Thursday, September 30, 2010

A HUNDRED!


We did not realise it, but our last post was our hundredth!
A Hundred already? Now, that certainly calls for some celebration!

When we set out to blog, we never actually fully appreciated the vastness of the blogosphere or the expansive realm of knowledge, friendship, fun, comradeship and responsibility that blogging encompasses.

We started tentatively initially. We were sharing Mummy’s blog, just posting a few posts of our own now and then in between Mummy’s regular musings.

Little did we imagine that the tables were about to turn soon!!

The idea of a blog all to ourselves had already been there in our minds for some time, when one day Mummy stumbled into the amazing world of ‘Doggie Blogging’. It was a whole new world, an entire universe by itself.

Mummy believes that a Dog has so much to share, so much to give, so many stories to tell. To add to that we are two very adventurous, gregarious labradawgs always full of energy and new life and everyone here agrees that it would be a shame if our stories were to go untold.
So ‘Pawprints in the Sands of Time’ was born.

Amongst our earliest friends were Lola, Bookerman and Asa, Rudy, Anna, Sugar, Dozer & Coop, Mango, KT and Lady, Teddy bear and Sierra, Chewy, Scottie and Khyra.
Through their blogs we ventured forward into this amazing world and the rest, of course, is history!
 
We can never be grateful or thankful enough for the wonderful friends we have found over time. It isn’t possible to mention everyone, but we would like to say a huge ‘THANK YOU” to each and every one of our friends, followers and visitors.
‘Pawprints…..’ is what it is because of you all.

We think this is the best time to pass on these awards that we were given by our friends ROO and HERO. It has been quite some time now since we were awarded, but we haven’t officially acknowledged it.

So here goes…
Thanks HERO & ROO for thinking of us. We love you. And we would like to pass on these awards you had given us to all our lovely Bloggie friends as our HUNDREDTH-POST gift.
 
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Please accept these as our token of love and appreciation.   

We are, today, all the more aware of the different cultures, foods, histories across the world thanks to blogging. We have learned about the habits, health problems and personality traits of different breeds of kitties and Doggies and we feel our feelings of compassion, comradeship and empathy towards our less fortunate anipals are stronger today.

That is the reason we would like to dedicate today’s blog to our homeless Indian Dogs.
There are hundreds and thousands of them on the streets everywhere, braving the torrential monsoon rain, scorching summer heat, the bitter winter chill.
In India, there aren’t enough shelters that take in healthy street dogs. There is a no-kill policy due to which the shelters only take in limited numbers of animals, with preference given to injured animals.
The rest are left to fend for themselves on the streets.

Though there is a law about sterilization, it hasn’t been very successful due to lack of initiative. Most pawple are content with blaming the authorities and often chasing pack of strays away from their neighbourhood.
 
Small groups of compassionate people do sometimes come together to initiate a sterilization and vaccination drive and make sure the group of strays in their colony lead a comfortable life.

There is a law about provision for a small clearing in each colony where dog-lovers can come and feed the strays.
But unfortunately not many pawple are aware of it and sadly, the numbers of people who protest are aplenty.
 
We, on our part, try to share a part of our food with strays that live around here.
Of late, we have befriended a handsome, young fellow who must be about 4/5 months old.
 
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He is of a very pleasant disposition, always wagging at us as we drive by.
He knows our car and everyday follows us home whenever we are back from our outings. He seems to be extremely intelligent, very gentle and friendly.
Mummy tried teaching him a few things and he has already learned to sit, down and roll-over!!
 

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We always ask to play with him but Mummy wouldn’t allow us because he is, poor boy, ridden with ticks and fleas.
But the other day she did relent and we played a little. And of course we came back with a lot of those parasites that we all fear. Daddy had a hard time cleaning us up.
 

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We don’t think we will get to play with him again but we gladly share our food with him everyday.
 

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P1120931 (Look at him holding the bag to stop it from slipping!)
Mummy goes and plays with him sometimes. The little guy seems to be totally enamoured by her and
this makes Mummy really, really happy!
 
Our hearts go out to our street-friend. We desperately want to bring him home and make him a part of our family. But Mummy says it is just not possible now. For one, he is not house-broken which means he will be messy around the house and with Mummy and Daddy working full-time, there wouldn’t be anyone to clean up after him.

This wouldn’t do at all; we are very, very fussy about cleanliness. Besides he has been on the streets since birth which means he is in all likelihood carrying a lot of intestinal parasites . It wouldn’t be fair to let us get infected too, would it now?

We tried to find a help who might take care of him while Mum & Dad are gone but no one is willing to clean up puppy-poop.

So our little buddy isn’t coming home to live with us which we feel is rather sad.
But there is some consolation in the fact that he gets to sleep in the basement of an apartment house a few houses away. At least we know he gets some food there too and is protected from the sun and rain.
 
There are many more like him, at least five of them who live close by, but he is the friendliest of them all.
The Indian Veterinary Association is trying to implement a beautiful idea called ‘Leash one, Teach one’.

It goes to say, for each dog you have at home, try and adopt one stray on the street. Feed it, love it and help it in whatever small way you can, even if it is just letting him rest under your car to escape the rain and the sun.

We may not be able to bring them all home but we can make some difference in their lives.
 
We want ‘Pawprints…..’ to be the voice of these unfortunate homeless Indian dogs.
We are at an early stage and we do not have much support now.
But we hope to find like-minded people who wouldn’t mind spending a little time to help those dogs or help shelters, even if it is only in kind.
 
We believe that even a tiny group of pawple working for them can make a lot of difference and we blogging doggies only know this so well. We have read about many amazing acts of kindness that have changed so many lives.

One day, soon we hope, we want to bring home a stray. A girl preferable, Mummy says, so that we can prevent many generations of unwanted, neglected puppies from being born to live on the streets.
 
Phew!
That was certainly very long and we are tired. Thanks for staying with us till the end. We love you all and hope we shall be forever friends,
Wags,

,

Saturday, September 25, 2010

HANGING IT OUT!!!

OOOPPPS!
Did we make it sound like Mummy was taking an exam? Guess we did since she is getting so many good-luck wishes!!
Nopes Pawple,  it isn’t Mummy who is taking the exam, it is her students!
Thank Dogness she is done with all her exams a long long time ago. Med-school exams are horrible! Believe me, I know all about it. I was just 10 weeks old when I saw Mummy take her last one. Buddy is lucky he hasn’t gone through those days!
Exam time now means Mummy has to prepare the students, the wards and the patients. Take extra classes for the examinees, admit interesting patients and convince them to allow examination by the students. Exams start really early and they continue way into the evening depending on, Mummy says, how much ‘the grim, grey-haired senior doctor likes to torture the students’!!
We know, because we have to wait longer for mummy and Daddy to come home.
We understand and we wait patiently. Well, you cannot tell a grim, grey-haired senior examiner taking a grave viva that he is making everybody late! But on occasions, when it gets extremely late and there are no signs of the exams ever ending, she just comes home. There are explanations to be made, but somehow most people seems to accept that we can’t be left alone for so long. Thank Dog for that.

The toughest part is convincing the patients. I mean, would you like to be examined and questioned about your illness day after day, over and over again?
But many of them do agree and sit through for the exams. Then of course, they get some special advantages like their lab investigations are done free of cost and they are operated on a priority basis.
Some funny things happen too. Like, some patients have been examined and grilled so many times they know exactly what is wrong with them.
The other day one of them told a student,’ You got that wrong. My nasal bone is bend to the right, not left and you forgot to examine my neck nodes! You must also ask me if I am immunised’.
!!!!!!

Well, now you know what has been keeping Mummy busy. But YAYYY! … we are back!
Just in time too.
National Dog Week’ you say? And a ‘Show your Tongue’ Contest?
What fun!!
Glad that our Lovely Little Twinkie is taking International Entries. I am such a natural at it.
I mean, what better way to tell the world you are happy than to hang it all out? I do it ALL the time. See…





Exhibit 1














Exhibit 2








Now, Ginger is rather shy about sticking out hers. She thinks it is very un lady-like. At most times, she is a quaint, elegant princess.

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Here she is at 2 months of age.







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And here she is today.
So you get the picture here…







Well, Buddy I protest! 

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Oh alright! You qualify for this contest I guess, Ginger.
Now let’s try it with Daddy. Twinkie did say everyone can pawticipate, except lizards and reptiles of course
.
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Look Daddy, it is easy. You just have to stick it out like THIS…







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He didn’t get it, did he now?








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No, Buddy. He definitely did not. But here, I am doing it again!





Oh! Can’t wait to see everyone else’s entries!!
Wags,

,

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Mummy’s Experiments: Random Shots

It is exam-time in Mummy’s Medical college, which is the reason she is working overtime. Poor Mummy, she hardly seems to find time to even get a good sleep, she is so worried about having to get up early and leave. We hate it and so does she.
We wish these days will just hurry up and pass.

Our posts have been few and far apart and now you know why. Not to mention how far behind we are in visiting and commenting on all our friend’s blogs. Mummy just about manages to check her facebook and mail messages in case something important turns up and that’s it.
Of course, we always hopefully glance through our blog comment box!!!

Oh! To return to normalcy! We want so much to catch up.

Mummy says heaps of THANKS for all your wishes, care and concern. She is fine now (apart from walking around zombie eyed from not getting her usual quota of 8 hours sleep!)
We did give her a lot of gooey-nose-kisses, Bookerman and Asa style which she says helped a lot.

For now, we have put together a compilation of pictures from different times in the last year. These are Mummy’s attempts to capture the various faces of our country, during our cross-country road trips.






A family, in a tractor, carrying home the day’s harvest. This was taken while passing through a village in Rajasthan.







 

This Oil-Tanker had 44 tyres!! We slowed down alongside it to count! How do they manuover these things through the hills, we wonder…





An ingenious way of roasting peanuts…the earthen pot filled with burning coals roasts the nuts closest and keeps them warm. A roadside vendor’s stall photograhed in Gwalior, Madhya pradesh 











An old farmer tending to his bullocks, clicked somewhere in Madhya Pradesh








A dash of colour on the dry, arid highway as we passed through Maharastra.


A  Hotel by night, in the middle of a Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. No, we did not see any tigers though we did prick up our ears at some distant growls.






A temple by night, on the outskirts of Delhi.









 
The following are pictures from a resort Mummy and Daddy had gone to. The eating arrangements in the middle of the pool made Mummy miss us very much. How we would have loved to make a splash!! The garden was designed to resemble a tropical forest.


And finally, US! 


Hope you liked our pictures today.
With love, wags and promises to get back to you soon,

,

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Let us HELP a Homeless Furiend

Oh! Thank Dog we logged in today.
We almost missed blogging about something so worthy and impawtant.
Last few days have been very busy. Not to talk about the weepy, gloomy weather, thanks to the famous Indian monsoon.
Everything just added up to give Mummy a terrible migraine the other day. These attacks ,thankfully are few. But when they come, Mummy is totally disabled. And the fuzzy tiredness remains all throughout the next day too.
So we advised her to just keep away from the computer and rest her eyes for a few days.

She is alright now and we are back in action. And as if to join us cheer us up, the sun too is shining bright and nice today after like CENTURIES!!
We are so glad we did not miss this event.
We are talking about the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive.

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All we need to do is write a post about this and the company is going to donate a 20 pound bag of Dog Food to Shelter dogs.
How cool!

They are also donating a bowl of food for every pawson or doggy who ‘likes’ their page on facebook.
Now, how hard is that to do? It is just a click of a key, isn’t it?
So all you doggies and kitties, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ask all your pawple and furiends to go like this page. Also, those of you who blog, please do try and write something to help promote their cause. And when you do, make sure to link your post to this page HERE to make it count.

Now, questions have been raised about our blogging about this cause. This is because we are Indian doggies and this drive is for doggies in the USA. Many think we should focus on helping Indian dogs!
How petty is that, do you think?

We are firm believers that doggies and kitties all over the world are our furriends and we refuse to be bound by man-made barriers of country, boundaries, language and cultures.
We don’t care where any doggy belongs from, be it the USA, UK, India or Timbuktu!! We will always do our bit when it comes to helping anybuddy in some way.
After all, we are anipals and understand just kindness and love.

When it comes to Pedigree, we have a special connection. Ginger loves Pedigree Food, though Buddy isn’t much of a Pedigree pawson. He prefers IAMS.
This is Ginger’s favourite flavour - Meat and Rice

We wish some more MNCs would do their bit to help our less fortunate furry friends like Pedigree is doing. And we think our Indian counterpart should seriously consider doing something in the same line. We will write to them soon asking them to think about it.

Thanks so much to many of our wonderful bloggie furiends who made us aware of this beautiful cause. Hope our blog-post will count and some shelter will get a food-bag.
Wags,

,

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Silence of the Pups....

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family."


                                                                                          - Mother Teresa
 
 





Stay safe Everybuddy,
,


Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sharing a laugh!!

Dear Friends,
Thanks heaps and bunches for all your wishes. I want everyone to know that my Bloggie- friends mean a LOT to me and your wishes made my day complete.
We haven’t got much to say today but hope these pictures will give you a good laugh and brighten up your day.


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`And finally, Mummy Dearest and the reason why we do not have a proper post today...



Have a Very Lovely Day.
Wags,
 

Pee ess: All pictures courtesy ‘Google’
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