Another of Diksha's Puppy Rescues

This one started with a call at one in the night "ma, wake up please ma....ma listen......there's a puppy, he looks injured, he's alone......can I please bring him home?". 

A couple of sleepy questions and she had her 'okay'.

She's not home for an hour after, and finally comes to wake me up again with "ma, get up no, I took him to a clinic and got his shots and all....help me settle him in".  I don't even know why I bother saying 'no diksha' at first, because within ten minutes I'm searching for old towels and bowls.

Story was that, returning from a night show she found him lying in the middle of the road. She got off to put him on the kerb, and then found he was injured. As she was trying to figure, a car with a mom and daughter stopped by, but the mom was in a rush and they left.....then another car with another woman stopped, and Diksha says she was so helpful.

Together they took the puppy to Dr.Dog's, a round the clock dog clinic, where they got his wound cleaned and he got antibiotic shots as he seemed to have a severe infection.

Then the scene shifted home.

Next morning I'm only peeping at him through the window, but Diksha goes.... feels his pulse, looks in his eye and came back with "ma, I think he's dying....I need to take him to the doctors, and if they feel they can't treat him, I'll have him put down.... can you come "

I decided to go along. And I had this big question in my head "If he's sick, where's he going to stay...... if he dies, what are we going to do... if he gets better also, then what ", but Diksha was too focused and resolute on the puppy to even broach a discussion. Actually I tried, but was quickly put down with "ma, he's struggling to even breath, can we just look at this now please, rest I'll figure, don't worry...I'm already looking for places"

We drive to the docs, the AllVet clinic which is Diksha's favourite. While Diksha was holding the puppy, I'm telling the doc the story, and somewhere half way through I find myself choking on ...."I think he's dying as I speak, can you please look".

It's at that moment that I realized that Diksha's nerves were made of different mettle. I needed to wipe tears, but she held the puppy through the examination, the yelping, the cleaning, the saline....it's not nerves, it's a different kind of love....just so beautiful to even be witness to.

The whole of yesterday was pretty much puppy day. Saline done in the morning, they had asked us to try feeding it, else bring it back. It was way too weak even evening, take it back was the only option. 

Treatment done, search for  bigger carton done, back home and puppy tucked in..... and we're now off to get Diksha's shots. The last time round that she had done eight puppies they were clean and mother was around so we'd done no shots. This one was a whole different story. It had all signs of illness, bad signs. 

In fact the night he came he was frothing at the mouth, and I'm asking "Deech, I get how you feel, but to expose yourself like this is bit much no" and I get in return "so ma, I see a puppy, alone, scared and hurt on the road, and I leave him to die? that's the right thing to do ma?". 

How does one even argue this?

You don't. You support it.

By this time I was already down three thousand, worried about infection, like not bacterial infection...but stuff like tetanus and rabies...  and wondering what's next. 

And while one part of me is sitting with this question....I'm hearing myself tell diksha as she's getting her shot  "you're something else only deech, so proud of you ......and more than me, I'm sure thatha will be and he'll be happy to know that gene of his is safe and growing with you".

Just look at that puppy, and you'll understand:

 Literally skin and bones....

Diksha  asks "want to sit ma?" and I'm like "if I have to hold his hand and sit for half hour, no, it's okay, you only sit".(he was folding his hand in and that was stopping the drip going in, so diksha held his hand through the half hour each time). How that one glove was supposed to protect her god only knows.

Diksha had 'a moment' through the episode, which she narrated to me later, and I'd totally missed; the vet saying " I think  pre-exposure anti rabies shots should be enough for you, but better you ask the human doctors ". Says so much.(it's that subtle language bias see...vets and doctors as against animal doctors or human doctors...equates status nicely : )