Tree Of Life For Animals

Erika Connor is an animal lover from Canada. She was one of our Project Raja volunteers and spent time at TOLFA from December 12th 2007 - February 20th, 2008.

Sitting here in the land of snow (a metre of it has fallen since my return), what do I remember of the 2½ months I spent at the animal shelter under the dusty Aravalli Hills?

Erika with one of her favourite dogs

The Highlights:

Siteram driving us in the morning on the moped in the cold blasts of arctic wind,(Am I in India?), being welcomed by the yard dogs: pesky Fly, soft as a feather, with dahl and rice stuck to his nose, Little 3-legged Stripes, the Doberman amputee with the golden eyes who sits on your foot, spirit dog Julie, Boris, Chittori, 3-Wheeler, Bruce, and company, getting warm by Nadia’s beautiful dung fire, drinking chai with the boys, the howling, singing, ringing of dogs in our ears, sparrows flitting down the corridors;

the caesarian operation on a cow performed by Dr. Irshad that everyone gathered to see, including a visiting transvestite, the precarious bamboo ladder and lunch on the roof, the day “Lady”, the scruffy black and white dog with paralyzed hind legs and broken-tooth grin got up and walked, “Tall Mange Fellow” prancing, growing back his black hair, losing the skeletal look;

feeding the monkey, seeing the puppy house being built day by day with the promise of harbouring all the little ones under our feet, becoming a substitute mother to four little orphan pups, taking the pups and dogs out to the “cow house”, and seeing them sink their paws in the hot dust and sigh and close their eyes.

The hard times: Losing my favourite black and white stocky dog to cancer, losing the peahen to dogs, losing all the pups to pavo and distemper, losing our cat “Raja” and “Samson”, the street dog with the black puja mark on his forehead, the 3-legged Doberman, and all the dogs who didn’t make it.

The comedies: Wendy and I gathering cow dung in the fields for our evening cooking when we ran out of gas, the tom cat sharing his milk with the puppies, Tiger Dog sleeping in a tiny cardboard box, some of the yard dogs decked out in the newly donated bright flannel jackets and being chased by the other dogs because they look so funny;

the boys attacking the “bore” tree (what is it about those berries?), the crow who said, “hello” (ask Wendy!), the Mynna birds stealing eggs, Ginger knocking over the box of Mitai pastries I brought for the staff on my last day, “just give it to the dogs!”;

the patience of the vets: Dr. Irshad, Dr. Ashok, and Dr. Anoop, when they saw Clara and I coming with sick puppies, or when they asked us, “which kennel does this one come from?” and we answered: “he was in the kennel with the “whimpering pup”, but we moved him in with the “wolf pups”, but they were fighting so we moved him in with the 3-legged black pup, that is, the one with the white mark on his nose…”

Thanks

I want to thank all the staff at TOLFA for teaching me what it is to work at the hospital, through all the ups and downs, through dedication, perseverance, humour, and kindness.

Special thanks to the Swedish Bookclub in Ottawa, Canada for their donations and to Mona Whitaker. With their money we have out-fitted the new puppy kennel.

Thanks to Wendy: Cheers to getting through it all!!!

Hi to Clara: I miss our walks with the pups!

Hi to Alba: Hope you had a great stay!

And to Serena: Have heard so much about you too! Hope to meet you someday. Thank-you for the puppy house!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 21:40 and is filed under General Information, Previous Volunteers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.