JOIN USThe instinct of self-preservation is very strong among animals. I had a firsthand experience of it recently. A street dog had given birth to a set of six lovely pups. The gutter was the ‘home’ for the mother and its pups. The dog never left the litter for the first couple of days.
One by one, the pups came out of their hiding followed by the reluctant mother, which kept a wary eye on the litter. It would growl and snarl at anyone trying to go anywhere near the pups. After putting the pups back in the gutter, the dog would go out in search of food.
One of the high-spirited pups eager to discover the world met with a tragic end. It was run over by a car driven by a reckless driver. The other pups gathered round the fallen pup and licked it. They must have wondered why their sibling wouldn’t join them for play. The dog returned and tried to lick the pup back to life. Alas, it was too late. The mother and the rest of the pups watched the fallen pup silently for hours. A Good Samaritan arranged to collect the dead body when the dog and her pups had left the place.
It was a gruesome sight to watch another accident that maimed a pup. It howled all night watched by the siblings and the mother. It was all over the next morning with the grieving mother and the bewildered pups huddled close to the dead pup. It was a sad sight to see the mother and the pups trying to lick it back to life. I just couldn’t sleep the other night with the dog howling continuously. I wondered what tragedy had stuck the pups once again. Only the next morning I came to know that the remaining pups were taken away by some one when the mother was away. In a way, I thought it was a good thing that had happened but who could console that desolate mother that her pups had found a home. Let more good-hearted citizens adopt these stray dogs, which are crying for a home. Some of the animal lovers are already doing so by adopting strays. Culling or putting these hapless creatures in a pound is ‘inhuman’ when they are born free and have a right to live free!