BE A SUPERHERO TODAY

We all love superheroes. All the love and admiration that we have for them is just beyond the highs of the sky. So, what would you do if you got a chance to be someone’s superhero? You all are probably raising your eyebrows to that. But yes my friend, you can be someone’s hero!

Jones and Manaswini - Picture by Shivani Dugha Now the question arises as to how one becomes a superhero. The answer is simple – SAVE A LIFE. You don’t have to hold an entire stadium over your head or have a cape around your neck to save lives. You just need to give a homeless animal a place in your heart and your home (food and water too!) By giving it a shelter, you’re not only saving its life, but changing its world completely. And that makes you a superhero, his/her superhero.

PAL Adoption Camp - Picture by Manaswini Shetye

There are thousands of abandoned animals, animals that are looking for a home where they will be loved and respected. And only you can help them get that. The suffering that puppy and kitten mills propagate are not common knowledge and hence some of us even today look at buying a pet as an option. Once we understand the truth behind these immoral practices, we as ethical people will automatically choose to Adopt! It is our responsibility to help our four legged companions and moreover, help ourselves.

Varenya Vaish and Jerry at the PAL Adoption camp - Picture by Manaswini Shetye

Pets can be great healers. They are miracle with paws. They are the best friends you can ever have – no questions, no criticisms. From being the smallest of your family members to being a psychiatrist, they can be anything and everything you want them to be. There's nothing else we can ever ask for.

A lot of people stand in dilemma between buying and adoption. Since they have very limited knowledge about adoption and fostering, they resolve for buying. However, it is always better to opt for adoption because, for starters, no amount of money can value a life. We do not go to a shop to ‘buy’ a baby when we wish to have one. Then why do it for the animals? There are a million reasons why you should adopt a pet rather than buying one. The most obvious ones are that you are not just saving one, but two lives.

Picture by Manaswini Shetye

One. By adopting or fostering a pet in need and giving him the happiness of his life.

Emily is an abandoned spitz - rehomed through PAL adoption camp
PC - Manaswini Shetye

Two. By adopting a pet who is already been brought into this world, you are reducing the demand for pets from the mills, thus reducing the suffering of the animals who are forced to meet the demands. 

“Breeders cannot be solely blamed,” explains Manaswini Shetye, core committee member of the Pet Owners and Animal Lovers Foundation (PAL). “Once people know about adoption, they start criticizing the breeders. However, they cannot be solely blamed. As long as there’s a demand for specifications in a pet, breeders will exist. It is like being in India and demanding to buy a kid of American descent - outright racism, if you ask me.”

LUNA the great dane is a handicapped because she was ill treated by a breeder.

Also, by adopting a pet from a good and trustworthy organisation, you have a surety that the animal will be healthy and all the details about your prospective companion will be shared with you - like what they eat, when they go out, what time they sleep, what is their favourite toy, etc. There are no secrets in adoption. Moreover, you and your pet will always receive help and guidance.

Fostering a puppy is always a good option for first timers.
PC - Manaswini Shetye

Fostering is an amazing option that all people who have ever considered having a pet in their lives must look into. It can be a rewarding and enjoyable experience and at the same time you are helping save a life. By fostering a pet, you are giving him a taste of his beautiful life ahead. If you are an animal lover and hesitant about adopting, you should try fostering a pet for the experience. “You understand through first hand experience what it takes to adopt a pet for a lifetime if you foster one pet for weeks,” says Mrs Padmaja Rajasimhan, a foster parent with the PAL Foundation. It's taking your love for the pet to a different level.

Lastly, as Anatole France puts it - Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

Pet Owners and Animal Lovers Foundation (PAL) is an NGO which works for a better future for animals in Thane city. PAL aims to help animals by educating and empowering people with the right kind of information which enables them to understand and deal with animal related issues. PAL believes strongly in evoking a sense of compassion in human beings towards animals and works with the youth and children to achieve this. PAL also rescues animals and gives them for adoption once they are healthy and fit. They have a specialised adoption team which is headed by Ms. Neha Dabir and look at matching the right animal with the right family through fostering and adoptions.

So if you are keen on becoming a superhero today, pick up the phone and call PAL on 9324699829 / 9833277040 or email on petownersandanimallovers@gmail.com. Alternately, you can also check out their adoption page on facebook - www.facebook.com/mypalclub

To read more about PAL’s work visit www.mypalclub.org

The article is by Shonali Pandey who is an animal lover and an adopter herself. She has a beautiful cat named Arya. She loves writing and is working with PAL to help create a better world for animals.
**This article belongs to Pet Owners and Animal Lovers Foundation. Any attempt to replicate any content without permission will lead to legal consequences.

Adorable BUNTY is looking for a home!

At only two and a half months old, Bunty, a white Indian puppy, has gone through a pretty hard time. He was run over when he was a month old, but with timely medication and some TLC, he recovered gracefully.

Here is his journey to recovery -

From a maggot wound to broken leg and ribs, this cute puppy has endured it all and come out even stronger! 

Look at him now!

All fine, absolutely healthy, vaccinated and dewormed and oh so adorable! He loves to play and loves to cuddle. All he doesn't have now is a forever family.

Can't resist that adorable face? Think you can shower him with love for a lifetime? Call 9324699829 to adopt, or even foster him for a few days. :)

Animals of Yellowstone National Park

An interesting article in the Times of India about the animals of Yellowstone National Park.
It goes on to make us think about the deep bond that animals have with nature and how easily they read the signals and signs.
The running animals could just be a migratory pattern as explained in the article. It is important to observe not just one species at this time, but multiple ones to make an inference about the fleeing behaviour.
If some substantial evidence can be found about the migration characteristics of certain animals and then be compared with their current behaviour, there might be a possible solution to this which can emerge.

Check out the article here - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Yellowstone-animal-exodus-Did-they-detect-something-deadly/articleshow/33243031.cms?intenttarget=no

The content is also posted below with a link to the video -
LONDON: Videos of lines of bison and other animals 'fleeing' Yellowstone National Park in the US have raised fears that the supervolcano underneath the park is preparing to erupt, but how much truth — if any — is there to this claim?

The clip in question was uploaded to YouTube with the title "ALERT! Yellowstone Buffalo Running for Their Lives!" and quickly circulated around online blogs with one commentator, a survivalist named Tom Lupshu, offering a typical assessment that the animals had detected "something vast and deadly." "The Yellowstone supervolcano is the only thing there that would fit the bill," says Lupshu.

But is the supervolcano really that scary? Well, in theory, yes. After asteroid strikes, supervolcanoes are the "second most globally cataclysmic event" that can affect the Earth, and in the past they've been responsible for mass extinctions and 'volcanic winters' lasting for year.

The Yellowstone supervolcano itself is an active hotspot, it has a massive magma chamber (scientists estimated last December that it was 2.5 times bigger than previously thought) and given what we know about its history, it erupts on a roughly 700,000 year cycle - with the last major eruption occurring some 640,000 years ago.

A cataclysmic eruption from the supervolcano some 2.1 million years ago is thought to have killed off thousands of prehistoric animals and covered nearly half of North America with ash and dust. In a nutshell, the fear is that Yellowstone is overdue — and that the bison are the first to figure it out.

However, Yellowstone Park authorities have stepped into the breach to clear up the muddle, with Public Affairs chief Al Nash calmly pointing out that the video of the bison 'fleeing' actually shows normal migration patterns.

"We do have bison, elk and other animals that have moved outside the park recently, but they're doing that because it's the depth of winter. Food is a little hard to find in places inside Yellowstone and they tend to migrate at this time of the winter outside of the park to lower elevations where they think there might be something to eat that's easier to get at," explains Nash in a video on YouTube.

"When the snow melts off and things start to green those very same animals will walk straight back into the park," says Nash, who also points out that although the park has been hit by some large earthquakes in recent weeks, none of these are beyond the bounds of normal seismic activity.

For online rumour-mongers though, the fact that the bison's "flight" occurred at the same time as the earthquake is extra evidence that Yellowstone is about to blow. However, this just raises another question: do animals really have a sixth sense that can detect this sort of cataclysmic event?

The answer is not as clear cut as you might think. Although there's a wealth of anecdotal evidence describing animals behaving bizarrely in the hours or minutes leading up to an earthquake, there's no scientific agreement as to what forces might actually be in play.

The most widely-accepted theory is that the movement of underground rocks prior to an earthquake generates some sort of electrical signal that is only perceptible to animals, but reports of which animals are affected and in what circumstances are so varied that it's impossible to offer a single, conclusive explanation.

One case-study from Italy in 2009 suggested that toads that fled an area prior to an earthquake had done so because of changes to the chemical composition of the groundwater, while a recent project linking the movement of bats and birds with earthquakes suggests that it's the animals' ability to detect magnetic fields that gives them advanced warning.

Most of these explanations are linked to the generation of some sort of electrical signal underground, but exactly how and why this ends up tipping off the animals is still not fully understood. We may know what's causing the Yellowstone bison to move but there's still a lot about this phenomenon we don't understand.

Graycious to Grenade

The puppy was a unique one. The moment anyone saw him, they would keep staring at him for a while.
Why, you ask? 

He was gray in colour, with a beautiful gray colored body and beautiful stunning gray eyes!

He had a loving and adjusting personality as well. No problem with other dogs, no problem with people, a jolly, soft and loving fellow!
Abandoned by someone in Hiranandani Meadows, Thane with another litter which was a few weeks older than he was. 

A horrible situation for the puppy. The new mother was not accepting of her step son. No food, no water and a bad life ahead. 

Niveditha, a girl from the same building was doing her best to keep him alive and healthy.
He was soon picked up by a family of animal lovers and taken home.
His foster care began. As he grew healthy, his features became more prominent. His hound like face and tail, along with cute ears. He was most likely a gray hound cross. 

Soon he was up for adoption. Owing to his unique color, there were calls from all over India asking for him. But we knew we had to select the best for him. 

Many got angry that we did not give them the puppy, many yelled and abused, accused us of not wanting a good home for him even! 

But we really needed him to go to a patient and lovely family who would love and care for him for the rest of his life. 

Saurabh took him home for a while, but soon he realised that it was a responsibility the family was not ready for just yet. In a couple of years, maybe.

With a heavy heart, Saurabh brought Graycious back to the foster home. 

Soon, he was up for adoption again.
And then came along Carey Vaz and his family. After a chat over the phone, Carey immediately came and met him. He fell in love with him instantly. 

The following Sunday, Neha Dabir and Avinash Raghunathan went all the way to Marol from Thane to meet Carey and his family. They came back with beaming faces. 

They were happy to have met Carey's family and really happy that Graycious (Saurabh had named his that temporarily) would be going there. 

Graycious' vaccination and deworming had been started in the mean while, so that he did not have any problems in the future. 

The following day Carey took Graycious home and named him Grenade. Carey and his family are thrilled to have little Grenade in their home! 

We hope Grenade has a lovely life with Carey and his family! 

Driving for a cause

The Lavassa Women's drive from Mumbai to Lavassa takes place every year. We always thought that the focus of the drive was to raise awareness about breast cancer.
However, this year, we were approached by one of the participants who wanted to drive for the cause of animal welfare.
The Lavassa drive now allows the participants to drive for the cause they are most passionate about!
Bombay Veterinary College student, Sachi Shanbagh wanted to decorate her car for the cause of animal welfare.
She brought a Xylo to one of our buildings and for a few minutes we were wondering how we would be able to decorate such a huge car and make it all about animals.
Then came the idea..make it look like an animal.. Why not a dog!
So, after a few hours of work and a few small injuries , the Dog Car was ready to hit the road.
Take a look at the pictures below to get a better idea about how the whole thing worked out.
Thanks Sachi for driving for the cause of animals :)

The 2013 calendar leaves of Pet Owners and Animal Lovers Thane - Design by Mahek Ganeriwal, Photography by Omrita Nandi

Scooby Dias, a Tibetian Terrier found on the streets of Thane. He has been adopted by Eden Dias and her family and continues to live a happy life with them. 

Read more about Scooby here - http://mypalclub.blogspot.in/2013/04/it-takes-long-time-to-get-this-sweet.html

Late Valley Dabir, an Indian dog who was threatened by the slum dwellers in the area where he lived. Soon after the calendar launch, he was adopted by Neha Dabir and her family. He passed away recently in an unfortunate incident where he was attacked and killed by a leopard who ventured into the Dabir farmhouse. 

Read more about Valley's rescue here - http://mypalclub.blogspot.in/2012/02/very-special-valentines-day-by-leha-and.html

Floyd Samar Jit is a handsome Indian dog who was rescued as a puppy by Samar Jit. He now lives with his brother Rave in Bangalore. 

Milo Menon was rescued and adopted by Surabhi Menon. He was purchased from Crawford Market because he looked "cute". Soon after, the owners realised they did not want him and decided to abandon him on the streets. Surabhi Menon was just in time to save him and take him home.

Bacchus Nair is a mixed breed dog and lives with Aditi Nair and her family. He is a handsome dog who was adopted from Mad Dogs Trust, Fort Cochin when he was a puppy. He came to Mumbai via Jet Airways.  He is an an alpha male and prefers to be the boss of the house. 

Punch Raghunathan was rehomed into Avinash Raghunathan's home when he was around 6 months old. He is a Bull Terrier, a rare breed in India. The breed is very active and requires a great deal of exercise. 

Read more about Punch and his adventures here - http://mypalclub.blogspot.in/2013/05/adopting-dog-is-not-hard-work.html

Pebbles Gupta is a labrador adopted into a loving family. She lives with Navodita Gupta and her family. 

Brando Nair lives with Dr Arundhati Nair and her family. He is a Boxer who was adopted when he was around 8 months old. He is a bundle of energy and keeps his masters on their toes. 

Max Nandi was rescued and adopted by Omrita Nandi. He is a daschund - Indian dog cross. 

Omrita Nandi is also the photographer of all the pictures displayed here. 

Stevie Thange is a partially blind Indian - Spitz cross who is adopted by Dr. Hemant Thange. Read Stevie's story here - http://goo.gl/02ZevV

Rave Samar Jit was rescued as a young puppy and adopted by Samar Jit. He currently lives in Bangalore with his brother Floyd. 

Cupcake Banerjee was adopted by Tanushree Banerjee and her family a few years back. Cupcake is a very loving and cute dog. She and her brother Oscar are always upto some mischief or the other when Tanushree isn't looking! Her brother Oscar is a therapy dog. 

Snoopy Marathe, pet of Mrs & Mr Marathe

Waghya Patel of Tandoor House hotel in Vartak Nagar 

Bonsai Das, pet of Mrs & Mr Das

Ozzy Nandi, pet of Omrita Nandi and family

Max Shah, Geeta Society dog. 

Caretaker - Nirali & Prathamesh Shah

Read more about Waghya here - http://mypalclub.blogspot.in/2012/12/waghya.html

Read more about Max here - http://mypalclub.blogspot.in/2011/10/miss-you-maxi-boy.html

These dogs left their masters' hearts hollow when they left for doggy heaven last year.  

We miss you <3

All the people behind the making of the PAL 2013 Calendar.