Dr. Reeta and her last wish

A word of thanks for the lady who made her act of compassion, with thoughtfulness about her circumstances an example for all to follow.

At APE Life, we have been rescuing, treating and rehabilitating dogs since 2014, when we found a litter of 6 pups who had been relocated and abandoned outside my house. In a minute of kindness and uncertainity about future implications of the same, I took responsibility of them. And since then, I met so many animals who had been through unfortunate circumstances and met an unfateful end due to human carelessness, lack of compassion, superiority complex and hatred. Add to it, it was a hatred targeted only at our own Indian breed dogs, while the same human bought and some pampered their foreign breed dogs. As if demeaning God who created all beings equal wasn’t enough, there was indeed a system of caste created here too. All dogs are same, isn’t it?

Our work entails rescuing dogs, treating them at our inhouse clinic, rehabilitating them or taking care of them forever until time do us apart.

A lot of cases we encountered were either paralysed or suffered from fatal viral diseases like parvo & distemper or rabies, due to lack of vaccination. This is when, Aditya and Mayank came to our rescue and helped us do something more and better.

With a promise to their mother as her last wish, to help the dogs and girl child with her resources, Aditya and Mayank sponsored wheelcarts for all of our paralysed dogs, Jackie Pixie Kiwi Hazel Prince Radha Saavan Fairy Zara Khushi. It was such a delight to see them walk again, running around on their wheelcarts every evening. Jackie wanted a ride 3 times a day, and would then be satisfied to go and rest.

They also helped us kickstart free vaccination drives for all street dogs and pups in different localities. And we have successfully immunized over 150 adult dogs with anti rabies and pups against canine diseases.

Throughout the process, they had a lot of questions technically, to make sure that their mother’s last wish was being fulfilled in the best way possible. It was an amazing experience for us to connect with them, and learn about Dr. Reeta Kumar’s resolve and accomplishment to reduce the human dog conflict in her society, with compassion for dogs and humans equally.

An excerpt from Dr. Reeta's upcoming book, a compilation of her letters to self, "There were 27 dogs in our block, when I started this mission. We got 25 of them sterilized and vaccinated. 11 of them have died since then. Last one was operated on 10th December 2020. That day I was very happy."