BENGALURU: Puppies, who are abandoned on the roads, rarely meet a happy ending. They are either mauled by older dogs or run over by impatient traffic. But this little golden retriever puppy would be glad to have been left by the roadside. Now, she has a chance to find a loving home instead of one she found with a couple who left her to her own devices, when they found that she could be suffering from the deadly viral illness parvo.
This 40-day-old puppy was rescued by a bystander, near Ring Road, just as she was about to be attacked by the bigger dogs on the road. Then she was left tied to a tree by the roadside for three days before Satish Chandra, who lives nearby, found her and took her home.
Satish saw that the pup had a patch of her fur shaved out, an indication that she has been to the vet for an intravenous drip, and therefore went to the nearest vet to investigate. The veterinarian told him that the owner had just been around with the pup with severe diarrhoea. The vet had suggested that she might be suffering from parvo, a contagious viral illness, which could
be fatal.
The vet told the pup’s owner that, if she did have the virus, she might need drips and medication for a few days, and this means hospital visits every day. Animal rescuers believe that this may have led the owner to abandon the dog.“What surprised me was that this is a pure-breed pup and the owner would have paid anywhere between `5,000 and `10,000 for it,” says Vani Shankar, who is an active member of the city’s dog rescue network. “It is not a small amount for the owner to forgo... then, there is the heartlessness of leaving an ill pup to its fate defenceless.”
“Perhaps he thought that she won’t survive, so why spend more on treating her,” says Vani.
On consulting with another vet, Satish found that the pup is perfectly healthy except for a mild stomach flu. “She is now playing happily, waiting for a loving home,” says Vani. The rescue team will only put her up for adoption after she, now called Arya, is a few months old.