During my four months’ long stay in Kerala, south India I came to meet many dogs, in the streets, at the train stations, on the beach, in traffic – these dogs seemed to be everywhere. Everywhere my travel buddy and I went these four legged animals were always greeting us with their friendly eyes and wagging dusty tails.
In spite of the fact that most of them didn’t appear to have any home, or anyone who cared for them they were mostly greeted with fear, scepticism and even hatred from the humans they shared this earth with, almost all of them appeared to be both curious and kind.
I was highly affected by the street dogs of India and touched by the very hard life that many of them appeared to be doomed to live.
This is the story about one of those special connections. We had just arrived in a tourist town and pilgrimage ‘Varkala’. Already in the first few days, we noticed him at our favourite café. With a dirty, yellow fur and the kindest eyes, he greeted us with a determined but slowly wagging tail. We were both admittedly moved by his kind eyes and calm temper. Every day thereafter, on schedule as we passed the yellow little dog, we stopped, greeted and petted him. To our dismay, we often found him in the heat in a pile of dust half asleep. On rare occasions slowly walking towards us in the blazing Indian sun, wagging his tail determinately but tiresomely.
On some days he had a limp. But he always seemed to be in the same place, on the dusty asphalt, in the blazing sun. I had in the past been lucky enough to meet some of the women behind ’Operation Street Dog Varkala’. One day when I met one of the women from the organisation over a coffee gazing out over the sea she suddenly said to me ‘You know, you could, for example, give him a name’ and pointed towards the yellow dog. For some reason, George popped into my mind, and I have no idea where it came from, but the yellow dog was from that day known as George.
As the day passed we got to know George more and more. The lonely, but friendly George had a very natural place in our heart. Even though George never failed to greet us with a wagging tail we grew disheartened by his sad, tired eyes and hopeless demeanour. Sometimes it was almost as if he had given up, placing himself in the middle of the street ignoring the horns from the cars surrounding him. We knew that he was hit by cars as he often had a limp. As the days passed George health deteriorated. His eyes got inflamed and soon he could hardly open his eyelids. His fur was full of lice. In the evenings we could hear his howls and screams as he was attacked by the other street dogs. After the attacks, he always made himself as small as possible and crawled to a corner and hid.
We noticed that he had more and more bite marks along his thin back underneath the yellow fur. We soon realised that George would not survive much longer should he continue to live under his current conditions.
OSDV began thinking about different ways of helping him. We started to give him eye drops, something he gratefully accepted with just a slight wink of confusion. He also received anti-biotics against the infections in the bite marks plus a big meal of nutritious dog food every evening. One late night as I passed Georges territory I heard how he screamed and saw a pack of dogs from the neighbourhood throw themselves on him. As I got closer I saw George shaking in a corner. He hardly saw that I had come because of the stress and fear when I attempted to pet him. I feared that he had been seriously hurt and it was too dark to make an accurate assessment of the pain the rest of the dogs had caused him.
Maureen, the initiating women of OSDV and I decided to rescue him on her motorbike. We wrapped him in a towel and I carried him in my arms whilst Mo drove. He never resisted or showed any hesitation. He just laid there silently staring at me with his black eyes, on his back, in my arms. Luckily George didn’t have any serious new bite marks. He did, however, receive water and some time to rest, but because we didn’t have anywhere to house him we had to drive him back to his corner again. It was extremely heart-breaking to leave him in his spot again. Later that night when we were going back home we couldn’t find him anywhere, after what felt like an eternity we saw him resting on one of the stone benches. It was the first time to our knowledge that he had laid there and it felt almost as if he felt strengthened by the tender, love and care he had received earlier that day.
The thought that slowly but consistently kept coming back to us was that George probably wasn’t born on the street like the other dogs in the neighbourhood. He appeared to have a large trust towards humans and he looked and acted differently too. Most likely he had been abandoned on the street by his previous owners. Since he always was at the same space it could mean that he was waiting for his old family to come back and rescue him. In any case, he was not someone who would survive on the street – and he needed a home.
A couple of days later Maureen had an idea and asked me to come with her to visit an Indian family that she had gotten to know during her early years of Varkala.
The family worked as dog breeders and Mo was thinking that George may be able to live there for a while, at least till we could find a more suitable home for him than the street. Mo and I went to visit the family and they proved themselves to be extraordinarily kind and gentle people.
They welcomed us into their home and we talked for a long time. Mo explained the situation around George and wondered if he could stay with them for a while. Then she added, very cautiously “or maybe you could give him a home…?” Sometimes things just appear ’meant to be’. All situations, things and places, when they work together, just at the right time, a situation that otherwise would be impossible to solve suddenly finds itself solvable. It is not easy to find a home for a homeless dog in Kerala. However, in this instance, with this family, there was a void to fill. Their beloved family dog had recently passed away and left the family heartbroken with grief. We could see the family gazing at each other and following a short discussion they met us with a big smile. It was almost to good to be true, we could almost not believe it. It was a wonderful moment. George was no longer homeless.
The following day we attempted at putting a lead around George’s neck for the first time. He didn’t seem to mind and walked happily beside us. This was the first time that George left ‘his’ neighbourhood and came with us in a lead. He looked a little bit surprised at first but soon we could see a spring in his step. He happily followed us and we all were moved to tears by his apparent enthusiasm to come with us.
The following day turned out to be the last time we collected him from his spot. We cleaned him from all the dirt and shampooed him with lice shampoo. We groomed him. During the whole time, he just stood still. It was obvious that he trusted us and we could see in his eyes that a spark of belongingness had once again been lit. Later that day George met his new family for the first time. Today he is happy, well and content in his new home.
The story about George is a ’sunshine-story’. There are too many dogs like George in the streets of India. Kind gentle beings that very few care for. Everyone deserves a home, to be loved and to live a life without suffering and fear.
Written by Ida Karlsson
