He entered our home in our hands.
This morning, my husband told me about a pup in our garden who was apparently yelping in pain all night. I saw him hunkered down in the one-foot-wide nullah in the garden. He was a cute, black foot-long fellow, with pinkish paws. He was shivering and sat immobile. Water was trickling into the nullah making him further wet. But the poor soul had no idea how to get himself out of the situation. The thought of climbing up to dryer zones had occurred to him but his tiny legs could not hoist him up.
It was deja vu time. We had gone through a similar -- much worse -- experience last or the previous monsoon when a she-dog (I refuse to call them bitches) got severely trapped in an overflowing gutter near the road outside our home. None of us had the inclination or guts to extract her from the filth until a kind man going to work decided to take matters in hand and did his good deed for the day. She limped a bit but was happy to be alive, dry, and free.
Getting this pup out wasnt going to be that difficult. The nullah is wide enough and clean. I wrapped my hands in plastic bags and lifted him out, placed him on the garden floor. Soon enough though, he found his way back into the nulla again while chasing a she-dog in hope of milk.
Wondering whether I was going to spend all day saving his life, I lifted him up again, soiling another pair of plastic bags and frowning slightly at the carbon footprint I was accumulating on my new job.
I brought him warm milk which he couldnt identify. Rather, he started nibbling at the plastic container until I somehow managed to give his tongue a taste of the liquid. He lapped it all up. That told me he couldnt be too unwell if he was eating.
He stayed up shivering for a while. I didnt know what to do until my mother told me to cover him with an old blanket. I used an old pillow cover which seemed to give him a lot of relief. Soon enough, he turned it into a mattress and dozed off.
The shivering though continued. And that caused us some concern, as he had spent the entire night out getting severely drenched in the rains. We also worried that any further rains would be damaging if he lay out in the open.
So, with some reluctance, I agreed to let him into the house for the night, all the while conjuring up images of me cleaning up after him. I kept hot water ready for a bath so that at least we didnt have to suffer his dirt, ticks and whatever else.
My husband carried him in, while he checked out his new surroundings looking all round. We decided not to bathe him in case he had fever and instead, scrubbed him well, an experience he enjoyed and cooperated with.
The first thing he did on getting cosy in his newly appointed corner was to empty his bowels on my freshly cleaned floor. The next thing he did was to pee on the pillow cover-cum-bedspread.
The upside was that though I'd called the vet, I realised that visit may not be necessary as the shivering had almost stopped.
Right now, he is in the farthest bedroom having a deep sleep that he missed last night. I hope he is fine by tomorrow morning. I worry for so many others like him who must get stuck like this all the time.
Life IS unfair.