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I adopted Pikey a few months ago, outside Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, where I studied Mass Communications.
It's a funny story really because I was hurrying into college at around 12 noon, to write my final exam, my last paper on literature, to complete my course and get my degree. I arrived on campus about 10 minutes early for the paper. So I was standing outside the hall trying to do some last minute revision.
Well, my college has always been very pro-INDog and the college dogs are well known by all the faculty and students. So when little Pikey, who was just a puppy then, ran in front of me, I had to stop studying to see who this new puppy on campus was. Turns out, he had wandered on to the campus and was desperately crying out and darting about as he didn't know where he was. The other dogs in my college, Stephano and Gloria, were running after this poor puppy trying to show him he had wandered onto their territory.
At first I thought I'd just play with Pikey for a little while to calm him down, and feed him something from the canteen so he wouldn't be so frightened. But half an hour later, when I realised everyone had gone in for the exam and I had forgotten all about it, playing with Pikey, I decided to give my exam a miss and take him home with me.
He was very nervous in the autorickshaw ride to my house, but once he met the family and had something to eat, he started exploring the house and getting comfortable enough to sit on the sofa.
Yesterday I took him for a ride in my car, and as usual, in true Pikey style, he was very nervous and refused to get into the car. But once he was in and the breeze was in his doggy face, he seemed to start loving it and even barked at all the dogs outside. It was very cute to see his pointy ears being blown back in the wind and the way he enjoyed the breeze by the window!
Sagari Shetty
Bangalore
My first exposure to the Rabies virus was in 1993. The incident was extremely traumatic and was my most important reason for starting street dog welfare work, something I did for the next 14 years. At the time I was given an alarming pamphlet by the veterinary college, illustrated with a picture of a skeleton riding a horse. I felt that a much clearer FAQ was needed, with up-to-date information about diagnosis, symptoms and prevention. One of the first things I did was gather information about rabies and compile a leaflet, which was printed and distributed jointly by two Mumbai NGOs (The Welfare of Stray Dogs and Plants and Animal Lovers Society). The information was provided by the World Health Organization (Geneva), Haffkine Institute (Mumbai), several Mumbai veterinarians and a molecular biologist. The FAQ is still in the WSD website. Click below for the link:Rabies - What is true. What is false. What you must know.However, it was last updated about three years ago, so newer information has not been included, notably about the oral anti-rabies vaccine. The World Health Organization (WHO) site is a must-read for anyone interested in rabies. Click here.And another must-read is the CDC site (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), though some of the information is specific to the USA and not applicable in India. Click here. Sadly, rabies prevention is not a priority of our government at all, judging by the scant attention it gets. It would be so easy to eradicate this terrible disease if there was any real will to do so. Click here for an earlier post on rabies in this blog.
Recently I read about a Japanese-made gadget that claims to "translate" a dog's barks into English sentences. You attach it to your dog's collar and it tells you what your dog is trying to say. The gadget is being sold by a Mumbai pet store. A popular daily asked four dog owners to review it. From what I remember, two of the interviewees were quite scathing about it and didn't think it was of any use. They also felt (and I agree) that people who need something like this should not be keeping a dog at all!While the merits of such gadgets are dubious, the motivation for creating them is very real. There is an undeniable communication gap between dogs and humans, no matter how much we may love each other. The human filters we naturally apply would lead us to misinterpret or simply miss a lot of what our dogs are trying to express. For me, a new door just opened on the mysterious world of dog-human communication, thanks to Norwegian dog trainer and behaviourist Turid Rugaas. I recently read her wonderful little book On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals (Yvonne, thanks for gifting it to me!) It was a real eye-opener and I am so impressed with it I want to recommend it to all dog owners. Turid Rugaas has done pioneering work in this field, inspired by her "childhood dream about talking to animals." She believes that dogs are conflict-solving creatures, and they use many signals to prevent aggression, and also to calm fear and stress in themselves and those they interact with. By using the same signals, we can solve many common behaviour problems in our dogs and really understand what they are trying to say. I tried a couple of her suggestions on my sometimes boisterous Kimaya, and they worked beautifully. I'm looking at Lalee with new eyes too, wondering if I've misinterpreted some of her expressions and body language for so many years (of course, my husband believes I have!)The book is very easy to read and illustrated with many photographs. I think all children of dog-owning families should be made to read it. I am now going to order another book by Ms Rugaas, Barking: The Sound of a Language. The publisher for all her books is Dogwise Publishing, http://www.dogwise.com/Incidentally, there is a very interesting chapter on dog "language" in Stephen Budiansky's book The Truth about Dogs. Click here for an earlier post in this blog on useful books for dog lovers. And if there are any other books you have liked, please share the names with our readers - just post a comment below.
