Feeding and caring for dogs

There is a stray dog that hangs around the guard booth outside our apartment. The guards often take on “ownership” roles with the strays that stay near them; giving them leftover food scraps, etc. The standard fare for dogs in Delhi is not packaged dog food. Even dogs with owners are generally fed rice, milk, and chapati/roti (flat bread). The packaged dog foods here are the same imported brands that we get in the west, like Pedigree. A large package costs $20 or so. (And Kimbo’s fancy-pants German Shepherd puppy food is even more.) Jesse has done volunteer work with a vet in Delhi, and he asked whether it is nutritionally sound to feed dogs leftovers from human food. The answer was no; the packaged dog foods do a much better job of meeting the animal’s nutritional requirements. That’s fine, but someone needs to come up with a local Indian brand that is within reasonable cost for locals. $20 would be a week’s salary for the guards…

I have been supplying packaged dog food for the stray near our apartment, and for the strays near the IBM Research office. One of the guards on our street came to me a few days after the food had run out. He said the dog was no longer eating the chapatis that he gave her; could I get her more Pedigree? I did, but I am also wondering about whether good deeds can have bad unintended consequences….When we leave India, will the dog resume eating the standard street fare? I have to assume that survival instincts will kick in, once the packaged foods are unavailable… I have opted to continue feeding the dogs with dog-appropriate food while I am here; trusting that their survival skills will prevail once we leave.

This same dog recently gave birth to three puppies. One of them was hit by a passing motorcycle. (I am surprised that any dogs survive the traffic here.) Another was clearly ill; the guard didn’t think this one would survive, either. Jesse and Adam did a “rescue operation” - - taking the puppies by taxi to the vet. The vet treated them both, and asked for us to care for them for a few days while she arranged for them to get placed in a private home. She said that the ill puppy, now treated, would do fine. They were as cute as can be…here are some pictures from the days they spent with us.