KOZHIKODE: A group of children belonging to households near Mappurath temple at Ulliyeri here, whose swift intervention had saved a two-month-old puppy from certain death, are a contended lot now. The responsiveness on the part of Anandu Dev G S, Deeju Dinesh, Akshay K M and Adarsh R ensured that the chief minister’s office (CMO) became involved in the matter.
The children were playing football near their residence around 4pm on Friday when they heard a puppy’s yelp. On looking around, they stumbled on a bleeding female puppy which was being attacked by two stray dogs. They scared away the strays and attended to the dog. Besides a deep gash in the abdomen caused by dog bite, one of its legs were fractured.
“I googled and located a few veterinary hospitals. But their response was hardly encouraging. A staffer went as far as to tell us that we were unnecessarily worrying about the whole thing since it was not our pet. Then I called up the CMO and filled in the authorities there on the developments. The CMO staff gave me the number of the district animal husbandry office and also promised to alert them on their own,” said Anandu.
Within minutes, C Ajitha, president of Ulliyeri grama panchayat, was contacted from Thiruvananthapuram and she informed ward member N M Balaraman.
‘Puppy okay now, taking food and milk’
The puppy was taken to the Taluk veterinary hospital in Koyilandy around 7pm in Balaraman’s private vehicle, with local people accompanying them. Emergency vet surgeon Sajas performed a minor surgery on the puppy and brought her to life, bringing cheer to the four friends. “Her condition was critical. If there was no timely action by the children, the dog would have died,” told Sajas.
“The puppy has six sutures on her body. However, she is okay now and taking food and milk,” said an elated Dev, who is keeping the puppy in his custody for the time being. The friends had named her ‘Joolie’. Dev already has a mix labrador and a puppy pomeranian at home.
“When I saw a bleeding Joolie, I was reminded of the fate of another of our dogs which had been run over two years ago. Joolie has the same white- tan colour of the dead canine,” added Dev a Class IX student of Palora Higher Secondary School. While Adarsh is a student of Class VIII at the same school, Akshay and Deeju are Class VII and Class VI students, respectively of Narath AUP School.