As I wrote in my first post about animals in this big city: they are everywhere. Cows, bulls, sheep, goats, roosters, dogs and cats….and in some of the lakes even (sweet water) crocs.
At first I could not figure out how the relationship was between the Mumbaikars and the animals. Do they see or keep them as pets? As food? Do they love them? Treat them well? Abuse them? And since I come from a country in which we see dogs and cats as pets and part of our family, I was especially interested in the fate of those over here.
Ofcourse I am no expert, but I came to the conclusion that on the streets, Mumbaikar and cats/dogs coexist. You often see the strays hanging around people that live on the streets and apparently they are being thrown food at. Most of them seem at ease with people, not scared.
Really as pets, (dogs on a leash, cats living in the house), I did not see a lot, but it happens. I guess that that is more the case with people who are better of in life, although many of the richer people want nothing to do with animals. But those who do, take good care of them.
My friend K., e.g., took in a stray cat who is having a royal life with her now;-).
If she sees a wounded one on the street, she will take it to the animal hospital and pay for it’s care. At this moment she travels all the way to the hospital every other day to look after an injured cat.
And she, together with a few neighbors, are taking care of stray cats around her house.
The other day, they hired a vet who was able to catch 5 stray cats to take to the hospital to be sterilized/castrated. K. paid for that. After the surgery, the animals are placed back on the streets where they were found.
A befriended couple, D. and S., have 6 cats and 1 dog, who live in their house and garden.
And look at this newspaper article about a neighborhood that did a lot of trouble to rescue a kitten from a well. I found that remarkable!
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| Stray cats |
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| Stray dogs, sleeping the sleep of the innocent;-) |
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| Left: one of the rare times that I saw a dog on a leash. Right: the dog Taco, being fed ice creams by vendors around him, which he liked very much! |
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| Holy cow! |
We all are familiar with the fact that the fate of strays in many countries is horrible; Spain, Turkey, Greece, Eastern Europe……I hope that my impression is correct that a number of them has a reasonable or acceptable life here …
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