As most of you know, Momo, my cat is a rescue and I have written about how I got adopted/rescued by her in another blog! I wanted to share about the other rescues and most recent rescue “Vaishu”!
A few months ago, I could constantly hear a kitten cry all night in my new apartment building and next morning when I asked the security about it, he told how there was a injured kitten in the basement that was bought by a resident and he was trying to get her to a rescue house because her hind legs were totally stiff and how when taken to a vet too was told that it needed to be taken to a rehabilitation centre for physiotherapy to gain back its strength, recover and walk as normally as she could. When I met her first she instantly ran to me and couldn’t stop rubbing herself against my leg. The moment I sat down, she was on my lap and it was very evident that she as yearning the touch and warmth.
I spoke to the resident to find out he had a dog and it was impossible to take this little one in. I had Momo at home and taking her in would mean putting Momo to the risk of infection. I spoke to a lot more people in the building and no one wanted to give her a shelter. I was even told by someone in the building that I should let it die. I felt the knots in my belly and knew I couldn’t let anything happen to her and do all the things I could to get her all the help to get her to the path of recovery. Meanwhile Raj collected all reports of scans etc from her visit to the vet clinic. We contacted a lot of NGOs and reached out to everyone in our network to get her all the help. After 5 hours of calls while ensuring we take good care of her and keep her comfortable, I spoke to one NGO that was ready to take her in. We immediately found an ambulance service that could transport her safely to the care house.
We did follow up with the NGO that took her in and in a few weeks she got adopted too! That was when we took a sign of relief.
As simple as the above sound, finding contacts and awaiting responses from each of the person/organisation we reached out to was nerve-racking. We faced with many rejections and some of them were themselves helpless with their hand and space full with other rescues.
Vaishu
Just the last month I was in Melur, a small village near Madurai visiting Raj’s parents. Raj has 2 dogs and both stray indies – Aarya & Karan. When there, I spend most of my time with them, working around them in the porch, taking them on walks and playing with them.
One of the evnings when we had taken them to the walk, came a small bundle of joy literally hopping like a deer that ran towards us. It was a white dog which was hardly a few months old. Obviously being the protective beings, Karan & Aarya were all set to pick the fight and were shouting at their best. All the while that we were trying to calm them down, the other dog was joyous and desperate for some pampering and belly rubs. She kept running from me to Raj and back to me like a pingpong ball and that is when Raj realised that the steel neck chain she had was tight enough to cut through her skin and her flesh was exposed. It has worms and maggots already. At one point Raj had to drag Aarya & Karan away into the house. While he was away I was trying to give this new dog some head scratches and she was just being a sweetheart. When I looked into her eye and the energy she as giving away, I knew she was a “Vaishu”. She started responding to that name super quick too.
Raj came back and we tired to get the chain out but it was locked with steel wires and it was hurting her enough that she was shaking. She still didn’t try to run away and it seemed like she trusted us. We tried to call the local vets and pet store but none helped. One of them gave us a contact detail of a person in the nearby village who could help and another person who could come home to help. We obviously wanted the second option and after a 10 minute conversation the person agreed to come in the next 40 minutes. 40 minutes went on to become 4 hours and there as no more reply from that person. For the entire 4 hours, Vaishu laid around us in the porch. Next we decided to go with the first option. For some reason she trusted me more than anyone else and at one single call would come and stand behind me so the best course that we took was to take her to the main road by walk and get her into an auto to reach the destination. After many many struggles and a few treats later, we succeeded to get her to the guy who would help her. She struggled through the entire process but would put up a brave face when I called her name out. She would cry for help every now and after about 1 hour of struggle and earning her trust, we got the steel wire lock removed. It was pouring heavily and all it took was a brief moment where all of us were closing the window that she ran away. We were worried about infection and the pain she would be in. We searched for her for the next 30 minutes in the rain but failed.
Early next morning she was the same jumpy self and came to the house at around 6am. I woke up to her sweet face and was sure that by any means needed, we had to get the chain out. We carefully locked her up in an isolated place and called for an auto. Took her to the vet where we were told that she must have been small when the chain was put and no one paid attention till it cut through the skin. The owner must have let her go and didn’t bother to free her from the pain. At the veterinary hospital, we successfully got the chain out and gave her all the medication she needed. She ran away even before we could get her into the auto to go back home.
The very evening, she came back home very very happy and kept jumping on me and licking all she could. She seemed like the most happiest creature on the face of earth! Post that she came every day and even came till the main road where we took the auto back to Benagluru.
Recently Raj visited home again and told me how Karan, Aarya & Vaishu are best of the friends now and Karan protects her from all other dogs. The wounds seems to have healed completely and all that is left now is for me to meet her again <3
Do stop by to let me know if you have any of your rescue stories or even other means that I can use to get help to the next animal that I come across!