Adopt strays, they are easier to bring up

Here’s a look at some proud animal lovers, who have given helpless animals a haven and in return gained oodles of love. Most of us who claim to love animals are always on the lookout of exotic pets. However, meet some Amdavadis who have transformed innocent and neglected strays into fabulous, loving pets. Strays are easier to bring up.

A lot of vets and pet handlers believe that bringing up mongrels and strays is a lot easier than having an exotic pet at home, owing to their steel strong immune system and their ability to adapt to the Indian weather. Says Akash Joshi, “You need to have your stray pets vaccinated of course, but apart from the regular medical care, love and attention, these pets hardly ever need anything unlike exotic pets who find it hard to handle the heat here. You are not just being cruel to your exotic pets but are also denying a beautiful home to a stray who could live with you much more easily.” Not just that, strays are equally intelligent and sensitive to their surroundings and so training them to look after your homes is also not a difficult task. The fact that strays are born in a competitive, dangerous and difficult environment and yet manage to survive says a lot about their adaptation qualities.

Straight off the streets
For Swati Verma, the love of animals wasn’t just limited to having an adopted stray. She, along with Zarna and Akash Joshi started a forum on Facebook in order to make stray adoption easier. While majority of people prefer an exotic breed, Saransh Patel shares, “I found Buddy four years back in a park where he was crouching under a bush alone, so I took him home and fed him. And he has been a part of the family since then.”

Your 101 on injured strays
A lot of people go about trying to help an animal in distress by impulsively approaching the animal and sometimes get snapped at or bitten by them. Pet handler Rajesh Trivedi suggests, “Getting too friendly with an animal at the first contact can prove harmful because they are scared, especially a dog or a cat who has been recently injured.” Also, don’t act very suddenly and spook them, specially if you’re on a busy road, this could cause them to try and run away from you and they might end up throwing themselves in front of a passing vehicle. Slowly and affectionately, try and lure it into your vehicle and after ensuring your own safety, take them to a safe place or to a vet to have them fixed up. If the animal looks threatening or you feel you won’t be able to control it, ask for help from friends, animal health agencies and NGOs around. If the animal you’ve found looks like it could be someone's pet, try looking for the owners — it might have gotten lost. However, there are chances that the animal may have been cruelly abandoned by its careless family — in which case, you could hand it over to the organisations or adopt it.

Bringing a stray up
If you decide to adopt a stray or an abandoned, ensure that all vaccines are given — this is not just for the animal’s health but your own as well. Since strays are exposed to harsh environments, make sure your vet checks the animal and gives it the needed attention and treatments. This is the only time you will need to have it looked at as proper love, attention and care could result into a happy, low maintenance pet. Says Swati Verma, “You could easily teach your new pet to look after the house and even toilet train them. Groom the dog well, you have no idea how handsome strays and mongrels can look with some extra love and good grooming. And although most strays will quickly adapt to the food you give them, ensure that the food is nutritious.” Strays are great for families who prefer to feed the dogs an only veg diet, these can adapt to the meals better than the exotic species. Apart from these, give your new pets some time to adapt and adjust, be kind, patient and play with them.

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