Lucky

Shivam (boy next door), Rahul, still-to-be-named puppy (last week) and Santosh

The pup in the picture is just that - lucky. She was a little street puppy, born to a not-so-attentive mother dog down the road. Her five litter mates disappeared one by one over the weeks, most likely traffic fatalities because they used to run around in the street near the main road. For the last few weeks, it's just been this little one - a female - and her mother.

On Monday during the kids' study time, we suddenly heard horrible squeals coming from right outside of our gate. Eric, valiant defender of small animals that he is, ran to the rescue and saved the puppy from a group of 4 large street dogs that were attacking her. Her underside and one of her legs had been torn open, exposing all of the muscles and tendons. Undoubtedly, had the attack occurred at another time, when nobody was around to run to her rescue, the puppy would have been done for.

The good news is that after a trip to the vet's office, cleaning, sutures, rabies shots and lots of other fun stuff, the puppy is fine. She has to wear a plastic cone on her head for the next week so that she can't chew on her wound, which makes her look pretty sad and pathetic, but all in all, she is very lucky.

Meanwhile, I can't help but think this is all one giant conspiracy - the kids had been begging to adopt the puppy for weeks (and had even put a small collar on her, as you can see in the first photo) and the puppy had been coming by our house almost daily, wriggling under the fence to come and play with the kids and munch on Simba's food. And through it all, Sangeeta and I had held out - no, no, no, we do not need a second dog. No, no, no, we do not need the responsibility. No, no, no, no, no.

And then on Monday, by chance, the puppy was involved in a dog fight and had to be kept in our house and nursed back to health for ten days - just long enough for everyone to become sufficiently emotionally attached. The children (and Eric) are delighted. The puppy is as happy as can be (minus the plastic cone on her head).

Pure coincidence? It's definitely questionable.

Waiting for a belly rub. This puppy is a smart one...