Animal Welfare and I Part V

During one of the adoption camps, I met another lady who is as passionate as I am and as practical as I am not. My Animal welfare journey would never be complete unless I speak about this lady. Radhika Deshpande and I became friends in no time. She and I would have long talks about ABC Drives and other rescues. I felt comfortable to tell her things that I otherwise wouldn’t have spoken to anyone, to seek her advise about animal welfare or otherwise. We made a good team.

She also supported me when I needed fosters for the pups that I would be looking after.

We did several rescues together and then one fine day we left the group for good. For once, we also considered starting our own NGO. Since we had understood the hard work it takes to built a team and a financial support that would be needed to run day to day activities, we called it off. It was or rather even today is a wise decision.

The Dilemma that I faced was about interfering with the nature or choosing to reduce population. During our discussions, I could sort my thoughts and choose a lesser evil in form of ABC Drives.

Radhika would take an appointment from CCC and we would together go looking for dogs for ABC Drives. I joined as many drives as I could, there were times when she did the drives by herself. In the year 2021, we did about 1 drive every month and sent 139 dogs which included 86 females for sterilization. 86 sterilized females meant avoiding birth of some 800 - 900 pups! (86 females delivering an average of 5 pups twice a year). That was a huge achievement.

Together we did an activity at Symbiosis college for awareness about animals along with few of our friends from the community. It was a fun day.

She also handled several other rescues like those of goat, horse and a cow. What impresses me more was her telepathic communication with animals.

Her pet Simba the Second was instrumental in me setting my other venture of “ToRi Kitchens”. Simba wasn’t aggressive but he wasn’t friendly either. The way she tamed him and transformed him into a well behaved obedient dog is my favourite story of Telepathic Communication. You can check her page Tales of Furry Tails.

Riki - The dog and Me -the Human

A promise that will last forever... It was third week of November 2003. I was recovering from relapsed Malaria and pneumonia and had returned to my parent’s place from Navi Mumbai. My then husband turned up one early evening and surprised me with a gift. The gift was a cute little black Labrador retriever puppy of less than 3 months of age. (November 20, 2003) I always wanted a dog but my parent’s understanding of responsibility had always denied acceptance of a dog. We had fish and birds but a dog was too much. I had dreamt that when I will grow up I will get myself a German shepherd and my ex-husband always had dreamt of having a black lab. So obviously he picked up a black lab. When the puppy came home, my first reaction was, "ohh my baby is here!" Day one On day one, this pup sat near the chair which was like ten times his size, six months later he found that the space beneath this chair can be his hideout when a bath is called upon, and a year lat...

How got Leh'd Part Three (10 August - 12 August 2014)

10th August: It was a good morning as it I could get up leisurely and get ready. We packed all luggages and kept in the guest house’s cloak room. (There were barely two big backpacks technically.) Today, I was well prepared with motion sickness tablet. We set ourselves in the SUV and picked up 2 Austrian girls Viktoria and Christa. They were on long vacation to India. We withdrew some money as we did not have any bookings made at the Nubra Valley. Our driver Dorje was a middle aged man, who claimed to be an ex-army. Jolly good fellow. He was fun to chat and seemed to be experienced as he knew how to handle 4 girls. Khardung La is barely 40 km from Leh. And most of the road to Khardung La overlooks Leh city. Shanti Stupa looked glorious in soft sunlight. Now, we were gaining altitude rapidly and I was haunted by the memories of Kargil war and Formula One car at Khardung La. Every time, we drove past the Army Officers, a feeling of regret, shame and pride kept revolving in my...

How I got Leh'd Part Two (7 August to 9 August 2014)

7th August: The day broke a bit late for us. The view from the room was astonishing. The far away snow clad mountains were inviting me for a trek... but... My health was much better than yesterday so we freshened fast and left for site seeing. We hired moped from another guy who had a shop right opposite our guest house. Stanzin Tolden is a friendly young lad from a small village 80 km from Leh. We also asked Stanzin to arrange for a shared taxi to Pangong Tso next day. He let us the moped which already had a bit of fuel in it. Yet, we filled additional fuel worth Rs. 300. And sped fast to Spituk. On the way, we checked Hall of Fame, which is open till 7 PM every day. Spituk Gompa is said to be the traditional seat of HH Dalai Lama(s). So, I actually wanted to walk from Leh. We had to be careful with utilization of time hence chose to ride the moped. On our way, we saw a group of cyclists pedalling all the way to Spituk. (I was so jealous.) Aft...

Me and this world - a tête-à-tête

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