Nine Below — A journey with man’s best friend
“Some angels choose fur instead of wings”
I wasn’t a dog lover all my life. I have been scared of dogs, have been chased by them, have flung stones at them when I was a little kid.
Fast forward to 2018, I had Nine dogs (bought 2, adopted 5, rescued 2) at my house.
What happens when all nine teach you something new in life?
Nine lives, Nine different stories.
The next series of blogs will cover just that.
Dolly
It was the summer of May 2013. I was lazing around the house watching ‘Turner & Hooch’ on TV. The thought of getting a pup had slowly started shaping up in my mind and I started watching movies that involved dogs for motivation.
It wasn’t the first time that the idea of getting a dog was turned down at home. Though I had my dad and sister backing me up, mom wasn’t really appreciative of the idea. It wasn’t a fear of dogs/responsibility that comes when you get one that stopped her from agreeing to it. In fact, my mother grew up with dogs since she was a teen herself. A loss in the future was always hard and mum knew the heartbreaks that will come up with it.
Fast forward to the 5th of June 2013, I was at my friend’s playing with the pups his labrador had given birth to. Dad and my sister had accompanied me as well. There were three kids out of which one of them was asleep and the other two were playing. Out of the two, one seemed very dominant, pushing down the other pup, rolling on him, and doing the doggo pounce. My friend asked me to take one of the kids and it was as though the pup understood what he meant. The dominant pup literally ran towards my dad and started biting his foot. It was as though she was asking him to take her along with him.
30 minutes later, I had a tiny little furball sleeping in my arms on the way back home. The pup was a month old and didn’t seem even one percent uncomfortable with the fact that we had just separated her from her pack. As we were pulling into the garage, my mother, who had no idea that we were up to this, froze. I said, “Ma, Dolly is here”.
Dolly wasn’t a new name in the house. My mother’s first pet when she was a teenager was a German Shepherd was named Dolly. She then had a Dashchound who was named Dolly as well. And the moment she heard that Dolly was there, a huge smile welcomed the kid home.
The initial days were tough, poo and leaks everywhere, chewed up slippers and chairs, some of the best clothes torn to bits. Dolly was on a roll. But a few months later, the entire family was so involved that we started cooking extra food to feed not just Dolly, but the dogs in the street. We started small by feeding around 4 -5 dogs in the initial days.
The impact that Dolly had made in our lives was huge, we went on to rescue and adopt 2 senior dogs, adopt 6 pups from the streets and feed 60+ dogs on the streets every day. The house was hers, all the beds in the house were hers too. Whenever someone from the family fell sick, she used to go lie down next to them until they were alright. Personally, she has seen my downfalls, my success, my tears, my happy moments.
Along with love and joy, Dolly also brought in luck to the family. Dad’s business grew exponentially, I landed multiple job offers at college, and my sister landed a phD offer. The family’s health was on a high too. Maybe because Dolly took out the whole concept of having/carrying stress with you.
Morning and evening walks, playing fetch, weekend drives to the beach, Dolly had me occupied. There were days when she would literally climb up the stairs with me to the rooftop where we used to just sit quietly and catch some gentle breeze. They say “If you are lucky, a dog will come into your life, steal your heart, and change everything!”
It was in July 2019 that things started to go south. Mum had just left for the United States to visit my sister who was expecting. Dolly hadn’t eaten for more than a day and had started to lose weight gradually in the previous few days. I took her to the doctor thinking it was a case of fever and that she would be fine. The doctor initially gave a couple of shots and prescribed some medicines and a diet. Things worsened the next day. Dolly was starting to show symptoms of a failing liver & kidney. Recovery chances were low but we decided to put her through the long road to recovery which meant taking injections and fluid drips twice a day, where each session went on for 2 hours minimum.
The procedure went on for the next 40 days with no signs of improvement. Second opinion, third opinion, nothing worked in our favor. Mom flew down back to India to be with her and Dolly, who had lost a lot of weight and was very weak, on seeing her gathered in all her energy to pick herself up and go lie down on her lap. The procedure went on for the next 6 days and one fine breezy evening she silently crossed the rainbow bridge in her sleep. She was 7 years old.
Such was her presence that though there were 8 other dogs in the house, it all seemed empty at that moment. Dolly was laid to rest on our farm with a small plant planted on her grave.
Things changed after that. The house turned out to be very quiet without her presence. We started donating to not-for-profit animal shelters, started feeding even more dogs, and in fact completed the ABC program for the dogs in our street.
Every day, dad before leaving for work prays just two gods regularly and one of them is Dolly. Dolly was seen as a god and will continue to be one for the family.
The next blog will cover Bhairav, a senior dog who was rescued after his owners abandoned him on the streets.
