People here in Drametse go in the woods to
gather fuel for warming their houses while those with less or no family make
use of electric heaters. Some drink tea and some go for locally brewed wines so
as to keep themselves warm. Though the community has seen no snow for a decade,
the freezing wind blowing from downstream is no less than frostbite. But no
matter how harsh the climate is, the people at least have options for survival.
What about the animals? Forget those in the
wild and just think of animals around us. Stray dogs may possibly be a good
example for they have no owner to lend a hand in their survival fight. Most of
us view stray dogs as vermin as they are dirty, and also spread rabies if
bitten. Many, including myself get irritated when awaken in the midnight by
their howls. But these are not the reason why I support the nationwide dog sterilization
campaign; it’s sympathy of mine on having seen their poor livelihood. Stray
dogs struggle hard in search of shelter which shields them from the frosty airs
of winter. Getting of food during the daytime may mean they could possibly
survive the tough hours of dark.
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| Fig: Two survived out of eight (Photo Courtesy: my little son) |
Maybe old ones are adapted to the environment
but the survival is in question when it comes to puppies. In wintertime, the ears and paws of puppies get
frostbitten and they freeze to death. A couple of month ago, I’ve seen a dog
that gave birth to 10 puppies. But with approaching of winter, many puppies
died since the temperature at night was not more than 10 degree Celsius. It was
then that my wife decided to rescue them. She brought them home, kept near the
fire, and used my water bag to warm them. At night they were kept in small kennel built at the backyard.
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| Fig: Temporary kennel built for puppies |
But in every crack of dawn we used to collect a
corpse of at least one infant and throw it into the bushes. But one fine day
the mother dog picked up the thrown corpse of her puppy, she dumped it in
between the piled bricks and then using her mouth she covered it with the
soils. It was then we decided not to play with her emotion and then dumped
every corpse of the puppy into the pit. Today she is free with no puppies
nagging around her. Our rescue mission failed, it seems we were too late. By the
time we began to help, the puppies were too weak to be saved. The mother dog
has no milk for her weak puppies as she ate no food for days before we brought
her home. So the frosty night and lack of milk took the lives of those innocent
puppies.
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| Fig: Kashamo who lost 10 puppies |
Despite several
sterilization campaigns, we still have many stray dogs. Controlling the birth
of stray dogs is for the good cause but not rescuing those born ones is inhuman.
There are many similar struggling dogs around us, and we could feed and protect
them at least in the season of winter. Remember, what you spend shall be
returned back to you with interest in this lifetime or if not in the next
coming generation of yours, and this is what ‘karma’ means.
HAPPY READING
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