Tale To Remember #13 (1/3) – Snoopy, the English Lady of the house.

“I’ve loved animals since my childhood. I remember my mom telling me that I used to run to wipe dog’s noses with my handkerchief! Snoopy was my first formal adoption. We found each other on the 14th of November, 2001 in Bahrain, while I was on a vacation. She was 6-7 months old at that time & a whippet hound, who was a racing reject. I managed to convince my family and got  her back to India with me.

Snoopy being snoopy 😀

She became my confidante & was an integral part of every important milestone in my life. One of the vivid memories I have of her is how I had taken her on a beach date and Snoopy was playing hide and seek (she was a very fast runner) and in no mood to be back home which almost made me miss my inflight duty. That’s how mischievous she was throughout & she just loved being outdoors, beaches being her absolute favourites.

Snoopy enjoying her time at the beach, with Ellie.

We used to tease Snoopy to be a snooty Brit as she had a pricey, English Aloofness in her. She had this dignified personality and lived her life throughout on her terms and left her body also in that manner after 15 years of companionship. I miss being around her but I know she is watching over me as my angel & she & I will be together forever.”

Tale To Remember #12 (2/2) – Casper, the boy who changed many lives.

Casper with his dad.

“The night before Casper was to leave for the farmhouse, I kept him with me to be able to spend sometime with him. By this time, the rapport between him & my parrot, Raju, was cordial. But the thought of separating from him the next morning was too much for me. I had to make a decision. I was getting married in the next 2 months & my  husband, who was my fiancé then, wasn’t really an animal person. So I had to be practical & check with him too. He cared about me so he said yes to keeping Casper. The next morning when the doorbell rang, I answered only to inform the family that I had changed my mind & that Casper would stay with me. 

You should see the bond between my husband & Casper now! One wouldn’t believe that he wasn’t an animal person at any point of time in life 🙂 Casper goes to his office during the daytime & goes from desk to desk, taking his share of love from all the people there. He is pampered a lot & he loves just sitting near the windows in there. He’s even bought himself space in my mother-in-law’s heart & he is spoilt by her as well! We take him to our guest house on the outskirts on the city sometimes. He loves running amok & getting dirty amongst the nature & water there. 

Casper attending a meeting in his dad’s office.

Because Casper has been used to being raised by kids in his younger days, he loves kids! When I take him out for a walk, he goes to the gate of a building nearby, where kids usually play cricket, & he calls out to them. The kids come running to meet him, yelling out his name. It is an endearing sight. You know, he was the reason that all the kids from the earlier society, got a pet of their own after we shifted out from there! They all still ask about him whenever I visit. He is not trained, but he is such a well-behaved dog! He doesn’t make the guests uncomfortable. He, in fact gets them to give him belly rubs & cuddle with him. I used to call Casper my friend initially. But he is actually our beloved child. He is extremely affectionate & perceptive. Raju passed away 2 years ago due to old age, but Casper fills all the gaps in our house & life.”

Black animals: Misfortune or Good Luck?

While black acts as a fashion statement & is the go to safe colour in the wardrobe for most of us, it doesn’t seem to be much of a favourable colour for the animals.

Black as a colour, is associated with many a things. In ancient Egypt, black is a symbol of death & the night. And because of that, it was also a natural symbol of the underworld & hence, also of resurrection. In India, Black represents evil & is often used in rituals to ward off evil. Which is why, as per an age-old custom amongst Indians where an infant or, for that matter, anyone looking really spectacular is often blessed with a little black dot on the chin or behind the ear to ward off the evil eye. Some people even tie a black thread on their leg to ward off evil.

Poor black cats are blamed just for their colour! It’s a popular belief in the West & in India, that if a black cat crosses your path, it’s a bad omen. The origin of this superstition came from the Egyptian culture, where they believed that black cats were evil creatures, whereas the Indian explanation is that black represents Shani & thus brings bad luck. It is said that if a black cat crosses your path, then your day’s tasks get delayed or postponed.

The folklore surrounding black cats varies from culture to culture:

• The Scotts believe that a strange black cat’s arrival to the home signifies prosperity.
• In Celtic mythology, a fairy known as the Cat Sìth takes the form of a black cat.
• Black cats are considered good luck in the rest of Britain & Japan.
• Furthermore, it is believed that a lady who owns a black cat will have many suitors.
• However, in Western history, black cats have often been looked upon as a symbol of evil omens, specifically being suspected of being the companions of witches, & so most of Europe considers the black cat a symbol of bad luck, especially if one crosses paths with a person, which is believed to be an omen of misfortune and death.
• In Germany, some believe that black cats crossing a person’s path from right to left, is a bad omen. But from left to right, the cat is granting favorable times. In the United Kingdom it is commonly considered that a black cat crossing a person’s path is a good omen.

Why can’t it be that the black cat, just like humans, is crossing a road? Does one black cat really have all that time to decide which groups of people it’ll choose to cross the road, in a certain direction so as to give them hints about what that pattern is indicative of?

In folklore, the black cat has been able to change into human shape to act as a spy or courier for witches or demons. When the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, they brought with them a devout faith in the Bible & also brought a deepening suspicion of anything that deemed of Satan. They viewed the black cat as a companion, or a familiar to witches. Anyone caught with a black cat would be severely punished or even killed. They viewed the black cat as part demon & part sorcery. During the Middle Ages, these superstitions led people to kill black cats. Black cats have been found to have lower odds of adoption in American shelters compared to other colors except brown, although black animals in general take more time to find homes. Some shelters also suspend or limit adoptions of black cats around Halloween for fear they will be tortured, or used as “living decorations” for the holiday & then abandoned.

This is true even for countries like India. We’ve heard so many things about a black cat being the ultimate bad luck & anyone who owns one, is though of, as possessing some evil powers. The same goes for black dogs as well. A lot of people who own black dogs, keep them with the weird notion that it will absorb all the evil that the human is supposed to endure due to karma. Buffaloes, because they’re black in colour, are considered as Yamdoot’s (the god of death) vehicle. The television & film-making industry encourage these notions by using black animals to portray “evil stuff”.

The logical question here is – do we get to choose the colour of our skin when we are born? Obviously, not. Then how does that logic go out of the window when it comes to animals? Just because they are born black, does not mean they are evil. It’s pure genetics with regards to the colour of the skin. Thankfully, there is also a large number of educated population who are trying to bust these myths by choosing to adopt black animals, purely out of love, and also, to prove a point.

We, for one, have one black cat & one black dog in the family, & we’ve experienced nothing, but pure joy ever since they came into our lives.

So the next time someone calls a black animal evil, try & use your better judgment in such cases, & may be, use that opportunity to educate the misinformed? If we are indeed the generation that is continuosly making efforts to discard all the old notions that don’t seem to fit in today’s world, this myth about black animals, should be treated no differently. Let’s discard this notion. Let’s work on making a change for the good of the animals & ourselves.

Disclaimer: Some of the content used in the post above is curated, to bring to light, facts from ancient times.

Tale To Remember #7 (3/3)

“Doofus actually chose us. Like, literally! She was one of the dogs my parents used to feed on their daily rounds. We figure that she was abandoned by a family that lived in that area & weren’t ready to take on her responsibility. She was timid in nature at the time & used to be the last one to eat since she didn’t compete like the other strays, for food. Apart from my folks, she was also fed by a guy who owned a mutton shop in that area. An NGO had picked her up, sterilised & released her back into her area. But somehow, she managed to get her stitches opened up. She was about 1.3 years old at that time. On noticing her wounds, my parents got her home & took care of her for the next 20 days, until she healed completely & released her back into her area. She continued living there for the next one year, without any issues. Then, suddenly one day, she started following my parents, on a daily basis. There were times she would just sit in the car & refuse to get off. Similarly, she would sit in the autos that we travelled in. We tried dodging her since we had enough on our hands already. But somehow, she even found the shortcuts we took, to reach home. And once she knew where we lived, she parked herself in our area. She would sit on the divider in front of our building & keep staring at our flat. Come rain or shine, she didn’t give up. And finally, after a few days, we just got her home too. It was meant to be. She goes with my parents for the feeding rounds every night. Since she has seen the street life, she’s quite street smart that way. She is quite adventurous in nature & naughty too, which is where Lizzy ensures she doesn’t go overboard with things. All in all, she’s an 8-year-old, total Diva! “

“Home is wherever the three of them are.”

For part 2/3, click here – Tale To Remember #7 (2/3)

Dad with all the 3 brats 🙂

Doofus asking for a belly rub without caring for the camera!

Doofus giving us a diva look

Doofus sulking!

Tale To Remember #7 (2/3)

“Two years after Pepper, Lizzy came home. I had noticed her near Gaiety Galaxy in Bandra where she was hiding under a sugarcane juice vendor’s cart & was surviving, purely on the sugarcane juice. She’s clearly a labrador mix breed. She was shooed & abused by passers by. I told my parents about her, but none of us really brought her home immediately. On Christmas, my parents went on a special round of feeding the strays, that’s when they met Lizzy. And within a week, she too was brought home. It took a month for her & Pepper to become friends. But since they found company in each other, they wouldn’t mind staying alone for a few hours. They both like to sleep next to each other, in their baskets. Lizzy is an extremely gentle, quiet & wag-happy baby. Even though she’s the middle child, she’s the alpha in their hierarchy & she keeps the youngest, Doofus in check. She’s my sister’s baby & enjoys every moment with her, when she’s home.” 

For part 1 of 3, click here –Tale To Remember #7 (1/3)

More of Lizzy’s pictures:

Is the word “humanity” losing its meaning?

However much one may want to avoid being the preacher, certain incidents shake your soul and one can’t help but express their disappointment about the same.

It is appalling how many incidents of animal cruelty have been reported & noticed of late. What is more disturbing is, that some people, while they are recording these incidents, it’s not to gather evidence & get the wrong doers punished. They’re doing it to feed their social media pages and hope that the video goes viral.

When did another life become less precious than ours? Who gets to decide that? What gives one the right to take away the life of another?

Piercing questions, aren’t they? Well, the reality is even more disturbing.

1. A group of people at a beach in Argentina was recently filmed mobbing a baby Franciscana dolphin in search of pictures, resulting in its death. The combination of shock and being removed from the water so long is thought to have caused the endangered animal to die of dehydration. (U.S.A., February, 2016)
2. Kristen Lindsey, 31, dubbed “veterinarian of the year” killed a neighbour’s cat with an arrow and posted the picture to her social media with the caption “the only good feral cat is one with an arrow through its head.” Somebody commented that she might lose her job for what she did. She answered: ‘And no I did not lose my job. Psshh. Like someone would get rid of me. I’m awesome.’ The case is still on. (U.S.A, 2015)
3. Two men tortured a puppy and filmed her hurtling several storeys to the ground. Once the video went viral, animal activists began their search for these men and finally found that they were medical students from Chennai. A police report was filed & the two were finally caught after being in hiding for a few days. In the meanwhile, the dog was found alive, with injuries to the legs & spine. The dog, now called, Bhadra, is being taken care of  & treated by animal welfare activists. While the case against the men who did this is still on, they got out on bail by paying a mere fine of Rs. 50. (India, Junly 2016)
4. In Kunming, China, which is home to nearly 6,800 peacocks, in an area where visitors are allowed to feed the animals, a couple of tourists decided to grab the birds and take photos with them. Worse, they even plucked out their feathers to keep them as mementoes. One bird died within 30 minutes of being grabbed, despite zookeepers rushing to the birds’ aid after noticing their treatment at the hands of the tourists. The official cause of death is still under investigation, but authorities believe they died due to shock. A zoo representative said this was the first time an incident of this nature had occurred, and that visitors are advised to never touch the animals. He said that although the birds don’t approach people, the tourists lured them with food and grabbed them by their long tails. (China, February 2016)

While these are some of the incidents that managed to make the headlines, there are many more which happen on a daily basis. If you log in to social media and are part of pet or animal welfare groups, you can see people posting news & pictures of various animals being tortured on a daily basis. It is shocking to know that people believe it is fun to tie a dog to a car and then speed up, just to see how the dog dies by being dragged OR a group of youngsters getting a cow to fit in their car’s dicky to sell it to a meat market.

People who run and those who buy animals from the puppy mill and breeders support this cruelty. While they may give all the love to the animal they bought and pamper it, the manner in which it’s mother/father is being kept at the most of the breeder’s place, brings tears to the eyes. They are kept in small cramped cages with not much space to move and are used for reproducing  & more often than not, once they are at the age when they don’t seem to be of much value to the breeders, they are abandoned on the roads unless a kind soul decides to take them home. Why, even those who adopt breeds, abandon them after the social media accolades die and they realise, it’s too much of a task and expense to take care of the furry beings.

Can we stop maligning the term “humanity”? Can we at least start making informed decisions? Start by asking a lot of questions. Go see how the breeder has kept the animals at their place. Understand what you’re putting your efforts in to.

The reason there are no pictures being shared in this post on the incidents, is because the internet will provide you with plenty, every few minutes. This is just an effort to bring to light what many may not know, that’s happening on a daily basis. This earth was made for all kinds of living beings to live on, with equal rights.

If we can’t help them, let’s not hurt them at least. Being polite to the voiceless hardly hurt anyone.