Animals in Udaipur

Udaipur is a very pretty little town on the edge of a lake. I headed here to stop being a tourist for a couple of weeks. I got myself a home, a job, and a bicycle and very much enjoyed having a bit of a routine and not doing any touristic sightseeing at all.

My new place of work was an animal rescue shelter/hospital. Each day I had the most relaxing bike ride to and from work along the edge of lakes, through mountains, fields and villages. I loved being able to cycle again, and going through such beautiful scenery and being able to at least visually get to know the people who lived in each vilage I pased made it even more special. It was however a particularly hot time of year and therefor I was also particularly hot when I arrived at work or back at home, and so my enjoyment may not have spread to others.

Below is a picture of my wonderful work companions. They were all so friendly and tolerant of me. They never once got openly fed up of my many questions, or my lack of knowledge of their language. Lots of them couldn't speak English but they never gave up trying to talk with me. They invited me back to their homes for tea and snacks and in return sometimes I'd give them a lift on the back of my bike (only until someone riding a motorbike passed and took over). One evening Basanti - my best friend at the shelter - gave me a bindi and some bangles for my wrists. When I got home a little boy asked me where I was from. I told him England and he said very sweetly 'but you look Indian'.

At the animal shelter there are dogs, cows, donkeys, pigs and two tortoise. There is a speciall area for injured pupies, another area for injured adult dogs who will be returned to the streets once they're beter, an area where dogs who've lost the use of their back legs live, an area for dogs with scabies, a special place where the tortois live, and then an area for the cows, donkeys and pigs. The rest of the space is open for all the dogs who it's considered wouldn't survive back on the streets to run around freely in. When animals arrive at the center, all is done to enable them to return to where they were found. Sometimes though, like with the dogs who can't use their back legs, they wouldn't survive back on the streets and so live a happy life at the shelter instead.

In this area of India it is illegal to put cows to sleep, even if they are in a lot of pain and wont recover. Because of this I saw many sad cases of very ill cows just waiting for their time on this earth to pass. It did also mean though that all is done to give cows as god a life as possible no mater what situation they find themselves in. So, there were lots of cows (and donkeys too) who'd had part of a leg amputated but were still happily hanging out with their friends.

My main jobs at the shelter were to help with feeding the animals, making sure that no one got too greedy and successfully managed to eat someone elses food. I spent a little time each day brushing the donkeys, some enjoying it more than others. I helped hold down cows and dogs if they needed an operation or to have their dressings changed. I sometimes took dogs for walks. And I did a lot of just making friends ad playing with the animals. Oh I also got further experience of carrying water on my head, when we needed to fill up a newly built swimming pool for the dogs.

In the cow area were two little orphaned calves -  Om and Laxmi. Surgage, a third orphan, arrived at the shelter the day before I left. Whilst there it was often my role to feed the calves milk. They were so sweet and beautiful. If she could, Laxmi especially would spend all of her time following you around, licking and sucking your legs, arms, hands, face, fingers... what ever skin she could find really. I learnt that fully grown cows have very rough toungs, and little calves have very smooth tongs. I also learnt that whilst it's not a problem for calves to suck your fingers as their teeth aren't in the right places to crush you, you should never forget that you are with donkeys and not cows and accidentally let a donkey suck your fingers. That hurts a lot.

Sometimes work at the shelter was sad, as each day an animal would die and often it would be animals who had seemed competely fine the day before. But the work there was also a lot of fun. All the animals had their own personalities and characteristics.

There was Whinny - a dog who wears a neck collor so he doesn't bite his wounds on his back legs, which probably after a car/bike accident he's unable to use. He's perhaps not all there mentally and runs around whining frantically using his front legs to pull himself along, whilst accidentall flipping up everyone elses food bowls on the way and making them furious with him. He loves to have a fuss and as soon as you say hello and give him a stroke he calms down.

Puja is a dog who also has no use of her back legs. She's mastered walking (and sometimes running at speed) using her front legs whilst keeping her back end fully off the floor. She's another dog who loves attention and gets so excited when she see's anyone coming towards her.

There was a puppy who I was told was very naughty because it bit people. It didn't have a name but was small and black so I called him Little Black Dog. Poor Little Black Dog, the only reason he would bite anyone was because he was terrified of people. I always said hello to him but he wouldn't let me stroke him so I just offered my hand for him to smell. Once the other puppies had got to know me they all ran up to say hello when I went into their enclosure. Little Black Dog would run up too and then he'd remember he was scared of me and back away. Finally after quite a few days, to my amazement, he let me stroke him just once! I was so pleased but then I went back to see all the puppies in the afternoon and found he'd been released without me knowing. I never did get to stroke Little Black Dog again, but I hope he's happilly running around in the mountains.

Another particularly sweet puppie was Mr Pensil. All the dogs had little tags with numbers around their necks. Mr Pensil's tag looked more like it said Mr Pensil than a number though and so this was the name I gave him. Lots of the dogs had already been given names, but there were quite a few who were nameless still. My Pensil was tiny and couldn't use his back legs or move himself at all well, but with encouragement he'd try and make his way towrads you. He was a dog who loved you if you loved him and as soon as he saw you would squeel and squeel until you came and said hello.

I miss my time and all at the shelter, but looking back at the photos will always make me smile.