A Special Valentine's Eve.....

Valentine’s Day, a day to celebrate love.....love for your partner, family, friends or for that matter “The four legged beings”. This time it was truly a celebration for me, although my interpretation of celebration here is a little different from what would normally be expected - may be a party, gifts n so on. For me, celebration means any act that makes you feel good to the level of ecstasy, one that gives you a feeling of contentment, a feeling of being truly happy with yourself for having done what you did. The onset of this year’s Valentine’s Day was one such celebration for me, and here is what made it so...........

My husband and I were out till about 10:30 p.m. on the eve of Valentine’s Day. He was out parking the two-wheeler and locking up the gate behind us, while I made my way up the stairs to our apartment. As I waited at the door for my husband to come up with the keys, I heard a cry, or rather a bark which sounded significantly different from the barks of the numerous stray dogs in and around our residence. It was one that immediately grabbed and drew my attention towards it unlike the usual barks that we were used to overlooking at that time of the night. When my husband reached our floor with the keys, I pointed out the same to him, to which he said, “Ah, it’s nothing, they must be up to some of their usual tricks”. We walked in and while my husband starting fiddling with his mobile making calls to our family members, I moved to the balcony to take a closer look at the empty plot of land just opposite to our building which was home to all the strays of the area. On one corner of the plot, is an incomplete and uncovered tank like structure. As I was inspecting the area as closely as I could, I once again heard that distressing cry and this time I noticed one of the strays, a white one, which made it easier to spot it in the dark, run towards the “tank” and stand up on its front legs to peep into it. The cry was no longer to be heard. Next I saw the white one climb up the tank, and then it sat down on the side of it while still intently looking inside the structure. My heart told me something was terribly wrong, so I insisted that my husband go and take a look at it. He did so.....

On coming back he told me that a poor fellow, one of the strays, had fallen inside the unattended tank which was also full of water, and it was unable to make its way back. My heart sank, thinking of the trouble in which that pooch was. I immediately started thinking of ways to help it make its way out of that tank. We had moved in to the apartment just a few days back, and the building being an absolutely new one was home to just the two of us. Neither, did we have anything that could help us manage to get that poor creature out of that tank and nor did we have anyone else to call out to for help. Nevertheless, we decided to give it a shot as we realised that the poor thing would not be able to pull through the night if left on its own. We went down and tried looking into the bits and pieces of wood and other materials heaped up under the stairs, which were left after the work in the building. My husband picked up a few that seemed to be of some help and ventured out towards the tank, while I waited at the gate so as to simultaneously keep a watch on the unlocked door as well as, the proceedings of the “Rescue Mission”. I could see my husband trying out all means to help the poor fellow out, but to no avail. I couldn’t hold myself back any longer, so I just latched the gate shut behind me, and ran across the road to see for myself what the exact situation was. On reaching there, I found the dog swimming and trying hard to keep itself from drowning. It was evident that she (don’t know whether it was a he/she, but I am referring to it as a ‘She’ anyways) was very tired. She had somehow taken the support of a few thermocol pieces floating in the water to keep her head above the water level. My husband told me that he had tried pulling her out with his hands but the dog was too scared and so she had tried to bite him. Considering the fact that she was a stray it wasn’t advisable that we try the ‘pulling out feat’ again, as she had certainly not been vaccinated and she was definitely prone to infections being totally exposed all the time. We were in a fix......

It was then that my husband suggested that we ask the people living in the house just adjacent to the plot for help. I had often seen the members of this family from our balcony. They owned three dogs, a Labrador Retriever, a German Shepherd, and another tiny one. I had seen an elderly lady of the family regularly feed the strays of the locality. It was apparent that this family belonged to the “Dog Lovers” group. So, we thought that they might be capable and more importantly willing to help two strangers in a “Stray Dog Rescue Mission”. We decided to go ahead. As my husband walked towards the house to talk to the family, I continued with my efforts to help the distressed dog. By this time, she had realised that we were trying to help her, so she had become a little less apprehensive and was eagerly responding to my calls. She swam towards me and tried to hold on to the log that I had thrown towards her with her teeth. I realised that she must have been struggling in the water for a much longer period than we had initially thought.....she was totally drained out so all she could manage to do was to grab the log with her teeth, she just couldn’t put in any effort to pull herself up. I could hear her breathing hard....it was very evident that she wouldn’t be able to hold on too long.....we needed to do something asap......

Thankfully, I saw my husband walking up towards us alongwith the gentleman from that house.... I looked back and saw the elderly lady standing at the door watching us from a distance. The man, by now we knew his name, Anil, had a dog lace with him, which he had brought with the intention of somehow getting the dog hooked on to the lace and then pulling it out....but it was not to be such an easy task........

I told them that she was responding to my calls and trying to hold on to the log. At this, Anil came forward and took the log from me, he asked my husband to support the dog’s weight from underneath with another piece of wood, while he tried to pull her out with the help of the log that she had grabbed onto with her teeth. The two men tried with all their might, and they were almost close to getting her out, but the poor tired creature couldn’t hold on to the log long enough with her teeth........and splash......she went back to the waters!!!! They tried the same process a few more times but, it was the same story over and over again.....the dog was just too tired and she failed to support herself with her teeth alone. Anil then called out to his mother, Judith, the elderly lady at the door, and told her to go get the ladder. I ran towards the house to get it from her. I hurried back with the ladder and handed it over to my husband and he passed it on to Anil. He immediately lowered it into the tank and tried to get the dog on to the ladder somehow. The poor one was quick enough to understand what was expected of her and she managed to pull herself up onto the ladder. By this time, Anil’s mother, Judith, had also come to the site. Then, Anil and my husband used all their strength on one end of the ladder, while the dog perched at the other end, slowly started moving up. I pushed a log underneath the ladder to support her, lest she should suddenly slip. Things were moving on as expected and we knew we were almost there..........but, to my horror, just when we were almost there, she started slipping..........I shouted out to her “No, no, please hold on”, as if I expected her to comprehend my words and feelings...............and to my utter surprise, it seemed as if she did..........she immediately grabbed on to one of the rods of the ladder with her teeth.......I just can’t say how happy I was to see her doing that...........!!!! We realised that we needed to act fast, otherwise all our efforts would soon be back to the waters again........the two men hurriedly pushed the other end of the ladder up, while I pulled the ladder towards the side....we were almost there.......the ladder was at the side of the tank, she knew she had almost made it and all she needed to make it to the ground was one final leap..........in her excitement, she tried jumping off the ladder, and in the process her hind legs got trapped under the weight of the equipment......she shrieked out in pain.....I tried to lift the weight up from her legs and free her.....she knew she couldn’t let go and so inspite of the pain she somehow managed to free herself and jumped down to safety and freedom............!!!!!!!!!!!!! Judith cried out, “Thank your stars, you lucky little one”..............and all of us, the so called members of the rescue team, heaved a sigh of relief, satisfaction, happiness.......n utter joy...........and that was the triumphant and joyous end to the two hour long effort.............!!!!!

It was truly a moment that I will remember for life........words are not enough to express the feeling......the feeling of having succeeded in helping a distressed soul, and it was even more special to me as the soul in question here was one belonging to the afore mentioned group of “The four legged beings”. I have been an animal lover all my life, and anything to do with animals has always made me happy. There have been other such instances in the past, wherein I have tried to lend a helping hand to this community........at times I have succeeded and sadly at times, I have also failed.........but this one will always remain close to my heart......it created a bond of unseen trust between us and the little pooch, and a new bond of friendship between two families.......this is how we ushered in Valentine’s Day, 2010......for me a “Celebration of Love”, in the true sense of the words.

P.S.: Special thanks to Anil and Judith, the God sent angels, without whose help, this wouldn’t have been possible.