$9 Can Transform A Dogs Life (Will You Help)
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Mange is one of the most painful experiences you can think of for a dog. Hundreds of tiny mites are burrowing and creating eggs under your skin. The dog ends up looking like they walked out of an apocalypse movie. Which kind of limits the love and affection you receive as a street dog. Which I’ve become familiar with because I’ve been spending my last week passing out food and biscuits to street dogs. So I would like to help, and I’m giving you the opportunity to help as well.
It all started when I stopped to say hello to a skeletal thin dog who looked like she’d just had puppies. She stared at me and I realized that I had a big local snack that’s essentially sugar and peanuts. I slowly fed her all of it as she warmed up and began to trust me. By the end, I’d made my first friend in Auroville. So at the next local shop I picked up a package of biscuits and started passing them out and getting to know the local street dogs.
The dogs came in all shapes and sizes and I’ve come to know them all. Many of them begged for the food and came up wagging their tail. Some waited until I’d thrown them a couple biscuits and then they came to say hello. A couple still refuse to come close to me and run from the biscuits as if they’re expecting rocks. Most heart opening are the ones that just want love. They look at the biscuits and then look at me, but slowly come up to me and ask to be pet.
So I started speaking to all of them. The ones that come seeking love and the ones expecting harm. I tell them they are loved. I thank them for the hard work they’re doing living a tough existence. I reassure them that there is a purpose to this existence and that things change. I give forgiveness to the ones that fight each other for the crackers. I pet the ones who want to be pet. I give space to the ones who run. I sit in silence with the ones who are unsure.
But the ones who I feel the most sorry for are the ones who are nearly hairless and covered in open sores. As an american I’d never really seen a dog with mange. Or at the very least never ones that had progressed that far. Many of you reading probably haven’t either. I refuse to use a picture to pull at your heart strings, but I encourage you to look up a picture if you can’t imagine. Not to disgust you. Nor to manipulate you. But to give you the opportunity to open your heart. To feel what they may be feeling. I thought these dogs had only weeks left to live. While I was scared to touch them I spent time with them offering prayers as if it was the end of their life.
Which is why I was so surprised when I decided to ask the local animal shelter about the “skin conditions” of the dogs here. This is what they replied.
Since many of you haven’t been to India and certainly don’t study currency markets in your spare time, 2000 probably sounds like a lot of money. But it’s $24. I did the math and found out he’s right, the big pill (for your BIG dogs) is roughly $32 and has enough broken up to cover 3.5 dogs 16 KG dogs. For all my American friends 16KG is roughly 35lbs. Trust me the street dogs here (on average) isn’t much more than 35lbs. So if you’re not following the math here.
$9 can cure a dog of am awful disease that ruins its life. That’s a pretty good trade.
So what are we going to do about it?
I had planned to simply purchase $100 or so of the medication and give it out myself. I never would have said a word about what I was doing. It feels somehow embarrassing to talk about the fact that I have all the freedom in the world right now and I’m handing out crackers to street dogs. It feels like it would poison some of the most beautiful and heart opening days of my life to turn it into a blog post.
But I’m trying to change that. I’d like to invite you in to this tiny attempt to change the world. But I don’t want it to be about pity or guilt about the state of the world. We have more than enough of that. I’m inviting you in to open your heart and let yourself feel everything that comes in. This isn’t about sitting in misery about all the pain and suffering in the world. It’s about all of the magic that comes from having compassion and sitting with it.
Because I’ve embraced more of life in these couple days than in any other place I’ve been. There is so much to learn from a dog kicked a thousand times but still approaches me with hope for love and affection. We see ourselves in the dog that stares with fear at a helping hand. I understand better the actions of many people in seeing the dog fighting for it’s food; because it’s learned that the world won’t take care of it on it’s own.
If I allowed myself to simply feel sadness or pity or guilt about a street dog eating in a garbage pile I would have lost all of the magic. There is beauty in the eyes of a puppy who’s found a scrap of food and walking along with it’s prize. There is joy in seeing a dog remember me and greet me with a smile. There is love in watching one slowly learn to trust.
So I don’t want you to sit there sad about the state of the world. That helps no one. I want you few souls who read this blog to join me in all of this beauty literally hiding amongst the garbage.
If you would like to join in this experiment, here’s what I’ll do.
I’ll double what you send.
I’ll go buy and pick up the medication.
I’ll go distribute it to the dogs in the neighborhood.
I’ll take a picture of the dog you helped with a little bit of their story.
I’ll make a report of everything in the next post.
Anything left over I’ll give to the local shelter.
I’ve already started. But I hope you join me.
But please, do so with love not with pity. For them. For me. For yourself.
So send what you feel comfortable with saying “Dog” to any of these places.
Venmo Link: / @David-Murphy-Longhini
Paypal: Davidjmlonghini@gmail.com
Revolut Link: @davidzpmm
Don’t Have $9? Don’t care. Send $5, $2, $1.
Got No Money? That’s okay. Just share, comment or subscribe.
Don’t Trust Me? Donate to Auroville Dog Shelter. Here’s their Instagram.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Finally for the cynics in the crowd who aren’t convinced, I’ll answer a couple questions.
We can’t cure all of them though can we? No we can’t. But we can do what we can, with what we have, where we are. I happen to be in India in a village long enough to have befriended these dogs and know where they live and which ones will take what. I also have funds and friends with funds who can help.
But it only lasts 6 months? Yes, but a lot can happen in 6 months. A lot of the street dogs are eventually adopted by local families (shown by collars). But no one wants a dog that looks like it is about to kick off the next season of the walking dead. Plus street dogs have a limited range so if I can get most of them within a region there’s a chance they don’t catch it again.
Why don’t the locals cure them? The animal shelter actually does treat all of its dogs. It manages 200 which is a miracle. But it also fixes up street dogs and puts them back out on the street because that’s all it can do. And $24/pill sounds like nothing to anyone reading this blog. But when the monthly salary around here is less than $120, that’s like asking you to pay $1000 for something. So we can afford a little more than they can.
There’s a lot of pain in the world? Why help here? I think we can all agree on a goal of reducing pain and suffering in the world. There is little pain and suffering more than having thousands of mites eating you literally from the inside out. Most of us reading already are paying hundreds of dollars a month to reduce pain a 1/1000th of what that must be like for a dog. But this isn’t $100/s a month. It’s $1.50/month.
And if you disagree with me. That’s okay. But do something. If it isn’t this don’t allow yourself to get paralyzed. Give where you find it most helpful and don’t get stuck on whether it’s the best. Please. Not for me. For yourself.