There’s this thing about grieving. The world yearns you to snap out of it and yet there in your head you keep playing the elegy on repeat like a broken vinyl record, hoping for a different tune. And all this while you wait and wonder if there’s a way to turn your grief into something positive.
Sometimes there is.
Meet Padmini Stump, the Pune dog lover and founder of animal welfare organization Mission Possible. Padmini began rescuing dogs eight years ago, when her son collapsed in a fatal accident in Dubai, where her family is based.
This Pune dog lover is making a gigantic difference to the lives of stray dogs!
For over eight years, Padmini and her family friend, renowned oncologist Dr Ravindra Kasbekar, have been looking after the injured and abandoned dogs of Pune.
Padmini has built sheds in the open area around her bungalow, Gulshan Mahal, where she shelters the recuperating animals. The modest facility that she started has since become a buzzing rescue and adoption Centre. With nearly 100 dogs being treated and looked after at any given time, and over 1,400+ adoptions till date, Mission Possible is doing great work for the canine cause.
What is in it for this lady who hops between Pune and UAE to rescue, vaccinate and foster these homeless animals? Why not stay where her grandchildren are, far from the cacophony of neighbors who can’t understand what she does.
“After that I tried everything from praying to satsang, but nothing brought me peace. Helping these animals is worship to me, and gives me solace that if I couldn’t save my son’s life at least I can save theirs.”
Hope for Pune’s strays
Padmini keeps coming across poignant lives of pawed pals – dog with an ear blown off by a firecracker, dog with his eyes gouged and a multitude of road injury cases. Thanks to the care that these patients receive at Mission Possible, they get a second lease of life. In a slow manner, they have also taken to trusting humans, all over again.
However not everyone has celebrated this kind woman’s spirit, she has met with resistance from neighbors who complain of ‘noise’ and ask her to not nurse injured dogs in her bungalow.
“I can’t close my doors on the needy. Moreover, it’s my property. It’s not as if I have encroached on someone else’s property to shelter these animals. How can someone else dictate about who can stay? I am helping the destitute.”
Dog with Blog urges our Pune readers to please help this kind lady via volunteering at the shelter or by adopting one of the Indian dogs Padmini so lovingly cares for. We are sure that like Padmini, you too would rediscover your smile in the jocund company of the canine. Dr. Kasbekar who cares for the dogs between his surgeries at the city hospitals, helps with sterilization of street dogs as well.
Hi i appreciate your work and love towards stray pets ……i have found a dog near my house i hired badly on his leg ………please help him…….i stay in pune in yerwada ……please contact me …..9673669241
Request you to kindly contact a vet in your city. We don’t have a physical facility 🙁
A 8year female stray dog whose been bitten by a stray dog…some hole is been created by her left upside and the hole is been increasing.. please contact asap
We don’t have a physical facility. Please contact Mission Possible or a local vet at the earliest.
Hello , How can I donate so that street dogs gets food and first aid .I want to donate some money for this cause . Kindly let me know
Hi , need your support, can I please connect with you. My email I’d is pbhattacharya0973@gmail.com
Hi, I leave on pimple Gurav sainath Nagar. There is one stray dog in our lane. His leg is injured. Need your help. My cell no. Is 9923028089
Hi Prachi, Request you to take him to a vet near you at the earliest. You may then contact Miss Padmini at +91-9921881894.