The next story in the give animals a brake series is of my Adam, that one dog I wish I could have back because he deserved the best in the world. He did not give up on hope, ever.
It all started on the 2nd of April 2016 when two stray dogs were wrongly dropped off post spay/neuter at one of our locations. A stockpile of complaints against the notorious agency was only meeting deafening silence, leading to more cruelty on the stray dogs and creating unnecessary man-animal conflict. This is what happens when spay/neuter programme goes un-monitored.
The local dogs were chasing them. Those two mortally afraid souls, had no idea where to go, they disappeared over the horizon. The following day, they were traced to my college, being bullied by the resident dogs. They were overtly friendly; a grey tan male whom I named Adam and the other a female, orange fur with beautiful kohl eyes named Sanjana.
They finally found acceptance after ragging and bashing from the resident dogs. Their overtly friendly nature made them welcome every human, irrespective of whether their love was reciprocated or not. They were a bundle of joy who had so much love to give. Their company often reminded me of my soulmate, a dog named Jukjuk, with whom I found love like no one else.
Just when a sense of belongingness had set in, on 18th August 2016 Adam was run down, a month after Langdu was killed in a similar fashion, out of vengeance for me for speaking up for their rights in a case in March 2016, that story is for another day.
I found Adam writhing in pain. He was numb and so was I. A full of life soul was crippled for life. Home being full at that point with twelve resident rescued canines, he had to be put up in a kennel. Even then he did not give up on life. He dragged himself the moment he saw me, hoping perhaps I had come to take him. He knew how to be happy, whatever be the circumstance, he wanted to stand up and run. Adam left on the 24th of January, 2017. I was not even around him. He was buried wearing the collar I had brought for him that he would have worne upon home-coming, which never really happened.
It is seven years today, the wound of his loss is still as raw. I live with those ifs and buts every day, even though I have transitioned to become a certified pet loss grief specialist now. I could have brought him home, regardless of how overstretched we were. I often dream about getting him home because it is the greatest unfulfilled desire of mine.
But does that end with Adam? There are countless paralysed stray dogs rotting in shelters. Is that a life they deserve?
Feel my pain and how unfair life was to Adam? Speak up for animals like him, write to info@bridgingrainbows.org to take part in the give animals a brake campaign.
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