Taking Riki for walks was an easy task. He never needed a leash. On the walks he would greet people, knock doors to say hello to people, trespassed royally in gardens for grass. There were times when he would take himself on walks and when people would tell him to go back home, he would return.
In 2006, Riki went for a walk by himself and didn't return. My father had practically taken his time off from work to look for him. We must have visited many slums and many colonies and houses looking for him. After good 16 days, one evening when I was at work a young man from neighbourhood returned the dog and demanded Rs 700 which my mom had paid off and taken Riki home. I met the fellow over the weekend and tried to understand how and where he had found the dog. His answers were inconsistent.
A few days later, I met a woman when Riki and I were on walk, she said her brother ran a kennel and the fellow who had brought Riki home worked for him. She also asked me if I had Riki’s papers, I had but somehow I said he’s not pure breed so I don't have those.
Sometime later, I met her brother on a walk with Riki. As per my understanding, Riki had never met this fellow yet Riki for the first and the only time in his life got aggressive and barked his heart out and charged towards this guy. It was a surprise for me. I dragged Riki home. Same day in evening on my way to work, this guy stopped me and tried to chat. He asked if I had ever considered mating Riki anytime. I said the thought had crossed my mind but didn’t know anyone who would want to mate his pure bred female with a cross bred male. (Riki was a pure bred and I still have his papers, Just because I had some negative intuition hence I carried on with the story for cross breeding and no papers which I had told his sister) He said that was ok as he had papers of some dogs who had died or who were sold without papers and he would just take Riki for a week and also pay me some amount. I brushed him aside and left for work.
When I discussed this with one of my male friends, he took me to a shady locality near Khadaki where the houses were not bigger than shacks, they had expensive breed dogs chained or caged in front of the house. The owners drove expensive cars and flaunted gold. The pieces of this Jigsaw puzzle didn’t quite fit. The bitches are bred just for the sake of puppies. The sires could be any stray or even any of the pups the bitch has birthed herself (incest). So connecting the dots, a cruel and filthy face of breeding industry had only started to uncover itself.
On one of such morning walks during monsoon Riki found a sick pup and refused to leave its side. I gave in and brought the pup home. I dried it and didn’t know what to do. Hence took the pup to a nearby veterinary clinic. The vet charged me humongous for a week’s treatment and then we surrendered the pup to SPCA near Dhobi Ghat. This was my first ever rescue in 2008.
Later, I would feed the dogs and contributed to People for Animals monetarily until one eye opener.
One winter morning, I was returning from work after a tiring graveyard shift. Near Vitthalwadi, I noticed a cow with a broken leg. I tried to contact PFA Pune unit then run by a gentleman. He picked up the call only after 930 AM and boldly denied sending any help for the cow saying this service meant for dogs belonging to page 3 celebrities only. I felt so helpless that day. Later that evening, on my way to work, I asked the people what happened to the cow they said the owner took the cow in a carrier. It was a moment of relief until I heard that person add “to the butcher”! I just wanted to bang my head somewhere.