I first saw Kushty laying in between the wheels of a motorbike. she had been run over and was badly injured, I had to leave her where she was and go and find Maureen whom I was meeting for breakfast.
We headed back to try and see what we could do to help Kushty. On closer inspection we could see she had a broken back paw, but her front paw was very badly injured also, and her skin had been ripped off and the bone was exposed, she must have been in so much pain but she never made a sound she just looked up at us, you could see the pain and sadness in her eyes.
We saw a shop keeper had come out to see what we where doing so we asked him if he could give us some water for Kushty, which he very kindly did, we only had a bandage and a few other bits and pieces with us so we wrapped the open wound up as best we could and we moved her onto the top step away from the road. we then asked the shop keeper to please keep giving him water throughout the day until we could arrange someone to pick Kushty up to take to the vets. it was so sad leaving her there but we had to go and feed and water the other dogs we where looking after.
We could not find anyone to help us get Kushty to the vets. it had been a long day but we had finished doing our jobs so we headed off to the chemist for items we needed to help treat Kushty, it was getting dark when we arrived back to where we had left her.
We set about getting everything ready, people started to come and watch to see what we were doing, they were amazed that we were trying to help Kushty, but some brought water and one kind soul brought some food.
Maureen started to clean the open wound and put a clean bandage on the paw, then wrapped a big plaster around the bandage to try and keep 
the flies and insects off the wound.
We knew we had to leave Kushty where she was for the night as we had nowhere to take her, we made her as comfortable as possible, but it was heartbreaking having to leave her by herself.
The next morning before doing our rounds we set off to see how Kushty was doing hoping she had survived the night, she was still in the same spot where we had left her but you could see she was in so much pain so it was decided that I would go with Prem our lovely taxi driver and take the dog to Trivandrum vets which are run by a charity, we managed to get Kushty into the car. and I set off sitting in the back of the car trying to keep Kushty as comfortable as possible. while Maureen carried on with our other work.
As we arrived at the vets we where shown into a room where they set about putting Kushty’s paw back into place and scrubbing into the open wound with a brush to make sure it was clean all this was done without any pain relief I just stood there thinking of how much pain she must be in her yelps tore at my heart. Kushty was then put in a cage to rest and recuperate I had to leave to head back to the hotel, but at least I knew she was safe.
Kushty at this point was a very sick dog and her chances of his survival were very slim due to the fact she also suffered from malnutrition and other infections. she spent several weeks at the vets fighting various illness.
After a long hard struggle to survive unfortunately the phone call came from the vet to say Kushty had passed away. We were all saddened by the news but at least we had given her the best chance of survival.
Written by Pauline Griffith
