Lack of both resources and family support have not stopped Sumathi from Ramanathapuram in Coimbatore City from ensuring that close to 40 stray dogs get a healthy meal of rice and chicken liver everyday.
Ms. Sumathi’s largesse comes despite her straitened circumstances — she works as a domestic help, earning around ₹10,000 per month. Yet she has been spending ₹3000 of that on feeding around 20 stray dogs in the city. That number has doubled following the lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as people have run short of supplies or fear stepping out. To supplement her income, Ms. Sumathi works part time at eateries washing vessels.
“I can’t afford to buy from shops and I use PDS rice or rice given by neighbours,” says Ms. Sumathi. “What matters most is the heart and willingness to take care of other lives and just not money.”
After the complete lockdown came into force on March 24, she has to start as early as 5 a.m. to ensure that she feeds about 40 to 45 dogs each day, with just a hand-me-down mask for protection. One of them, Sebi, a handsome fawn-cloured animal, is her escort through her daily routine.
“Poor fellows, they love meat,” Ms. Sumathi says of her canine friends. “So I pick up chicken liver from a chicken stall I know, make a gravy and mix it with the rice... I feed dogs in a radius of three to five km. I have fellows waiting for my food right from Ramanathapuram to Gandhipuram.”
Ms. Sumathi points out that the dogs do not fight or steal from another’s portion, happy to eat what is placed in front of them on a little square of paper that she uses to place the food on.
Despite calls from her family in Thanjavur asking her to return after the COVID-19 outbreak, Ms. Sumathi is firm that her responsibility is towards the strays of Coimbatore. “If I decide to stay in comfort, my poor fellows will go with out food,” she says.
On the possibility of a coronavirus infection, Ms. Sumathi says, “Let me take care of these fellows and God will take care of me.”