Miss you Maxi boy!

For a person who didn’t know Max, he was a ferocious dog..for me, he was just the opposite. Active, energetic, awesome and my bestest friend. One day he followed my brother along with Austin up to my apartment .As usual they expect treats. After all the pampering..i observed a red lump on max’s hind leg. Little did I know that this is going to get worse. My brother took a step ahead and informed PAL about this. Aditi came to see Max the next day .

Initial growth

We tried to get rid of the lump by giving him medication and consulting the doctors through taking pictures. The medicine’s effect seemed to fluctuate through the month .Realizing that this isn’t getting any better we admitted Max to VTeams hospital in Mulund.

Nirali with Max at the V Teams Hospital, Mulund run by Dr. Chariar and team.

He was diagnosed with VG.A form of cancer. 

The extent of the spread within a few weeks

First the month long medication, then the whole load of sedatives, then the tests and all sorts of injections, then the chemotherapy, and then the surgery. Curing such a rare form of disease is really difficult. Both for the animal and the vet. He was brought back to the society after the surgery. He was really happy to be home. He just needed a little more care and attention. But Max’s health kept on deteriorating ..The growth on his body was removed surgically..but it didn’t stop spreading.I left town for higher education two days later.I couldn’t hold on to all the feelings all of a sudden. Going to a new place, adjusting there, anxious and at the same time worried about Max. My mom called me everyday to know about me. And all I could to talk about was Max.How was he doing and is he getting any better.My brother sometimes fed him while I was away.

September 25,2011. 

Aditi called me up and gave me the news. Max passed away. It didn’t sink in at that moment.I took a deep breath,cleared my mind,and cried.I cried because there were too many things going on in my head.Firstly.I couldn’t see him at the last moments of his life.Secondly,I coulnt take it that he was no more.I was told that he might have had an accident.But the people in my society denied of any such thing.That week went by. Time was dead slow. 
Now that I am back in town for vacations, I think about him all the time.The way he waited for me in the hospital,the way he listened to whatever I had to say,and when he gave me looks when he had had enough,the way he followed me when I rode my bicycle,the way he ate all my lunch while going to school,my friend who followed me.
If only I could see him one last time….
Now he is over the rainbow..free from pain..free for any kind of suffering…that’s it..i cannot find more word to express my feelings... I love you Max.I miss you real bad.
~Nirali.
P.S-Thanks to Aditi for helping me throughout.Also Arundhati and Rishiraj for checking on him that day. Also VTeams and PAL. Dog bless you all.

 Nirali Shah

Muchakund ka Jumbo

 
Jumbo has been living in the Muchakund building of Vasant Vihar since around 4 to 5 years. The kids and the residents of the buildings take care of him and one more dog in the building.
Now, Mr. Jumbo is of the adventurous kind. He believes that once in a while, he has to step out of his territory and tease the other dogs a bit. So he decided to go into the Amaltas area and tease the bullies living there a bit and then run back to his safety zone.
Now, as adventurous as he is, Jumbo just did not think this plan through.
The Amaltas bullies were too many in number and he could not handle them very well when they all came together. After all, they were about 6 in number and much more well built than he was.
Poor Jumbo came back that afternoon with a wound on his ear and a few bruises here and there.
The children of Muchakund are true Animal Lovers in all their innocence. When PAL Aditi Nair arrived at the scene, she was taken aback. Anurag and two of his friend were sitting with Jumbo on the floor and holding savlon against the wound on his ear. Mind you guys, these kids are in the 8th Std. Two of them even want to be Vets!
There was very little work remaining to be done as the children had already cleaned up the wound. The medication was applied and within 2 days Jumbo was back on his feet jumping and barking again.
A resident of the building who saw the work being done by the children thought of their safety. She took Jumbo in her own car to the vet and gave him an Anti Rabies shot as soon as he was well.
Mr. Jumbo is doing good now and having a gala time playing with the kids and barking at all the other dogs in his area. The watchmen love him too!

This story is a clear example of how the residents of a building can do good work for the society in whatever capacity they can. Be it cleaning the wound and holding Savlon against the ear or taking the dog for vaccinations and giving it food on a regular basis, if this is a collective effort, then nobody feels burdened and the problem is no more a problem. The building now has a vaccinated dog which automatically makes the area a SAFE STRAY zone. As long as Jumbo is in the premises, no other dog will dare to come into the area and settle there. Muchakund has ensured that even if anyone gets bitten by the animal, the person will not have any issues. They have helped themselves by helping Jumbo.

Twiiter @Orchid

Road accidents seem to be the cause of most injuries in animals. Most cases we have got calls for, are because some rash driver did not see the animal and ran over the leg, body of the animal. In some cases, if the animal is totally unlucky, he or she could have a head on / side collision with the vehicle causing either instant death or fatal problems.
We have to learn to be more responsible with out driving!
The wheel was invented by man to simplify things and not to mess up things further for any other form of life. In today's world, most of nature has been taken over by us and some animals have come to be dependent on us for food and survival. A classic example of this are the Stray dogs and cats you find around you.

This is the story of Twitter who lives in the Orchid building in Hiranandani Meadows, Thane.

Twitter and his siblings Orkut and Facebook were living peacefully in the building premises. The fascinating names were given to them by the kids living in the building who enjoyed playing with them.
One day when some of the kids came down, they saw that Orkut was missing. On asking around they realised that Orkut had been run over by a driver of the resident of the building and was dead. There was little that could be done as Orkut was already gone. A few of the residents who came to know about the matter, went and spoke to the resident whose driver was the culprit. Other than firing the driver, there was little that could be done!
In the next few days, some of the residents found Twitter limping badly and yelping in pain. On asking the watchman what had happened to Twitter, they were informed that he was run over by a car!
Mrs Annie, a resident of the building knew about PAL and called us. On reaching the building we were informed that the pup wasnt eating anything and that he was yelping in pain. Our training vets examined him thoroughly for a fracture and ascertained that there was none. We administered oral medication to the pup immediately. We requested Mrs. Usha, another resident of the building to give us a few eggs and bread. She did this gladly and the Twitter who hadnt been eating all along, gulped down the meal!
This was definitely a good sign. We followed up with him everyday with his medication and Ms. Aashka, who fed the animals on a regular basis along with Supreet Kohli and PAL Member Sagar Harchandani's younger brother, Manav Harchandani came through for Twitter. They fed him twice or more times a day and gave him all his medicines at the right time. Twitter soon started supporting himself on all 4 legs. He still walks with a slight limp, but thats all that the driver could do to him!
Thanks to all the love and care given to him by the residents, he is up and about and has surely put on some weight :)

He has also moved from the parking area to the main lobby area and has a box with his name on it, in which he sleeps and rests. Way to go Twitter!! :D
Just keep one eye open for those crazy drivers out there!

Moti, the lucky pearl

Call from – Prashant Paradkar

Animal – 2.5 to 3 month old stray puppy, brown coloured

Date of case starting – February 18^th, 2011

Story –

Prashant Paradkar is one of our active members and feeds a few of the dogs and pups outside his complex, Niharika. There are two vendors as well who feed the dogs there as well. Prashant saw that one of the pups was limping very badly. On asking the vendors, they told him that the pup had been run over by a bike. 

 Prashant informed us right away. Arundhati, Prathamesh and me (Aditi) reached the spot and located the pup. He was very scared of us. But he let Arundhati examine him. After checking him thoroughly, Arundhati said that it was definitely a fracture and that he was in pain. We got him Crocin Drops as the pain killer and some Betnasol as well. We could not take him for an X Ray as it was very late in the night. The following day, Deepika, Prathamesh and me once again went to the site and spotted the pup. We called Mrs. Shakuntala Majumdar of Thane SPCA and asked her if we should admit the puppy right away in T SPCA. She told us to go to Dr. Chariar and get an X Ray done. We muzzled him and took him to the clinic.

Dr. Chariar examined him and asked us to take an X Ray. He gave us a note for Krishna X Ray centre, Panchpakhadi. We took the pup there and got the X Ray done.
We then took the puppy to Dr. Ganguli’s house as we did not know where else we could keep him safe till 5 pm (the time that Dr. Chariar’s clinic would open again).

We took him back to the clinic at 5pm. Dr. Chariar plastered the pup’s hand and told us that we could take him to the V Teams hospital at Mulund. Being a pup, he required more care and attention that regular dogs.

We left him at the hospital by evening 7 pm. He was at the hospital for a period of 8 10 days. 

Once Dr. Chariar and his team felt that he had recovered, they told us that we could take him back to his home ground (in this case, literally a ground! )

He had been named “Moti” by the ward boy who had been taking good care of him all the days he had been at the hospital.  

 On the way back from Mulund, Moti decided to shower me with some holy water (read Pee). Not only were my clothes soaked in pee, but also the entire back seat of the car! 

 We took him back to his home territory where his pack along with his family (brothers and sisters) once again accepted him happily!

Dr. V M Chariar and Dr Jaya Chariar with their son Mukundan

Prashant Paradkar  is a PAL living in Niharika. He and his Doberman Leo are good friends with the entire gang of strays living outside the complex. Prashant makes it a point to try and feed them whenever he can. He has made friends with the vegetable vendors living outside Niharika and has convinced them to feed the dogs over there as well. Way to go Prashant!!

Sheru

This is the story of real India.

Sheru (a white pup) and his step brothers were born on the roads of Laxmi Park near Kissan Nagar, Thane. This area has a lot of small settlements in place where people who earn their daily wages by selling vegetables, working in houses, etc live.
The people of this area were not very compassionate towards animals as they were used to seeing puppies being run over by vehicles almost everyday. They could do little as they did not even have space to lie down comfortably in their own house, let alone bring an animal into that small space. Many of them had financial issues as well and led a hand to mouth existence.

PAL was alerted to the area by a member Apurva Pradhan. She noticed a puppy lying dead on the road and called us for help. On reaching the place, we saw that the dead pup had already been removed. But that did not stop the remaining litter from running around. The pups were all black, same colour as the mother. We noticed a white pup in the middle of the black pups. On observing the litter for a while, we saw that the mother did not like the white pup and refused to give him any milk or share her food with him.
On asking around we found out that someone had abandoned the white pup in the area.
The area has a huge number of stray dogs but there were no other litters visible and hence it was clear that the white pup was from another area.
The white pup had a few wounds on his body and needed attention. PAL volunteers took him to TSPCA where he was given the required treatment and vaccinated. We brought him back to the area and were really sad that we would have to leave him on the street once again, as PAL does not have a shelter to keep any animals at the moment.
Seeing all of us discuss so gravely about the issue, one of the boys in the huts came forward and said that he would look after the pup. He was soon joined by his brother and his mother. A few of his friends also came along and said they would take care of the white pup and would keep an eye on the rest of the litter, whenever they could, so that they do not come under any vehicles.
We were overwhelmed by the love and sense of responsibility they displayed towards the animals.
PAL went to feed them everyday for around 15 days till the mother and pups looked a little healthier than before. During this time, we also made sure that some amount of food was given to the people living there as well. So it was Dal and Rice from the grocery store for the people and Biscuits, milk and dog food for the dogs in the area everyday!
As days went by, we noticed that the white pup had gained acceptance into the family of the little boy who had volunteered to look after him. The pup now lived in the hut with the rest of the family.
Recently, when we visited the area, we saw that 2 black pups were remaining from the litter and Sheru (white pup) was doing good in the house.
We believe that when human beings are happy, animals will be happy. This is an example of the work that we feel should be done in these sections of the society in order to bring about a change in the mindsets of people.
It does not make much sense to go into a slum area and feed the animals there and turn a blind eye at the people who need our help there. It is important that we look at the picture in a holistic manner and approach the problem in the best way possible. Animal Welfare should always be done, keeping in mind the fact that it is an offshoot or a result of Human Welfare. And for all the animal lovers out there who hate human beings, chill! After all, humans are also just social animals :)

A Notice!

The following was found posted very low on a refrigerator door.

Dear Dogs and Cats,

The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Racing me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort, however. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out on the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom! If, by some miracle, I beat you to the bathroom and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge in an attempt to open the door. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years - canine/feline attendance is not required.

The proper order for kissing is: Kiss me first, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough.

Finally, in fairness, dear pets, I have posted the following message on the front door:

TO ALL NON-PET OWNERS WHO VISIT AND LIKE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PETS:

(1) They live here. You don't. 

(2) If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. That's why they call it 'fur'-niture. 

(3) I like my pets a lot better than I like most people. 

(4) To you, they are animals. To me, they are adopted sons / daughters who are short, hairy, walk on all fours and don't speak clearly.

Remember, dogs and cats are better than kids because they 

(1) Eat less

(2) Don't ask for money all the time 

(3) Are easier to train 

(4) Normally come when called 

(5) Never ask to drive the car 

(6) Don't hang out with drug-using people 

(7) Don't smoke or drink 

(8) Don't want to wear your clothes 

(9) Don't have to buy the latest fashions 

(10) Don't need a gazillion dollars for college

Sincerely,

Pet Owner

Contributed by 

Prerna Sawant

My Murine Masters by Nirali Shah

 

They crawl down your arm, Peek out of the cage...

They turn their bedding upside down, Out of their bickering and rage

They get up in the dark, They give you the LOOK!
Gazing through those hypnotic eyes, they create a complete spook!

They mutilate your ear phones and nibble them away with joy!
They pee all over your favourite things, "IT'S MINE" the say OH BOY!!

Yet you love them so much...more with each passing day!
You love it when they share your plate and lick your ice-cream away!

Though they terrorize your mom and make polka dots in your sheet..
you love their lil ears and whiskers and their lovely pink feet!

Tiny black balls of poop, crumbs on the floor, you see?
You know the air smells funny...as u look at some rat pee!!

You give them kisses and scratches and all the love you can show!
One day you become their pets! And that will happen before you know!

They play just like dogs and they sleep like royal cats!
As cheerful as canaries! But rats will be rats!!

By Nirali Shah

A handful of money!

You've loved visiting the Circus ...right..?

Watching tigers jumping through burning rings..

The elephant standing on two feet...

The birds that dance and sing?

They were not born to amuse bored people

Nor to suffer the "guidance" so rude

Beaten up and exhausted to limits....

Just for a MORSEL OF FOOD

If hunting is an adventurous sport

Oh what fun to kill a human for game!!

Then sell his skin and hair for profit!

WHY? Sounds sinful and lame??

For one u call it a murder...

For the other you call it fun??

Embed one thing deep in your heart, my friend

That pain, suffering and and agony are one...

Pain is no different

For and animal, human or plant

So now do you call yourself superior?

NO… my friend you can’t

So how can you be unaffected?

By an animal moaning in pain?

If it were your child instead...

wont you stand up and complain??

They steal a child of a mother's warmth...

Deprived of her love and care...

How did we become so heartless....

That all we have is hatred to share?? 

They were born to live and breathe like us...

To feel the mighty sun....

Born to rise their spirits up high....

To rise..to gallop to run..

NO.they are no different from us

OH WAIT! they have no greed..!

They are not a part of the selfish minds..

NOr the Barbarian group that we lead....

A handful of money makes man Indifferent

Causing cruelty to prevail...

And thus humanity remains so rare...

While the animals moan and wail...

~ Anonymous

Contributed by Nirali shah 

10 Canine Commandments!

Contributed by Neha Dave

Diwali by Akshaya Vikas Kawle

Festivities...Good times, celebrations, good food, sweets, family and friends. What more can I ask for? Lights and the aroma of the festive season fill up our homes, soul and mind. And as the days pass by, and the festivity approaches, it grips me, entralls me, taking to a new level of freedom, emotions, and anticipation. I experience an adrenaline rush. I like it, enjoy it. But it gets me anxious. Is this festivity getting the same anticipation for all? Or am I one of the few blessed ones? Food for thought.

With Diwali on the onset, there are a few issues that resurface. Pollution, global warming, environmental hazards. Is that what Diwali has become? Is that what festivity has in store for us and our future? I guess not. I hope not. It is what we have made it. I believe so. To each his own though. Critics are welcome. So is empathy. And I say empathy, not sympathy. Yes, we are facing global warming, we are ruining our natural environment. But let bygones be bygones. What is of need now is what we can do now. Let us take small steps at a time. We could begin with a bit of tolerance. We could begin with a bit of sharing. Isnt that what our festive stand for primarily?

I have learnt to share my space, my environment with others. And I am not talking of family and friends. I talk of friends of the other kind. The animal friends. That is one issue I feel like taking up this Diwali, to spread happiness around me. I did not wish to restrict myself to humans alone. Not this time. We humans have got multiple sources for that. What we do affects them too right...My strays. My friends, more like my children. Yes they are, and I am proud to say so. Neither ashamed, nor embarrassed. I feel bad to see them scared. I am so used to seeing their tails wagging, that it pinches me to see them look for space to hide, to escape our crackers, our celebrations. And yet we celebrate. Amazes me to wonder how!!! I look into their eyes, they still are happy to see me, they want me to pet them, but alas, here goes another BOOM, and they run helter scelter. And I stand there, wishing and hoping I could do something.

So I will this season. Diwali is a season to spread happiness, to meet loved ones, to celebrate the spirit of being yourself. I will do just that. No compromises. I will celebrate with my strays and other animals. Make sure I do not do anything to make our festivity a nightmare for them. I say no to crackers, to pollution this Diwali. And I say no to inhumane behavior to them otherwise. This, for me is the spirit of Diwali. It gives me great joy, which magnifies with the fact that I am trying to do something for my animal friends as well, by being more responsible. Hoping all of you find your festive spirit, just the way I found mine. Then we will celebrate in its true essence. A grand welcome to festivities!

Post by Akshaya Vikas Kawle