2 years back when I was leaving Ansal Plaza with my husband after a visit we were shocked to see a vehicle carelessly running over a tiny 2 month puppy that had strayed onto the path. The little darling was howling in pain and nobody passing by had the time to spare to stop and check on her. Being animal lovers and having “two children” of our own at home, her pain filled cries shook us up to the core and we stopped and parked our car and rushed to her side. She was howling and at the same time trying to drag herself into the hedge on the side of the drive, without much success, as on approaching her, to our horror we saw that her leg was severely mangled and was hanging by a little flesh. Immediately, my husband tried to soothe and calm her and picked her up and we rushed to our vet, Dr. Prabhakar at Friendicoes. What followed was a two hour emergency surgery to amputate her limb, before which the vet made it clear to us that she might not make it as she was too tiny to withstand anesthesia and the whole stressful process and might collapse of shock and stress on the operation table itself. But amazingly she made it through and our joy knew no bounds. We felt like heroes who have won a battle but unknown to us our actual struggle was yet to come. Dr. Prabhakar explained to us that the surgery in itself was a simple one but the post operative complications or secondary infections would be dicey and the deciding factor as inside the Friendicoes shelter she would be subjected to all types of unknown infections and her immunity was not strong enough to keep her safe. Her age was her biggest demerit. After learning all this we just could not leave her at the shelter. Nor could we take her home as we felt our other “two children” may not take it well plus she needed constant and complete attention…and we were unable to make a decision.
Ultimately her eyes did it for us…when she regained consciousness she gave us such a trusting, innocent and grateful look, it touched our very souls and we just could not let her down. So that day God gifted us our 3rd child, Tiara, a daughter so precious and perfect even in her physical imperfection, who added to our joys and made life richer. She was accepted without a fuss and warmly by our elder daughter Bambi and son Frankie, proving all our fears wrong…maybe they recognized her specialty too…animals are so much more intelligent than us mere mortals in many ways!
It took 3 months of dedicated care, regular visits to the vet, many a sleepless nights and a lot of sacrifice of our social calendar before she was pronounced completely recovered by the vet but looking back to those times we don’t regret a single minute of it. It was a learning experience for us and the family bonds became so much stronger during the whole experience. Since then she has returned our love three folds and her unfailing loyalty and trust in us makes all our efforts look very small. She became the little sister to our elder daughter Bambi and son Frankie and the little star of the family.
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I can truthfully say that there are very few people like you in this city. Well done – in saving a life, and giving her so much love and affection, and being so utterly unselfish.