Jyothi isn’t enjoying the company. She is running nervously from one end to the other, hoping to find a place to snooze in peace. Jyoti, the in-house bitch, the cuddle-in-chief at The Roastery, is regarded as the original and permanent tenant of the property by the present occupant—Nishant Sinha. Why is the otherwise attention loving Jyoti nervous on that Friday afternoon? That because the coffee shop had a large number of Indian breed dogs adopted from shelters/ the street, come visiting The Hyderabad Indie Parade. The event was planned to bring these adopted pets to interact with those who are yet to adopt.
Care and adoption
The objective of The Hyderabad Indie Parade organised by Radhika Wakharkar, Arpita Rao and Seema Mohanchandran was to create awareness about street animals in our community, on what makes them great pets, how to care for them and most importantly, why we should adopt instead of buying. Pet parents also exchanged notes on the feed and fussy tantrums of the pets. Naturally, the music at the cafe was drowned in the barks and howls of the four-legged desi visitors.
Among the visitors to the parade were the mongrels Zippy, Bear, Juno, Cleo, Spock, Zoey, Lady Blackie Boo, Macy, Hope, Zara, Prancer, Mikey and an abandoned German Shepherd, Coco.
The day began with the indies taking the stage with their human parents to share their lived-happily-ever-after story. Jyoti, the mascot for the event had been abandoned on the street outside Roastery Coffee House and was taken in by the watchman next door. Today she spends her time between the home next door and Roastery. “She is a loving old lady and loves nothing more than a plateful of chicken wings and hugs and cuddles,” says Prashant Sinha who manages the daily operations at The Roastery.
Talks by Shreya Paropkari, Mona Kumar and Dr Alka C on cruelty, care of cats and caring for strays respectively followed.
Dr Alka C spoke on caring for street animals — feeding, sterilisations, roping in the community to look after them. As an animal lover who works tirelessly to care for street animals, Alka insists, “Community involvement is the only way to take care of street animals. It is important to educate, especially in the case of dogs and cats. People assume that stray dogs and cats can harm people; this must change. One animal lover should come forward in every locality to make the people trust the animal. The best way to do this is to make sure people look at you while you attend to the strays. This is not to be confused with showing off an act of kindness. It is the first step to educate people who are unfriendly towards animals, to show that street animals won’t harm you randomly.” Alka suggests the best way to make a loving community is to teach the young ones. “Because they are the future of society,” she adds.
Mona Kumar, a content manager with a data company spoke about care of cats. She grew up around animals all her life and has had many cats. In the last 15 years or so she has learnt about cat care from her own experience with her pets, strays and rescues. Apart from the usual care and grooming tips on cats and how to safely domesticate them, she stressed on care for adult, disabled cats and about adopting cats in pairs. Her talk included ways of making stray cats human-friendly.
Animal abuse
Shreya Paropkari, Manager – Farm Animal Protection Humane Society International/India spoke about cruelty. She pointed out that, apart from physical torture, acts like refusing treatment of farm animals and cramming them in transport trucks also amount to cruelty. “Breeding is also a form of abuse. Keeping animals caged is a serious offence, neglecting to exercise, habitually confine and fail to provide food and medical assistance, all amount to cruelty,” she said.
While all this happened, the dogs didn’t seem too willing to part from their humans parents even for photos or to socialise with other dogs. They were of course happy to receive cuddles and belly rubs from all.