Puppy's Luck

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ: ನಾಯಿಮರಿಯ ಅದೃಷ್ಟ

Today was just another day to begin with. However, I started off on a positive note; waking up a little early, I went to a few places like banks, couple of other shops and finished off some pending work, felt good. Then I continued to my office (MphasiS Mangalore). On my way, I had an experience that I want to share with all of you; it is definitely something to ponder upon.

I was heading towards office, carefully maneuvering my Alto and I suddenly saw a small traffic block, nothing new of course. But I did not see any apparent reason why the vehicles in front of me would have stopped. So, after a couple of minutes I got impatient and honked. Nothing happened for a few seconds, and then vehicles started moving. That’s when I suddenly saw a small puppy on the other side of the road limping and bouncing in intense pain. As I was looking, it partially fell into a small pot hole filled with water, got up, again walked 2-3 steps and just lied down. There was another puppy, I am sure its sibling, which was just jumping around and occasionally coming close to the wounded puppy. I am not sure what else the second puppy could do or how much it cared, it was just sniffing, going away, coming back.

I wouldn’t say I got terribly disturbed, but seeing that I just couldn’t leave the place like others who watched and walked away without any expression on their face. Yes, that area has too many dogs and probably it is normal to them. Anyway, I parked my car and went near the puppy. Emotions did not overrule my judgment completely, so I did not touch it right away, you never know what to expect. It was just lying down, heavily breathing, eyes only partially open. I couldn’t see a lot of blood, so I thought it might have a severe pain in its leg.

I immediately checked with shop keepers around and to my relief, I learnt that there was a veterinary hospital just a stone throw away. I rushed to that hospital and was glad to see a doctor there and there was only one middle aged lady speaking to him. The doc asked me what I need and I quickly explained the situation to him.

The first thing he said was – “We don’t come to the road and attend to such cases”. He went on talking and explaining to me about several possible complications, legal issues due to which he cannot simply jump from his desk and come to help me out. Meanwhile, I too kept telling him that it was very near and as a doc he should have compassion to look at it urgently. I even said that I will take the responsibility of treatment cost or mercy killing whichever makes most sense. However the doc calmly said that such instances were not new to him and he cannot cross certain lines. He said that he is very active in various animal welfare activities, initiatives and is a compassionate person himself. He also mentioned that the laws brought into place in late 90s (by Maneka Gandhi) have tied their hands in various circumstances. He even started diverting the topic and proposed to me that I should join animal welfare groups and societies in Mangalore!

I was getting more and more confused about his priorities at the moment. Realizing that precious time is running away, I finally said “Okay then, I don’t want to waste more time here talking to you; I am sure there are some complications that I do not understand, I will just go to the chicken centre right next to the place of accident, give 50 rupees to some guy over there and ask them to just bang on that poor puppy’s head and kill it, because I cannot do it myself”. The doc said that it was inhuman to do so; then I protested and said that what he was doing was even more inhuman.

That’s when the doc said that if I were ready to write a letter explaining the situation briefly and take full responsibility, he could try to extend some help. I repeatedly told him that I were not going to run anywhere and I could surely write a letter after some time, I just needed him to come and help the suffering puppy ASAP. He said that he could not do that and insisted that I write a letter. My mind was swaying between wasting more time there and taking alternatives. Finally, I quickly wrote a letter, signed it and gave it to him. I wondered, as a doctor, how he could straight away tell me to write something like ‘I request you to kill the dog as it cannot be cured’, I mean without even making an assessment whether it can be cured or not. I also gave Rs.210/- towards some things that had to be done (official charges, not bribe). The doc said he would send a ‘compounder’ with me with poison filled syringe, for mercy killing.

He was talking to the compounder in local language (which I could understand) that he was agreeing to do this in good faith even though it is illegal, just because a well educated person is showing concern towards a poor animal and requesting so much. The compounder seemed reluctant, however he couldn’t go against the doc, he agreed. The doc turned towards me and said “In close to 2 decades this is the first time I am breaking the law, just for your sake, in good faith.” I thanked him and hurried the compounder to come with me at the earliest.

Just then, another question popped up in the doc’s mind – what will happen to the dog after it is killed? I said “we will see that later, first let’s just do the primary job.” He said that the dog needs to be put into a municipality bin, covered properly in some bag, else it will become another big problem. I just looked at him and said with a sad smile – “Sir, where will I have any of those, do you have a bag and some hand glows? I will do the job myself”. After some more thoughts and deliberations, the doc said his compounder will take care of it. He softly told me to give some small money to compounder since he was going out of his way to help me out. I said ok fine.

At last, the compounder started walking with me, quite slowly indeed. As soon as we started walking out of the hospital, he started insisting that clearing off the puppy’s dead body is not his job – he said that there are other people around who do that job and that I needed to get hold of them. I just didn’t talk too much and walked faster and faster, leading the way, looking back once a while to make him follow me faster.

Finally we reached the place, and guess what? The puppy had died already - it felt like it left a message - "Thank you very much, but I couldn't wait to go far away from you human beings, now I feel lucky!" I was glad, yes, very much. The compounder said its best to leave the site without doing anything further – the municipality folks will come and do the needful with the dead body. We slowly walked back to the hospital, the doc was also happy to know that it was already dead. I got my Rs.210/- back and the doc tore off the letter I had written to him as it was no longer needed.

Then the doc took few more minutes from me and explained about few complications, issues related to this topic and how he tries to help stray animals in a systematic fashion. We discussed for some time and then I took his phone number and left, promising that I will discuss about this in detail with him in future.

It was clear that the doc was trying to cover himself up and be as safe as possible, based on his bad experiences in the past. I felt he was too overprotective about himself, and that his priorities were messed up a bit. However I need to discuss with him again in detail to understand his past experiences that made him what he is today. I shouldn’t expect more from the compounder probably, as it looked like it is “just a job” for him and nothing more. Overall, when we hear about and see several cases where human beings themselves are treated badly at hospitals, this is not surprising at all.

I avoided thinking too much about “Could we have reduced puppy’s painful times if we had come little earlier? If yes, how much” etc. I just thought “Ok, it’s dead, good for it”, then drove towards office.

Here is a picture of lucky puppy's lifeless body, it was still lying there, when I checked again, several hours after the incident - it did not mind the hot sun or noisy vehicles.

 

Note: In case you are not aware, in our local language we don't refer animals as he/she, we use "it", I am just using the same thing here as I anyway don't know the gender of the puppy! No offense intended.

Regards,
Krishna Shastry.