Stray tuned

The Mumbai Age brings you four Good Samaritans in the city who fight hard to make ends meet but never let their furry friends stay hungry or sick

“A study shows that stray cats and dogs in Mumbai are friendlier than those in most other cities in India,” says Abodh Aras, chief executive officer of Welfare of Stray Dogs. “The main reason for this is that they are, to a large extent, used to human contact.” Even as several NGOs and other private organisations are doing their bit to take care of strays, there are a handful of individuals in the city who have taken it upon themselves to take care of animals on the streets, not only their food and hygiene requirements, but even vaccination and neutering. What’s more, these Good Samaritans live on the streets themselves, don’t have a permanent roof over their heads and often skip meals. But no hardship’s too big to stop them from taking care of their furry street-side companions.

Dogs’ best friend: Suman Nair, Fort A couple of miles away from Colaba, opposite Fort’s Khadi Bandar, Suman Nair has taken on responsibility for the upkeep of six stray dogs. The matronly woman in her 60s, who lives in a small tin-roofed shack on the side of the road, feeds, bathes and gives them medicines. Suman also leaves out jowar and ragi grains for birds and nurses injured birds too. She ensures the dogs are vaccinated and sterilised and for that she takes the help of animal welfare NGOs. “They are like my children to me. The police used to harass me for feeding the dogs but I have now obtained a legal license as an Animal Feeder and Caretaker from the Animal Welfare Board. So I can legally feed them,” she says.

Sanjay and his furry family, Mahim Thirty-seven-year-old Sanjay, who makes a living out of washing people’s cars and taxis, lives with his wife, Madhu, his two kids, Ganesh and Sachin, seven dogs, three puppies and three goats on the footpath opposite Mahim station. Having rescued each of the strays when they were just puppies, Sanjay shares, “I found Lali (the mother of the three pups) with a broken leg. I gave her a stilt until till she got better. When I found Rocky (a dog with a pretty brown and white coat), he was completely covered in fleas and had been dumped in a dustbin. I bathed him and took care of him till he got better. Tiger (a white three-legged dog), I took to an NGO when his leg was run over by a car.” The family and the dogs sleep next to each other in the night. Besides milk, that he gets from his pet goats, Sanjay and his sons feed the dogs chicken feet and bathe them regularly to ensure they don’t get fleas.

In erstwhile canine company: Lakshman, Andheri Right outside Andheri station, Lakshman sleeps in the McDonalds building, and in return, keeps the footpath in front of the building clean and also brings food for the shop-owners who line the sidewalk. The diminutive man, with his salt-and pepper hair covered with a bandana, used to share his meagre wage with his two canine companions until very recently. “BMC officials came and took my dogs away just last month. I had them since they were puppies. I still feed whatever strays come wandering around this area or along the main road but it’s not the same.” Shop owners nearby say that Lakshman still carries around biscuit packs in the hopes that he will meet a new furry companion to look after and feed.

The cat man of Colaba: Narayan Past the hustle and bustle of the Colaba causeway, right in front of Electric house, sits an old man, Narayan. Bent with age, 89 years to be precise, he has become somewhat of an institution among the residents of Colaba. “I feed 50 cats daily and recently I’ve also begun feeding six dogs.” He used to work as a clerk at BMC before hard times fell on him when he lost his job. Narayan sleeps in a small room a couple of streets away from Electric House and uses most of the money his former colleagues lent him to feed his platoon of furry friends. “If they go hungry, I don’t feel like eating. I get chicken for the dogs and fish and milk for the cats. Since I was a child, I knew that animals are our friends and now they are the best friends I have,” he says.