Dear Friends,

Here is the second Friendicoes e-newsletter and once again we bring you lots of good news from the Friendicoes world of animals!!

We take great pride in letting you know that last month Friendicoes completed 30 years in the service of the homeless and abandoned animals of Delhi and the NCR. We hope to continue for many more years and look forward to your unstinted support and generosity to keep the work going.

The Month of April has been a bitter-sweet one for Friendicoes in terms of adoptions. We have been able to find good homes for many of our lovely animals like Yana, Boo Boo, Chiti, Jessi, Don and Ruffer, the cat, but on the other hand we have also been subject to a huge number of pedigreed pets being abandoned with us. To all of you who are reading this we would like to request you “not to buy your pet but adopt one from a shelter today. There are many homeless and abandoned pets that are waiting to be adopted by a family like yours.”

We have also introduced two new helpline numbers to take the pressure off the landlines and make the system more efficient. You can now also reach us at 9873309110 & 9873302580 and register your distress calls.
 
The last but the best news of all is that Friendicoes’ long cherished dream of a night Ambulance service is soon going to be realized, thanks to Ataac, Australia and Benindi Fund, U.K. The process of buying the ambulance and getting the service in order has already started and we hope to have the ambulance up and running before the end of June. Now many of those animals whose distress went ignored or help and assistance was delayed due to our lack of a night ambulance will now be attended to and all you animal lovers can breathe a sigh of relief. We will soon be available 24 x 7!

Cheers!
The Friendicoes team.

My first memory of Willow is a scrunched up face, a drooping head, a thin curved body and every rib protruding…and he is a beautiful specimen of a Boxer!

His sad pitiable condition once again reminded me of how disgustingly inhuman we humans can be. Willow was born a perfectly beautiful and healthy Boxer puppy but as he grew older his breeder owner observed that his one leg was slightly longer and crooked, which marred his chances of fetching a good price. His brothers and sisters all got sold but poor Willow was left with his owner who could not care two hoots about a puppy who would not sell. So he was locked in a cage with little food and nourishment and almost starved to death until fate kindly intervened. A kind person who was visiting the breeder saw Willow and rescued him and brought him to Friendicoes. He was weak, anemic, malnourished and dehydrated to the point that all of us who saw him held no hopes for his survival. His sight made everyone burn in righteous anger and indignation for all that he must have suffered. Initially he could not stand long enough to urinate or even gulp down his food. He would fall down at regular intervals and cry at his helplessness until someone picked him up and put him back on his legs. If his feeding was delayed by even a few minutes he would defecate and eat up his own shit…it was a horrifically sorry sight, but common in all puppies from commercial breeders as they are cooped up in cages and so neglected that they develop this behavior to keep from starving. This awful habit is probably what kept Willow alive.

“Laila” rechristened at Friendicoes is a 7 year old German Shepherd who was abandoned on the road outside our Delhi shelter by her “owners”. Some shopkeepers who saw her came and informed Friendicoes staff about her and we immediately brought her in to the shelter. She is a beautiful and well tempered dog who looks like she has given birth recently. This implies that her owner must have been a breeder who abandoned her due to her advanced age and retained her puppies for sale and future breeding.

She is presently living at the Friendicoes shelter in Delhi and is doing well. We are looking for a good home for her with owners who will love her and pamper her in her last few years and make up for all the years of breeding she must have gone through. Any one interested in this old girl can contact 9818201987.

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