried to bathe him. He began barking at everybody. He began growing aggressive. It was slow and ignorable at first, but then it started becoming obvious. And then one day, he bit a friend of mine.
We knew we had to take him to the vet and find out what the hell was going on.
That’s when the horror began to unfold. Beetle had a classic condition, very common among inbred dogs (inbred means when a male dog is forced to impregnate his mother dog, leading to genetic disorders). His testicles hadn’t descended and this was leading to a lot of hormonal imbalance, thus the crankiness. He also had a bad case of separation anxiety. He was a very territorial alpha.
Over the course of the next few years, we found out a lot more. He had a severe skin disorder called seborrheic dermatitis, a condition that leads to dry, scaly, and itchy skin which if left unattended, can crack open, bleed, or turn septic. He had a liver condition, a hearing problem, chronic fungal infection on his paws and ears, constant ear infections, and finally in the year 2019, he went 80% blind.
I am so sorry if this suddenly turned into a horror story without any warning. But when I saw Beetle go bumping into the same cupboard he had navigated around for the last 8 years with ease, something in me broke too. I cursed my fate and apologized for his.
His discomfort was palpable and when we lost him a year later, the only thing we reiterated was, “Thank god he went easy, at least he did not suffer a single day... he died a happy dog.”
Because it’s true. After all the horrific rescue deaths, I was just glad Beetle frolicked around in the sun, slept, snored, ate a truckload, chased cats, and when it was time, died within a few hours. It’s strange, the kind of things that give you relief when you know what the worst could be.
Sorry for a tearjerker but I just wanted to highlight that I knew so little and made an honest mistake. The consequences of which not only did I bear, but so did my entire family and most importantly, my dog.
Would I change anything about the past? Hell no. Beetle was and will always be a piece of my heart. But there are a few things I learnt that I would like to share with you.
1. Illegal breeding and puppy mills are more prevalent than you know. Normal looking houses have basements where breeds in demand are reared in shackles to bear puppies. Once a female dog is too old to have anymore puppies, they are abandoned far away, like trash, with a broken spirit and spine.
I once rescued a female St. Bernard whose teats were touching the floor from all the feeding she had probably been forced to do in the course of 7 years of constant birthing. If anyone came behind her, she would automatically crouch and stick her butt up because that was what she was forced to do. We named her Lucy. She was severely malnourished and had cancer. We lost her within 6 months. But in those 6 months, she never ever trusted humans easily.
My 2 cents: Please, please adopt a dog from the many shelters that every city has. Please also be breed agnostic, Indies are just as good. Actually scratch that, they are a 100 times better because they are more suited for our climes.
2. I feel like many people have no clue what to expect when they want to bring home a dog. They often want the dog to look cute, play, and to be a well recognised breed. Dogs are seen as a status symbol. If you have a St. Bernard or a Husky, you are rich or well to do. I have heard so many of my own friends say stuff like, “I have always wanted a German Shepherd” or “I want a cute Shih-tzu, nothing too big”.
My 2 cents: When you create a demand for a bred dog, activities like inbreeding and puppy mills prosper. Adopt instead. Dogs are companions, not status symbols. Also remember that each breed of dog belongs to a geographical region best suited for their survival. For example, Huskies and St. Bernards will not thrive in the Indian heat because they are historically from colder places. Or consider Great Danes, who are high energy dogs, need a lot of space, and usually have a very big diet. You have to know what you are signing up for before bringing a puppy home.
3. Dogs are not temporary hobbies. Nor are they puppets. They are not going to turn out exactly how you would like them to turn out. Know that. So many people abandon puppies after a month of taking them home because (and these are the reasons we have heard while rescuing) “He sleeps too much”, “He eats too much”, “He gets dirty too fast”, “We are having a baby”, “My child did not like the dog”, “He wants to climb on the bed”, “He is chewing up the furniture”.
My 2 cents: A dog is a 15 year commitment. If there is anything in the next 15 years that you are unsure of, do not adopt a dog. If you would still like the option, try fostering instead. There are plenty of foster requests every single day across pet pages on Facebook and Instagram. It’s convenient, rewarding, and most importantly, you’d be giving an unlikely animal a new lease of life.
4. Difficult dogs deserve love too. Beetle was difficult. There have been more days than I can count, I wished I did not have him. I always regretted those statements blurted in pure anger. Would you believe it if I told you that he made my life monumentally better? I learnt to be responsible for another life, I became alert, I developed a routine. And in return I got love. Unconditional, heartbreakingly unhindered love.
My 2 cents: Don’t give up on a difficult dog, please? If you feel like it, you can just call a rescue worker or even me.
5. If you find the need to give up a dog ever, please do not hesitate to reach out to the right people. Abandoning is not an option. You may not know this but a dog sits at the same spot where you left him, waiting for you to come back. We have seen so many people leave behind dogs shoved into sacks or gurneys at rail tracks, hoping they would get hit by a train and die. But why? Ask for help. Please.
In the course of all these years of rescuing, I have realized that it is an emotionally taxing and expensive hobby to have. But it’s not a hobby as much as it is a habit. So luckily, you cannot shake it off no matter how hard you’d like to try.
If you ever find it in yourself to give back the unconditional love that you have received from any dog or all the dogs in the world, you can do so in some small but effective ways.
Below is a mini crash course:
- Leave out a bowl/ bucket of water in your streets during summers. The weather really gets to the dogs and freshwater saves more lives than you can imagine.
- Feed a dog you see often. A packet of Parle-G or buns and biscuits would do.
- If you find a friendly one, give him a little scritch under his neck. You would be literally make his day.
- Foster dogs in need. You cannot fathom the impact you have when you open your doors to helpless animals.
- Foster/adopt senior dogs. These dogs get abandoned the most.
- Bursting crackers are a nightmare for street dogs and pet dogs alike. I have rescued the most number of dogs stuck in ditches or with burnt paws during the festival times. So maybe go pataka-free?
While this is just the beginning of a conversation, if there are fellow rescue workers reading this, I hope I have done justice to the narrative and set the ball of change rolling, if ever so slightly.
And to those readers who are new to this, remember that every small decision you make — be it when you meet an animal on the road or when you think of adopting one — you can cause change. You can be the change.
I want to say a million things. I wish I had more space and time and better words to do it. But I am going to stop now before Soumya decides to not let me do this takeover at all! If you ever want to continue the conversation, you can reach me directly.
And finally, may you all have love the way dog owners do.
If you stumble upon an animal caught in an accident, sustaining any form of injuries, too skinny or small to survive on the roads, stuck or trapped somewhere, just overall looks like they need help, or female dogs that could be neutered, I’ve shared relevant links below. The same centres can assist with fostering or adopting as well.
Bangalore
Charlie’s Animal Rescue Centre
Delhi
Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre
Mumbai
Chennai
Kolkata
Hyderabad
Tip: You can simply Google the keywords ‘animal/dog rescue centres <locality name>’ to find more rescue centres and pages. They all have extensive donation programmes as well, ranging from one time donations, sponsorships, feeding programmes, meal sponsoring, and more.
I hope this helps keep the wheels, of a better world for all living things, greased. <3
Thanks for staying and reading.
If you enjoyed this email, do like it on Substack, write back by hitting reply, or connect with Nisha on Instagram.
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