Let me guess, over your life you’ve probably begged your parents multiple times to get you a dog. You’ve made herculean promises of taking care of it, been on your best behavior for weeks at end and been more responsible than you knew you could possibly be. Alas! Your mammoth efforts have come to no fruition. The excuse your parents would give you would generally be in the ballpark of the fact that you’re never at home, so you won’t be able to take care of it. That however has changed. Now, you’re always at home. So what better time, to make that one last attempt to get a dog.
A quarantine-like scenario is the best time to train and teach a newborn puppy. You’ll always be able to keep an eye on it, walk it, and clean up after it. The proximity of the puppy and your family will also encourage them to create a stronger bond and make them more proactive in its upbringing. But before I create an airtight argument that you can copy paste on your family WhatsApp group, you must understand that getting a dog is a heavy commitment and not a phase or whim. Especially when its young, it is critical that you are very invested in it’s nurturing. Puppies are vulnerable to getting hurt, eating whatever it can find on the floor and completely rampaging your house. If you have older parents and cannot spend as much time taking care of a puppy, adopt an adult dog. Which brings me to my next point. Adoption.
India has an obsession for fancy pedigree dogs. What we don’t realize is, that to meet this demand for pretty poodles, our country runs highly unethical ‘puppy mills’ which basically are breeding farms. These mills, which you want to get your opulent pooch from, for a hefty price, treat their dogs so cruelly that it is barely even legal. They keep them in cramped and dingy cages, with just enough food and water to survive. While there is no comparison drawn as to who suffers the most in a puppy mill, the breeding females are put through the most psychological and physical trauma. They are forcefully bred (using rape stands) without any rest in between litters, injected with hormones to speed their Estrus cycle, right from their first heat (menstrual cycle for dogs) to when they cannot give birth anymore. Many die in the process; others are abandoned once they are useless to the mill owners. Another evil we fail to mention in society is the import and breeding of dogs like St. Bernards and Huskies which don’t belong in a tropical climate like ours but rather a mountainous cold region. These dogs were meant to run in open spaces in climatic conditions that can’t be further from ours. Imagine being subjected to a confined space your entire life wherein the heat is suffocating you. That’s how it feels like being a St. Bernard in India.
So where can you adopt your ‘future best friend, shoulder you can cry on, will love you unconditionally till the end of your days’ dog from. There are several organizations that rescue dogs in need, treat them, vaccinate them and make them ready for you to take them home. One of my favorite organizations is YODA (Youth organization in defense of animals). I’ll provide a link down below for their Facebook page so that you can access their inventory of rescued dogs. And if I failed to read you right, and you’re actually a cat-person, don’t worry YODA has several rescue cats ready for adoption. Now if you do adopt an Indian mongrel or what we commonly refer to as strays, they won’t look like the Labrador or Golden retriever you would’ve hoped for, but it would benefit you to remember that you too don’t look like Chris Hemsworth and your parents still love you.
Now in case you’re panicking about all the supplies you’ll need, to take care of your pet, I can assure you, that you’ll find everything on Amazon.
Getting a dog was the best thing that has happened to me, rest assured it’d probably be the best thing that’ll happen to you.
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