Arunachala Animal Sanctuary & Rescue Shelter

The Shelter’s YouTube Channel is called InsideTheShelter

2011-12-22T00:38:00.000-08:00

Heads up! Several new shorts just went live on youtube.com/InsideTheShelter. There are over 40 movies to date about the Shelter and its animals to watch! Please enjoy them and share freely with your animal-loving friends.

NEW SHORT VIDEO: The Great Escape

2011-12-22T00:28:00.000-08:00

Founder’s Diary, by Leslie Robinson

2011-11-11T23:08:00.000-08:00

September 2011

Unedited -- Straight from the Heart

Dear Ones ...

At home. Upstairs. Osho, Ladyji, and Keshav lying around. Shirdi and Alex are out and about. Wandering as former street dogs do. Enjoying.

Morning. Chants playing on the computer as I type. How I love these creatures. A number of times a day I bend over and stroke them, or give them a little kiss. They just continue lying there, like saying, “Mom … Come on … Leave me alone,” But it makes them feel safe, secure, and loved. They’ve become so so sweet.

They still like to wander, or just sit outside by the side of the road a chunk of the night. Osho doesn’t always go out when the others do. We’re sleeping on the second floor. So I can be on the ground floor with the door open. But he often doesn’t come. He waits until I get upstairs. Then wants me to go downstairs again. Open the door for him, and see him off. Which is okay for one round. That is, letting him out. Then being awakened sometime during the night to go downstairs and let him in. But then, after I’ve fallen asleep he sometimes wakes me and wants me to let him out again. My response is clear and focused. “Stuff it, Osho.” And I go back to sleep.

Osho is the Guru of Dogs. They all simply love him. Follow him. He’s got a certain energy that he emits. He’s one of the very few dogs in town that can go across any other dog’s territory and not be challenged. People love him. Animals love him.

Sometimes when I’m sitting with Osho. I look over at him, and say, “We’ve become old guys together, babe.” “I love you.”

It’s such a blessing for my Heart to be so open to animals. As I walk along the streets I continually get these surges in my Heart which feel so good. Of course, I pick up the flip side, too. I really experience their suffering.

I feel a Heart connection with all the creatures - bullocks, birds, cats, snakes, insects. It wasn’t always this way. I loved animals generally from the earliest parts of my childhood. But the full opening to include insects, and other forms that I can’t think of right now happened during a fourteen month retreat, in silence, in a remote cabin, on several hundred acres of sacred land in the middle of nowhere.

At the time I was doing a Tibetan Buddhist spiritual practice. The simple cabin had been built by a Tibetan monk who did a three year retreat. To get to it you had to follow a narrow trail through heavily forested terrain. It went over a small stream and then over two long hills. The cabin was nestled in a small clearing at the top of the second hill.

We have on the white wall surrounding our Shelter, a famous statement by Mahatma Gandhi. “The Greatness of a Nation and its Moral Progress can be judged by the way its Animals are Treated.”

This is really a comment on the nature of the Heart.

The real importance of this is that the Heart opens in all directions. If it opens more for one thing, it opens a little more for all things. If the community has more compassion and caring for the dogs, they'll be nicer and gentler with each other.

It’s so difficult, costly, and time-consuming to try to get people to be nicer with each other by working directly with them. We’re so, so complicated. How much easier it is to open a Community’s Hearts through demonstrative love to homeless dogs.

It uplifts both the Human and the Animal communities. Dogs have much better lives. Humans have better lives. Humans are more caring with the dogs and with each other. As a result, it is safer and healthier on the streets.

It is a low cost, fast way to uplift Society in many ways. And this is the gift that India’s homeless dog problem actually presents to us.

The solution is demonstrative love - the very core of our work. We are told by all the great Indian masters, that love is the most powerful force in the universe. No question, we are seeing it work.

Learn the Ancient Story of the Indian Dog

2011-05-11T02:59:00.000-07:00

Most of the dogs we help in Tiru at the Shelter are called “street dogs,” since they are not recognizable Euro-breeds. Still, anyone can see that they possess a certain genetic purity of their own.

INDog is a high-quality website that teaches the surprising history of these common indigenous dogs of India, which come from the oldest canine bloodlines found on Earth!

They are not “mongrels” although many Indians use that label. Rather, these rugged pooches are indeed “pure,” ancient and majestic -- incredibly intelligent and self-sufficient.

(Thanks for sharing, Rajashree and Eileen!)

Founder’s Diary26 April 2011, by Leslie Robinson

2011-04-26T02:33:00.000-07:00

Un-edited - Straight from the Heart

Dear Ones ... An Ode to Dr. Rajasekar and Vishwa

There are so many things I want to say about our beloved Shelter ... About Dr.Raja, our senior vet ... About Vishwa, our general manager ... About our staff ... They come to mind in flashes ... In some kind of associative chain ... I get flickers of what Raja ... and Vishwa do ... Just a glimmer of their devoted activities ... I’m not in the Shelter most of the time ... My activities during this period relate mostly to the computer ... Dealing with outside forces to protect us ... FCRA ... Preparing for the future ... And so on. ... one day I’m in the clinic early morning ... Standing alongside Raja, a woman, and a young puppy he’s treating ... Puppy is getting an i.v. ... I ask Raja what for ... “Poisoning” ... “Do you think she’ll make it? ... “Yes” ... “But Raja, what if it worsens?” ... “It won’t” ... “What do you mean, ‘It won’t ... How do you know? “ ... ‘“It’s over the crisis ... I saw her 1:30, last night ... She’s past the crisis” ... So just by chance I find out about his middle night emergency ... It happens regularly ... About a cow emergency treated one day at 8:30pm ... On another day, a dog hit by a rickshaw that he saved at 11pm ... And that’s only a faint glimmer of what he’s doing ...

It’s the same with Vishwa ... Sitting down next to him on the veranda ... “Vishwa, you look awful” ... “Yes sir” ... “Anything I can help with” ... “No sir” ... “What’s wrong” ... “Nothing sir” ... “Vishwa, what do you mean nothing” ... “I was here last night sir ... There was a problem with one of our patients ... I stayed up with him ... And didn’t sleep” ... “Vishwa, go home and get some sleep” ... “Yes sir ... Later sir” ... Or finding out, by chance, that he was out on a rescue in the middle of the night ... Or a four hour round trip at some ungodly hour to replenish our stock of “bonesetter herbs” ... And so on ... This is only a tiny tip of his activities ...

My beloved Dr.Raja, and Vishwa ... They were sent to me by Providence ... One doesn’t get humans like this just by chance ... A precious gift ... And so closely I’ve worked with them for over four years ... Explaining ... Cajoling ... Loving ... Raging ... Teaching ... At times it was so intense ... At times so, so difficult ... It was a close, close Heart connection ... How beautifully they’ve unfolded as they’ve connected with their own inner strength ... As they unfolded, growing in directions that were not predictable ... How unbelievably hard they worked and struggled ... How beautiful it was to see their own Hearts opening further, and further ... What a blessing for them ... What a blessing for the vulnerable animals they protect ... And now, these two precious human beings ... These blessings to the Planet ... Don’t do my bidding ... They are “walking on their own legs” ... With their own unique strengths ... With their Hearts fully open ... And I have to stand further and further back to give them room as they move ... It’s so touching ... So humbling ...

Thank you God ... For this chance in the last stretch of my life ... To be involved in something like this ... To have a chance in participating in lifting so much suffering from these helpless creatures we serve ... To be able to work with and teach such incredible human beings ... To open my Heart like you have ... Thank you ... Thank you ...

I wish that all of you could spend a few hours in the Shelter ... Towards evening when it slows down a little ... It’s so harmonious ... So quietly alive ... I was sitting next to Dr.Raja one evening ... He was on my right ... I looked at him and said, “Do you feel that quietness, Raja” ... “That peacefullness” ... “That’s Grace” ... “It’s pure love” ... “And all this before us is unfolding in that space” ...

The Shelter evolves ... All of us evolve with it ... We’re no longer just a Shelter ... A sanctuary ... A hospital ... A hospice ... A rescue center ... An adoption facility ... We’re all of those things ... They are our very roots ... But beyond that ... Above that ... In its simplest terms ... We have become a Center for Healing ...

Again ... Thank you God ...

Mail from Rob, a Shelter Supporter

2011-04-26T02:28:00.000-07:00

ARUNACHALA Animal Shelter - Love in Action

It was, in the end, a typically Indian encounter. I’d heard from a friend that in the town of Tiruvannamalai in Southern India, a man was going around feeding the street dogs, and had established a rescue shelter for treating and rehabilitating them. On the same day as I heard of this shelter, I saw the man I’d been told about 3 times that same day. He was riding around on his scooter and throwing food to the dogs while simultaneously assuring and interacting with them. The dogs recognized him and would wag their tails as he approached.

The shelter, which I subsequently visited, now has some 100 or so permanent residents who, from being too maimed and crippled, can never be released back to the streets or be fostered out to local homes. One of the dogs I saw at the shelter was blind and so brain damaged it would yelp as it awoke and blindly run headlong into the enclosing fence, and then just stumble around and around in circles. Many others dogs were coming and going, and starved horses, injured cows and birdlife as well are also treated and rehabilitated now by the shelter. You can often see Leslie riding around town on his scooter, hand-feeding and interacting with the street dogs of an evening, something he continues to do every day.

After viewing a video on the shelter’s website called ‘Postscript; The Power of Love’, I was moved to visit the shelter, and there I saw first-hand the incredible sight of dogs in such very poor condition being loved and healed by the vets and staff with such tenderness that, even in the dogs’ desperate conditions, they were playing and interacting with the humans with varying levels of trust. Apparently the hardest cases are handed to a ‘specialist’, whose heart is so open that only he can gain the trust of the animal and begin getting close to them.

After I’d been sitting and watching and patting those dogs that came up to the fence for a while, and after talking with one of the two vets, the founder of the shelter, Leslie, arrived. The staff who had been feeding some new-born puppies by hand stood, pups in arms, as Leslie repeatedly kissed and murmured assurances to each of these puppies. He then went into the dog’s enclosure where a small German Shepherd-type dog lay motionless not responding to any of the other dog’s activity or to any human contact. Leslie immediately got down on the ground with this dog and embraced it where it lay. After a few minutes, and following questions as to the dog’s arrival that day at the shelter, he informed the vets that this dog was grieving, was either lost or had been abandoned, but anyway was somehow traumatized from being separated from its human family.

He then requested a staff member to pay close attention to this dog, to give it as much love and human assurance as possible. He and I then talked for a half hour or so after which he showed me around. What I saw was not only a functional and professionally run animal shelter, but an extraordinary outpouring of love in order to alleviate the suffering of homeless dogs and other animals, and whose response is often a return of happiness, health and trust in a human. Only one dog apparently has ever been ‘put down’, and this one was mad with untreatable rabies.

As I was leaving the shelter I looked down at the grieving German Shepherd, still inert, but now cradled in the lap of a staff member as he sat on the floor gently stroking the animal’s body. They had been like that the whole time I was there, and for who knows how long after. I came away feeling very moved by the selfless dedication of Leslie and the staff there, that in response I made my donation and I now write this email. I ask nothing of anyone, by the way; this is just my way of expressing something deeply felt.

. . .

I have just had breakfast with Leslie who I met by chance in a cafe here, along with another man, Ken, who produced and also showed me the video I mentioned above. Ken is also an inspiration who gives to the shelter in many ways through website production, marketing and newsletters, promoting the shelter on the internet via Facebook and his own website, drool.com; as well, he has donated two Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles to the staff. One of them, Vishwa, a man Leslie describes as a ‘hero’, uses the Bullet as a recovery vehicle, often travelling miles at any time of day or night with an assistant on the back to capture, as gently as possible, an injured, frightened and/or otherwise starving animal from any situation with fearless courage, to then return, animal in the arms of the pillion to the sanctuary of the shelter. Vishwa then uses all his resources and networks to foster rehabilitated animals into safe and loving new local homes.

So, having now expressed my response to that experience for you, I will leave you with it. Maybe my experience won’t translate through this letter or through you watching the Shelter’s video, but I have truly witnessed what can only be described as something akin to Grace in action, and for me it has been and still is one of the highlights of my trip here. May it also be as profound an experience to you as it was to me.

With deep gratitude,
Rob Duczynski
Hobart Tasmania Australia

Ram Sadhu Talks about the Sanctuary

2011-02-21T04:01:00.000-08:00

‘Demonstrative Love’ Gets Around!

2011-02-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

The Sanctuary was one of four charities in Tiruvannamalai that was honored at a local benefit hosted by the Mooji crew on Sunday, Februrary 6th.

Our supporter-donated promotional materials included a bright new LOVE design made into stickers and given out in brochures, as well as printed on tee-shirts for sale.

You can see a short video of the event now:

THANK YOU, MOOJI, and to everyone who came out for the party!

Images from the Mooji Benefit Concert

2011-02-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

Rambo and No-Name - Part III

2011-02-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

Read Part I and Part II

I returned the next day to Anadu across the lake and settled in. What a fabulous place this was. Like a dream, really. There were stone paths between garden walls that led here and there on the mountainside. There were many kind of birds singing and flying about. Sheep, goats and water buffalo were singing their animal songs in the warm sun that rose each day over the mountains.

In the evening Shiva cooked dinner over an open fire, as he did every night. As darkness fell the lights from the town across the lake twinkled and the stars shone above. Moonlight reflected across the lake. I was beginning to think Never-Never Land really did exist.

There were only about fifty houses in Anadu. No roads, no store, no Internet, nothing of that sort. But there was no shortage of dogs. Every house had one, or two, or three. They were used mainly as an early warning signal against leopard attacks, and they lived purposeful lives that city dogs can only dream of. Not only did they live in a dog’s paradise, but each dog had an important job ¾ canines love to have a job, as we know.

They visited each other during the day, trotting the stone paths. At night they talked to each other. It only took one to get a howling conversation started, and then they all joined in. Each had their own unmistakable bark or howl. What a hilarious thing it was to hear!

That night, over dinner, the conversation turned to these dogs. I told the family about No-Name. As it turned out, what I thought was their dog was the neighbor’s dog. Their own dog, Rambo, had disappeared one week ago. Yes, this pensive dog loitering around the house was Tara, and their dog was Tara’s missing best friend.

They told me that Tara was almost always waiting at their house in hope that Rambo would soon return. I felt so sad for the dogs. And for the entire family. Easy started to cry.

‘Bring no-name here,’ she sobbed. ‘Really?’ I replied. ‘The dog is in very bad shape, and not very well.’ Again Easy repeated, ‘bring him here, he can live with us, no problem.’ Oh, that bittersweet joy!

Neither Easy nor Shiva had any idea that No-Name was a mastiff, a mountain dog. The perfect dog for Shiva, who for a long time had been a mountain guide. This might just work out really well, I was thinking.

What a great match it would be, but would it be possible to get No-Name over to the other side in the boat ¾ and even if we could get him over, would he make trouble or run off? These questions would soon be answered. In the morning Raj and I would take their boat over and try to bring No-Name back to Anadu.

Next morning we paddled over. We pulled the boat up and headed to the restaurant where No-Name was sure to be (a ten minute walk). And there he was, curled up on the side of the road across from the restaurant, beside the bicycles for rent. He struggled to get up and staggered over to us ¾ he knew me from our previous feeding encounters.

We tied a rope around No-Name and off we started to the boat. But he would only walk a short distance and then he would stop. So Raj pushed his back end while I pulled on the front end. This worked well and we finally reached the boat.

I carried No-Name into the boat and off we went. He was a very good boy on the way over, mostly just standing there looking out over the water. When we reached the other side, there was no need for pulling and pushing.

It was as if he knew this was his new home right away. Without prompting, he followed us up the path to the house where Shiva, Easy and Tara were anxiously waiting.

It was more like a home-coming than an introduction. Tara, a little apprehensive at first since No-Name was so big, took to him quickly after the initial shock. Soon they were playing. You could tell that Tara was feeling much better now.

Right away, No-Name settled in to his new surroundings. Tara watched. After some exploration he lay down in the shade overlooking the lake and his old ‘home’. And Tara, well, she lay right beside the exhausted boy.

Shiva was a true dog lover. On No-Name’s first night he made a dog bed and even covered him with a blanket to keep him warm, since there wasn’t much fur on him, which is a result of the disease called mange. I almost cried to see that. Oh yes, Shiva already loved this new mastiff very much. And No-Name loved Shiva too. Indeed they had bonded.

Rambo never did return to Anadu, but Tara now has her Rambo II to love. And Rambo II has Tara, Shiva, Easy and Raj to love. And they all have Rambo II to love. Everyone was so very, very happy. Oh, and yours truly? He’s very happy too, to tell the tale.

Rambo and No-Name - Part II

2011-02-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

Read Part I

Meanwhile, on the other side of the lake, No-Name continued waiting for his master to return. Just three months ago, this dog was living like a king. His German master had attached a side-car to his motorcycle for No-Name. What a great master to have. Yes, life was very good until that fateful day.

Here’s what happened. As No-Name lay upon the entrance steps of a restaurant one evening, waiting for master to finish dinner, a local ‘lady’ entered and kicked the dog aside. Master, seeing what had happened, kicked the lady in turn ¾ not a good idea if you’re sporting an expired tourist visa. She called the police.

He was arrested on the spot (and later deported), which left No-Name at the scene of the crime. After three months, he was still there, waiting for his master’s return. Not knowing how to survive on the streets, he had shrunk to just skin and bones. What would have once been a magnificent creature was very close to death’s door.

It so happened that just then I entered the restaurant and saw no-name lying in front, alone, sick and obviously hungry (left). I began to feed him raw chicken, mutton and water buffalo. Ever so slowly, meat started to appear on No-Name’s bones.

I had recently left the guesthouse where I was staying. The owners kept me up most every night with their incessant blah-blah’ing. A shame, since the place had the best view in town and the room was new and inexpensive.

My new room was also noisy but did have a decent view, looking across the lake. There were just a few houses over there and I wondered what it was like. That distant shore would be quiet, surely, since there were no roads or businesses.

But the only way to get there would be by boat and no power boats were allowed on the lake. One would have to paddle the way over. And it was a pretty big lake. Maybe that’s why there weren’t many houses to be seen on the other side.

Even so, my curiosity got the best of me. So I rented a boat and after an hour of paddling arrived on the shore,. Two young boys met me with a ‘namaste’. I asked if there were any guest houses. ‘No’ they replied, but asked me to ‘come this way.’

They led me up a winding path to a small house, not really a guesthouse but a private house where I was greeted by Shiva and Easy, its owners. They invited me for chai tea and then showed me around. Right away I felt at home.

No wonder I liked it, because there was the view of the town across the lake, the mountains beyond the foothills and the beautiful gardens Easy had cultivated on what had one been rice-paddy terraces. I knew straight away that this would be the perfect place to chill out, as they say. The village is called Anadu, which means peaceful. How perfect is that?

I asked if it would be possible to rent one of their rooms and the they lit right up. ‘Yes, we would love for you to stay here with us.’ Exactly what I wanted to hear. I returned to Lakeside to pack up my things. But before I left I made a deal with an honest waiter at the restaurant where No-Name waited.

I gave the waiter enough money to buy meat each day and feed No-Name for a couple of weeks or more. After that, he would again be wondering where his next meal would come from. This concerned me, but what could I do? Finding a home for a big dog like that, in such a terrible condition, would have been next to impossible.

Read Part III

Rambo and No-Name

2011-01-21T22:22:00.000-08:00

Pokhara, Nepal

This story begins on a sad note for two Nepalese dogs whose lives eventually became happily interconnected.

Tara, a sweet and very pretty mixed breed, lived with her master on the side of a mountain overlooking beautiful Lake Fewa, Pokhara. She was heartbroken at the recent loss of a dear dog friend.

On the opposite side of the lake, also heartbroken was a Tibetan mastiff who was living on the street. There he waited for his master to return. Three months ... and counting. Of course he had a name, but no one in Pokhara knew what it was.

Part I

Tara’s very best friend and next door neighbor, Rambo, had disappeared. Tara’s master thought that maybe a leopard had taken Rambo, or perhaps he’d swam across the lake to visit some friends, or followed a friendly tourist ¾ as dogs around the lake love to do.

Tara could be heard in the evening howling for Rambo. It echoed across the lake where she thought Rambo could hear her. Certainly he would have swam over if he was able to do it. After all, Tara had done that swim herself to visit friends. It only takes about an hour of dog paddling each way.

How they had loved each other, Tara and Rambo. So much so that if only a single dinner was served each would eat half, leaving enough to share. They played all day on the mountainside and then, as the sun set, they slept close to each other. Theirs was true puppy love.

And then Rambo suddenly disappeared, which left Tara alone and very sad. Also sad was Rambo’s family. His mom Easy, dad Shiva, and their son Raj were missing Rambo. But there was no trace of their boy to be found.

Easy was pretty sure that a leopard had taken him. Just two weeks ago, a dog from the house (just a short stroll away) had been taken. Dogs are easy game, too, as well as oxen and goats.

These animals don’t stand a chance when a big cat gets a hold on the throat. For its size, the Clouded Leopard has the longest canine teeth of any feline. Some say it’s the world’s only living saber-toothed cat.

Read Part II

New Video: Postscript - The Power of Love

2011-01-21T07:14:00.001-08:00

Founder's Diary - 19 January 2011, by Leslie Robinson

2011-01-21T07:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Ones ...

It's 3:15am ... Osho, one of my dogs woke me ... Barking outside to comeback in after several hours of wandering ... He likes to go out twice, but I'm only willing to support once ... Living on the second floor of a modest house I'm renting (4500 rupees a month--about $100US -- You, too, could live a life of "luxury" on a pauper's income) ... Have to go up and down twice on each of "Osho's meandering" -- once to let him out, once in ... Also, I'm only willing to get up twice during the night for him ... I have five dogs ... They're not pets ... They're street dogs -- Osho, Lady-ji, Keshav, Shirdi, Alex, by name ... I live with them ... Love them ... Give them reasonable freedom ... They've all become sweet ...

But Osho's like a great being ... People and dogs, alike, adore him ... He seems to have free passage into other dog's territories -- where no other's have ... And is anointed with affection and adoration as he wanders around -- from humans and dogs alike ... I occasionally get jealous, but manage to keep it under wraps ... Think Ken is writing a story about him in our first Newsletter ...

So here it is at this ungodly hour ... I'm communicating because Ken has pressured me by pointing out -- several times, mind you -- that I last wrote anything for the "Founders" section of the website, some thirty or forty years ago ... He thought it would be good if I'd communicate more regularly ...

This is the 13th of January... Three days ago we celebrated the fourth anniversary of our opening ... I'm not heavily into celebrations ... So it was a modest affair ... A brief puja early evening ... (For those of you who aren't familiar with "puja", it's basically an expression of gratitude to God ... For those who are agnostics, or atheists -- think of it, as a heartfelt thank you to the Universe) ... There were about 20 present, in addition to the staff ...

There were still two clinic cases being treated (We were all in the clinic, where the puja was held) ... Operations were still going on in the operation room ... Our beloved puppies and dogs were mingling with us ... It was growing dark ... Since I didn't know the appropriate mantras (I did the offering) ... I waived the light in silence while soft mantras were playing ...

I wish you could have experienced it ... You could feel the intimacy, warmth, and Heart in the air ... All of us crowded into this simple clinic room ... Here in the south of India ... We were truly moved ... It was an anointment by the Universe, to bless us for our activities ...

I wish that all of you could have been there ... I talked a little after the waiving of the lights ... Mostly about our staff ... Actually about all of us engaged in this endeavor ... The deep changes we were going through ... The magical changes ... As we experienced more spaciousness in our minds and came closer to our Hearts ... Each of us could look back at how we were a year ago ... And the year before that ... And see the profound changes that had taken place ... I'm aware of the "unfolding" of each of my staff ... Some came in heavily contracted ... And it was so moving to see the light entering their eyes as they worked through their things and their Hearts started opening further ... It's such a blessing for each of us to be involved in this Work ... And we were surrounded by some of those creatures we've been able to help lift from suffering ... How warm it feels to see their happiness ...

Towards the end ... It was already solidly dark ... I was sitting on the Shelter veranda with two old, dear friends who were visiting ... We'd known each other for over forty years ... Ranvir and Manjit Singh ... They're family to me ... Several times over these decades I've actually lived with them in their countryside home outside Ann Arbor, Michigan ... A fellow named Dev was leaving ... He'd been living in Tiruvannamalai for a number of years ... I introduced him to Ranvir and Manjit ... He talked about his experience ... It's the first time I saw him so deeply moved ... His eyes were almost teary, as he expressed his gratitude ... He took some photos (he's an accomplished photographer) ... And has posted an account of the evening on the Internet which is essentially what he said to us that evening as he recollected his memories, and I quote ...

"Public memory is short. Few can recall the rampant stray dogs everywhere, young and aged, starving and diseased, scavenging in the garbage heaps, fighting amongst themselves, ignored and abused by the human population, while remaining a menace to all including themselves .... In four short years, the roads are more peaceful, with few strays to be seen, and the naturally loving relationship between humans and animals restored to its true state."

How grateful I am that it turned out this way ... It truly is magical and a great blessing ... Without those blessings, with the same effort, it could have been much different..