Parked nearby was the Brooke Hospital for Animals’ van. They are an international organisation helping poor communities take better care of their working animals (donkeys, horses and mules). Two of their mobile clinics are now functioning in Karachi as well, and they have an office inside Richmond Crawford. I asked their vet to come over and have a look at the cat. They picked her up and handed her over to the Richmond Crawford staff who dressed the wound on her leg. The cat stayed there overnight. Today, on our request, the kind Brooke vet Dr. Shernawaz dropped the cat off to the Karachi Animal Hospital. Dr. Zulfiqar Otho, the director of the hospital, diagnosed her as most likely having a broken hip. He also said she might have jaundice, as her gums and eyes were quite yellow. She was also severely dehydrated and so was administered a drip and antibiotics.

We’ll be taking her for an x-ray to Gizri tomorrow morning. Hopefully, she’ll be able to get all better. She’s an extremely sweet natured cat and is currently confined to a cardboard box. The Karachi Animal Hospital is extremely limited on space – they only have about 4 pet carriers for cats and they are all already full of their own patients. Would anyone be interested in adopting or fostering her while she recovers from treatment? If you’re on facebook, sharing this cat’s story on your profile will help spread the word about her. Thanks!

Update – March 18, 2010

We took the cat for an x-ray to the Tabani Diagnostic Centre in Gizri today. According to Dr. Zulfiqar Otho, her pelvic bone is broken and will require surgery. However, she needs to recover from her jaundice first before she can be operated upon. Even today she was a bit dehydrated and required additional drips. She will also be on painkillers for a couple of days. He figures it would take at least two to three weeks for her to get strong enough for the operation, and then at least a month to recuperate from it.

How you can help

If you can’t adopt any of these puppies, but would like to help us find homes for them, you can do any of the following:

Put a link to this post on your facebook account.

Email the link to friends, family and colleagues.

Post this notice on any appropriate discussion forums.

If you work in the print or electronic media, do a story on the puppies to help spread the word about their rescue and adoption.

Print out the flyer below and put up on public notice boards, such as at schools, coffee shops, supermarkets, etc. Be sure to get their permission first.

Six Puppy Adoption Flyer

It was the howl of despair that could have only come from a distressed soul. I was filming a documentary in the backwaters off the beaches of Sandspit in Karachi, when I heard the cries for help. A tiny brown and white puppy was wading through the murky waters of a mangrove swamp at the edge of a fishing village.

I first spotted the puppy while my crew and I were waiting for someone to show up for an interview. Something didn’t seem quite right about him as I observed him from a distance. He was wandering around aimlessly and seemed a bit confused. I lost sight of him as he disappeared into the bushes and decided to follow him to see if his mother was nearby. I went around the corner of a house next to the mangroves, but couldn’t see him anywhere. I thought maybe he was fit enough and had scampered off to where he had come from. But no. It was then my cameraman pointed him out in the shade next to a wall by the water’s edge. Although it was 3 in the afternoon on a hot summer day, the puppy was shivering and was too weak to even sit properly. He looked like he hadn’t had anything to eat since a few days and kept stumbling over if he tried to walk.

A few children from the fishing village were swimming in the mangrove channel. None of them had seen the puppy before. Then much later one of them piped up that the puppy’s mother had died a few days ago, apparently from hunger. I asked them to bring some water for the puppy. We had some milk biscuits with us which we soaked in the water and offered to the puppy. He had probably been having mangrove swamp water the past few days, and so was initially hesitant to drink, expecting it to be salty. When I held a biscuit under his nose, he just pressed his mouth on it, and seemed unable to open it. He had probably still been on his mother’s milk when he got separated from her. After a while, though, he finished all the water and the biscuits, and immediately seemed a bit more energetic. Soon, our van showed up, and we took out some chicken from our leftover lunch, and gave a little to the puppy. After that he was fine, and was running about following the children.

Still, the puppy was in no condition to be left all by himself, and so by then I had decided to take him with us. One of my friends, Ayessha, had been wanting to adopt a street puppy for her horse stables, and I knew that this little one had just found himself a home.

I put Saeed, one of my crew members, in charge of the puppy while the rest of the filming was being done. Once we had wrapped up from there, one of the children accompanied us with the puppy in our van to a nearby shop from where we picked up an empty cardboard box. We put the puppy in the box, said goodbye to the children who had followed us on foot all the way to the shop, and made our way to our next location. While we were filming in the open field, the puppy kept following Saeed around, and seemed quite happy.

We wrapped up the shoot around sunset, and made our way back to the city. The puppy slept in my lap the whole way. By then I had informed Ayessha about him, and went straight to her house to drop him there for the night. The next morning she took him to the stables which were to be his new home. The day after that we took him to Dr. Isma’s animal clinic for a check-up. She prescribed an antibiotic for his upset stomach, and said to bring him again in a few days for deworming and vaccinations.

The puppy, named Tiger by the stable grooms, is now on a dry puppy food diet and is getting used to his new surroundings. He also has the company of a dozen horses, two rescued donkeys, and a few chickens. But best of all, he is in the tender loving care of Ayessha, and does not have to spend the rest of his life fending for himself on the tough streets of Karachi.

We often come across little street puppies like Tiger who are in need of loving homes. If you would like to adopt such a puppy, please do get in touch with us at info@pawspakistan.org

We flagged the donkey cart down by the side of the main road, and walked across as speeding traffic whizzed past us. The boy appeared agitated as we held him up, and even more so as we asked him questions about his lame donkey. The donkey clearly was in no condition to walk, let alone pull a cart. Apparently, he had been hit by a car about a year ago, and broke his front leg right at the knee, and it healed up all crooked. The family had given him a rest since the accident (they had two other donkeys), and had only recently decided to make him work again.

What can I do? He’s very lame, but we need him to earn our daily bread

said Saifal.

You should retire him. Give him to us, we’ll get you another donkey

we said to him.

And thus began the story of Nomi’s rescue. We made arrangements with the Edhi Foundation to go pick him up from Buduni Goth (near Hawkesbay) where he lived and take him to their animal shelter off the Superhighway. Located in the suburbs, theirs is the only animal shelter in the city. Its four acres is a peaceful and safe haven for a number of dogs, cats and the occasional working animal. Mostly injured stray animals land up there, or people dump their abandoned pets when they no longer want them.

After picking up Nomi the donkey, Karim, 12 year old Saifal’s elder brother, accompanied us to the animal market at Agra Taj to look for a new donkey. However, as it was a Friday not many animals were available for sale, so we decided to come back on the weekend.

The following Sunday at noon, we met Karim at the animal market. This time it was bustling with hundreds of goats, sheep and donkeys. There is no designated place for this ad hoc market. It’s right on the main road. The donkey market was a 5min walk away, right on top of the Lyari Expressway. There were donkeys of all shapes and sizes. Some fit, some skinny, some clearly overworked with lips sore from bad bits, and exposed flesh due to bad harnesses. The nostrils of many had been slit by their misguided owners, in the belief that this will make their animal breathe better. Obviously, millions of years of evolution failed to accomplish such a basic need.

We left Karim to wander amongst the animals, taking his time to check each one out according to his requirement. He was looking for a fit, healthy donkey, and one that was similar in size to his two others so he could work them together. He finally located one that he liked. He was a good looking young animal, which we purchased for Rs. 9,500. We were told that donkeys can cost anywhere from Rs. 7,000 to 15,000, so this was a reasonable enough amount. The person selling the donkey was most pleased, as you can tell from his grin in the photos. We paid another Rs. 500 for transporting the donkey in a van to Karim’s house, which was just a few minutes’ drive away.

A few days later a friend of ours offered to adopt Nomi when she heard his story. Ayessha loves horses and has a few of them which she houses in her own stables at Shireen Jinnah Colony, near Boat Basin. We requested the Edhi Foundation to drop off Nomi at her stables, which they kindly did on an urgent basis. While waiting for the Edhi van to show up, we bought dozens of fresh sugarcane from a roadside stall as a treat for Nomi and the horses. Finally, the van showed up at the stables and from the moment Nomi stepped out he seemed to know this was the beginning of a new life for him. First thing he got was a big hug from Ayessha. Next, he was walked into the open area outside the stables, where he was greeted by the resident little naughty brown dog who seemed to think anyone who stepped into his territory was his enemy. Nomi, however, was quite calm and relaxed, and wandered about exploring the place. All the other horses were in their stables, catching up on afternoon sleep before their evening riding session by the sea nearby.

We had placed the sugarcane on a charpai (all-purpose bed) which the inquisitive Nomi soon managed to find. He probably never had the luxury of having sugarcane before in his life, and had the lion’s share of them. The rest were given to the horses. The stable hands are very experienced with horses, and gave the donkey a thorough inspection. The broken leg, they said, had healed up months ago, and was hopefully not causing him any pain. Apart from being a bit malnourished, Nomi seemed quite alright. He did have a small wound right inside one of his ears, and one on his back, which they were going to take care of. The wounds on his front knees had mostly healed up too as he had had nearly two weeks of rest at the Edhi shelter.

Next, a bucket of feed was prepared for Nomi, which he dug into immediately. He was then tethered temporarily to a corner, so that the horses in the stables could be saddled up for their evening exercise at Clifton Beach. While the horses were getting ready, Ayessha and I paid a quick visit to Jaja Mian’s stables next door. We were greeted by a very cute friendly little white dog, who was running circles around the place. One of the horses had had a baby a few months ago, and was in the stables with its mother.

Soon the horses were ready, and we all headed to the beach where we were joined by a few children who regularly come to Ayessha for horse-riding lessons.

Many thanks to Zeenat Aunty, without whose generosity Nomi would still be limping around pulling a cart for a living. Thanks to her kind donation to PAWS, he no longer has to work, has a loving new guardian, his very own stable, and many big horses and a little brown dog as his new friends! And last, but not least, thanks to Ayessha for giving Nomi a good home, and a good new life.