I am an Indian stray dog. At the end of that sentence, I still wonder why anybody would be interested in my story or my plight; nevertheless, I will go on like I generally do with my life. I scavenge my way around for a meal & look for a quiet corner to rest my scrawny body. It’s a dog’s life.
The story of a nameless Indian stray dog
Sometimes, I wonder regarding the usage of the word dog in so many phrases, a dog’s life, the underdog not to mention the innumerable movies where my existence is used & abused in their titles & dialogues. If you ask me, it particularly sounds even worse when used in the vernacular language.
But Really, How much of a difference does my existence make in an average Indian human’s life? Yes, I admit, I meet some humans who seem more friendly & compassionate than the regular foul-mouthed stone-pelting Indian, but again that gets me back to another dog saying “Every dog has his day” and I don’t see many of those days.
See Also: I am a stray dog
It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us.
~Rorschach, Watchmen
I am a nameless stray, born in murky gutters to sniveling bitches.
My very existence is testimony to Darwin’s theory of survival. I pushed & shoved my siblings to just grab a mouthful of that satiating warm milk which was just the beginning of a little more than pushing & shoving just to fill my ever-hungry, rumbling stomach.
See also: Adopt a dog
No prizes for guessing where my siblings are; one lay decaying, crushed under the unforgiving wheels of a garbage truck before the same wrinkle faced garbage collector scooped the dead mass & dumped it in the same truck. The other not so luckier ones found our ways to other streets & corners trying to make a decent life of the one we were cursed with. My siblings are everywhere. We all have different stories, yet the same. We all look different, yet, we are the same; the Indian stray dog.
Did you know stray dogs are the best suited for Indian conditions?
We all are bound by that one single thread, weighed down by circumstances, weighed down by our looks & our origins. While patriotism is in its frenzied state, during red-letter days & rallies & protests, we have no takers. While dog shows are organized for our counterparts with their fancy ears & faces, we are considered a menace.
See: I am a dog in Bangalore
What humans fail to understand is that the same fancy dogs that are abandoned on the street, add to our numbers. Their genetic makeup gets ensconced into ours, while we merge with them; yet, we retain our identity, & take pride in the fact that no two Indian dogs would ever look the same. We outlive our blue-blooded counterparts, with all their high-class breeding & champion bloodlines, in spite of the conditions that we live in. Yet, we have no takers.
We love our human friends, just the same & would gladly sleep in any corner they feel fit to dispatch us to. We are happy little mutts with wagging tails, no different, yet, are perceived so differently.
We are the same, but just as different.
If only the hypocrisy & craze for everything from foreign shores would peter out someday, we would get our rightful place under the sun, beside the hearth & under a roof.
If only we had a voice.
If only we knew the language.
If only we would be acknowledged for what we really are,
The Indian dog, without the tag of the word, stray.
Here’s a list of helpline numbers for Animal shelters and NGOs working for the stray animals in Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune.
Dog lover & ace photographer Gokul Krishnan shares this heartfelt rendition of an Indian stray dog’s plight as a guest post for Dog with Blog. Originally featured as photo-essay ‘Stray Dogs in Indian cities’ at strays.in
This is so sad the way indian dogs are treated by other people. I remember me and my family had started giving milk and food to a bitch alongwith other neighbours but she came and gave her litters in our house only 1 of whom we kept and loved for 13.5 yrs who expired last year in september. What a tragic life of our dogs.The muted best friends of human who are nothing but full of love are not treated well and we love and respect those humans who treat us like shit.This is sad.No dog deserves this kind of life.
The Indian dog’s story, so well narrated. I come across many people who find it amusing to abuse stray animals, not just dogs but other animals too…:(
I have tears in my eyes..!! well written..people should understand that even they are living things..should stop abusing them !! 🙁
Thanks Krutika, the world needs more people with compassion.
This world needs more folks like you.
On behalf of the people who actually have concerns for such issues, i would like to thank you for such an amazing piece of work, bringing up such issues is actually needed in our society. Thanks for such an article which actually portrays the pitty conditions of dog…and am sure reading this article of yours will make a difference to the reader and hopefully at some point of time to our society at large.
Thanks for the kind words, warm welcoming woofs your way! 🙂
Hi Calvy,
You seem to be a dog lover just like me. I have always hated this strange behavior in us Indians that we like the phirangi dog breeds like crazy but don’t give a second look to the strays -some of whom are extremely affectionate and always the best gene pool among canines….
I had liked your page on facebook a while back and since then have been appalled at all the pictures of non Indian breeds that you keep putting up there…for every 10 pictures posted 8 are of foreign breeds like Labrador retrievers, St. Bernard’s,etc
Aren’t you encouraging this whole foreign breeds are better than your “nameless Indian stray dog” who don’t deserve their pictures posted there except once in a while?
We need to change the perception of desis regarding this and your pics aren’t helping….When I take a break from corporate world in US, it’s my idea to get in to training of therapy dogs and pass tihs training on to India through shelters that I have supported through the years. I will make sure that not a single non Indian dog breed is trained in therapy (even if I know that there are certain dog breeds that are considered more trainable than others).
I wish you would change what you are doing…
Hi Jaya,
The pictures put in at the facebook page are community curated. I post what they submit, the community needs crowd sourcing. However if you look at the blog posts that have been drafted by me, nowhere I have promoted ‘breed blindness’. Despite frequent requests by fans on doing ‘breed profiles’, ‘posting mating ads’ or decling some magazines to tie up with them for endorsing breed promotions, the blog has maintained its voice.
As for posting pictures of stray dogs for adoptions, I have always posted them when I have received or taken them myself. But my full time employment limits me to depend on crowd sourcing. The blog doesn’t aspire to be a NGO, nor asks for funds/support but subtly tries to draw a kind wave towards animals.
Facebook provides an option of highlighting prominent posts to the top of the page for maximum eyeballs, if you would analyze the posts those 8/10 posts that you have refeered to have been highlighted and shared the most so that the needy gets a home. (See: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=436536846389166&set=a.165417113501142.33086.122205421155645&type=1&theater)
I wish you all the best for your ”therapy project” but I don’t subscribe to the idea of being biased towards foreign breeds. I have always had strays as my pets as opposed to foreign breeds but I have nothing against foreign breeds, disliking a foreign breed serves no purpose for I believe that a dog is a dog, with the same loving heart and that welcoming tail.
NGOs and organizations are claiming to change the world, I am but a dog who is doing what he thinks he can. I am sorry if some of my posts have led to you to believe that I am biased towards breeds, for that I am not.