All that Pet's love

 A new year brings new dreams and new hopes for one and all. People who have pets also dream of getting solutions to many of their parenting problems. So this year the pet parents will be more than ever comforted when they learn about the enthusiastic duo team, who will help them through all their pet related chores from now on.

These two are from Mumbai, but would love to be of help to pet parents all over the pet world. They are two dedicated souls come together for this purpose as they both are equally passionate about this choice of career. Their names are Amit and Aisha. Amit is actually a professional photographer. He has learnt at the National institute of photography, Mumbai. He says, 'Though photography is my basic career and I still have to progress a lot in that sphere, my true calling in life I realized is to train animals and do a deep study of their behaviour patterns and I am pursuing further studies in exactly those steps. I feel strongly that aggressive animals can be taught to overcome their hostile attitudes, only with certain techniques which are coupled with deep love in the heart of the trainer."

He has always lived with animals. Hailing from the rustic outskirts of Mumbai he has rescued injured birds and puppies and then he also has his own Mahim apartment from where he continued his work by helping NGOs which work for the welfare of animals.

He once rescued a Kite from a lamppost whose wings were hurt and entangled in a wire up there. He climbed up and brought the kite down safely. Amit has done professional pet photography and trained a large number of different types of pets, but one startling fact is the way animals are drawn towards him and listen to him like a Guru.

He is a certified and practicing trainer and will soon be a behaviorist learning under Shirin Merchant (Who is considered to be holding the best behaviorist training in India).

 Amit has had six dogs of his own of which two are no more. But all of them except one are rescues. Three Indies, one husky female, one Pressa Caneiro and one Indie mix. While bringing up such varied breeds, he realized that a pet parent would love to get help in many ways so he hit upon this idea of training other dogs and this is how his journey started. Walking the dogs is an everyday affair and while on such walks there are cordialities exchanged by pet parents, along with talks about the difference in breed and upbringing is normal. Through such meets and pet parent groups he met Aishwarya and soon they realised they were walking the same path. Aishwarya, a NIFT graduate in accessories design has already worked in a pet company as well as other product companies. She has two lovely pets at home both adopted a Golden Retriever and a Labrador retriever. She says, " My love for dogs and other animals was gradual as it was inculcated in me by my parents who love animals too and my first memory was that I decided to stop bursting crackers as it's harmful for the environment and scares animals all due to the sensitization at home. I feel parents as well as schools should instill love for animals in the minds of school going children right from the beginning by giving guidance in the right direction. So that's also on my to do list ie 'Workshops to educate students against animal cruelty and towards compassion'. I also

understood a lot  about animals when we adopted our first pet dog who is a Golden Retriever. I felt that animals deserve a lot more importance in our human dominated world. I have seen mom's fussing over their kids and indulging them. Lucky for them all facilities and accessories are available for human kids but pets don't have it all good and rosy. It's sad that in spite of so many people opening pet shops and other facilities there is still a lacuna here. Pet parents need to be advised and helped all along. Many parents abandon their pets due to ignorance." Aishwarya too diverted her plans from being just another product designer to work towards focusing on designing products for animals. Moreover she being a sensitive girl feels touched when she sees pets being tied or hit by pet parents. She says they need counseling and she is also offering this service

 Aishwarya is also proud of having helped like-minded friends in rescue work and once searched for and found a lost Shelter dog.

 All said and done it's now a combined purpose to be accomplished as well as a profession for this couple to offer services in pet photography, basic and advanced behaviour training, pet products, counseling and a lot more.

It is not just to earn from the society that this overzealous couple has conceptualised this idea, it is also to give back to a largely less favoured section of our world.

                  by Supriya Bhonsle

Where no animal is “more” equal

In a very quiet serene private farm located in a very bustling Virar city area at the outskirts of Mumbai (Maharashtra), four retired canine soldiers were sent to spend their last few years. They were none other than the four canines that played a key role in the 26/11 terror attack operations in 2008, the dog squad, which helped the Mumbai police detect explosives and minimize casualties in the attack which killed more than 160 people and injured 300. After serving the Mumbai police for a decade, the four dogs namely Ceasar, Max, Tiger and Sultan retired in May 2015 and lived peacefully their last few years under the care of animal lover and activist Mrs Fizzah Shah at her Fizzah Farm.
Fizzah has the aura of a strong person, who has loved animals all along from the depth of her heart and whose objective in life is to take as many needy animals under her care.
Fizzah’s farm homes an ensemble of birds and animals, all of them rescued from various hard situations, but now at peace and far from harm. There are some 350 animals in her farm, all of which are diligently cared for, which include birds and marine life, all of which are rescued.
According to Fizzah, “I have many abandoned dogs under my care. They have emotions and are badly affected physchologically.. They can’t speak ,but express their turmoil through their eyes and behaviour. They have to be comforted and given time to adjust to new surroundings. At my farm  we  give them their freedom and love to heal their wounded spirits”
Though she can’t be at her farm all the while, she is in constant touch with her assistants and keeps discussing with them about the various items needed on the farm or about the upcoming activities to be organized on the farm. She sees to it that prompt medical aid is given to them if needed. She personally supervises and gives that loving touch to each and every animal at her farm with no discrimination. Every weekend she checks on them and attends to each of them. She has helping hands at her farm, who are also her family. They are the ones who tend to her farm in her absence. Whilst celebrating festivals at the farm, she makes it a point to give a break to her staff and she herself prances and enjoys with them all in tow. One day she got a call from an animal lover, saying that a bull was behaving strange in Dombivli area. She was asked to come and take a look. She picked up the bull from there as it needed medical attention at the earliest and brought it to her farm. As it was very difficult to handle and wouldn’t yield to any pressure, she named him Toofan. The doctor examined Toofan and he was better for a while. Later he ate as Fizzah fed him herself. But in a few days he expired. Many rescues came and stayed, some died, but none were sent away. Fizzah gives all her animals the best food, part of which is grown at her own farm. She has an organic vegetable farm too in this region. She personally works on this cultivated land and helps in the harvesting of the produce. The food thus prepared is very healthy and nutritious.
Back at home, in her Worli residence, she has homed 20 cats and 3 dogs and feeds the strays outside her home too. Her love for animals can be traced when she was a young girl, silently objecting to eating meat at home. She feels very firmly “I can’t eat my friends” and so she grew up getting closer to her animal friends as years passed.
Her good work is appreciated by many as she has helped too many people who needed help with rehabilitating rescued animals.
Fizzah Shah is a busy woman, juggling between her various responsibilities, to being in charge of a huge farm with so many farm animals. All said and done, she still does keep some 'time to stand and stare’.. this is a virtue which is rarely seen in today’s times.
Fizzah has never chosen her animals as all those under her care have come to her as refugees or as rescues. She says that she finds all of them to be lovely whether small or big, young or old, healthy or not.
She has space for her goats,  donkeys, cows, rabbits, and her dogs to run freely on her farm. She has welcomed with open arms birds rescued by others who are also now a part of her farm. She has a special place for all these not only on her farm, but also in her heart. In Fizzah’s opinion Animal communication is a very simple relation one develops with animals while loving them, feeding them and caring for them. They understand this language alone and communicate by licking, wagging tails or by simply jumping in happiness at seeing the person concerned, thereby acknowdegling that they love you and have faith in your love. The scene at Fizzah’s farm reflect her thoughts and  is a serene place where the flowers whisper tales of love. As one plans to leave this animal farm the heart and soul plead to stay on.  It’s a garden in likeness to, where ‘all animals are loved equally and no animal is more equal’. The tranquility is felt as soon as one enters until one departs and it’s just an everlasting feeling of happiness.

  by Supriya Bhonsle

Looking beyond Horizons – Doctor Pallavi Kelkar

In this world of varying attitudes towards animals, there are some of a kind who are predisposed to be in the company of animals and birds and work towards their well-being. Pallavi Kelkar, a veterinarian at Happy Tails Hospital in Mumbai, loved animals right from her childhood. This reminds one of a line from a famous poem by the nature poet William Wordsworth, which can be quoted thus, ‘ The child is the father of man’. As observed by the elders at home, even as a toddler, Pallavi used to insist on being taken to a park close to home to be able to pet the dogs who were regularly walked there. She was very comfortable touching injured birds and animals, while many others at her age then would refrain from doing so. As an adolescent, she would love to watch in awe senior veterinarians treating their patients. In spite of being so drawn to the world of ‘treating and healing’ animals, she initially decided to take another career path namely that of Physiotherapy. But Doctor Umesh Karkare, founder and director of Happy Tails, whom she used to visit, had already recognized the innate ability in her and advised her to study Veterinary Science. Since taking that decision, there was no looking back for Pallavi as she completed her bachelors in Veterinary Science from Bombay Veterinary College and her VSc (Surgery and Radiology) from the college of Veterinary and animal sciences University. For five years she honed her skills as an apprentice undergraduate student in Happy Tails Veterinary Services, before joining it full-fledged in August 2015. In all humility, the soft spoken and highly qualified doctor says that she is still learning and can’t yet call herself a specialist. She has great regard and respect for Doctor Umesh Karkare and says, “Dr Karkare has been my mentor even before I came into this profession. He always encourages me to push beyond my limits and pursue new and better ways of doing things. I really admire his work-ethics and the kind of hard work that he puts into everything he takes up”. She also appreciates the whole-hearted support given to her by her parents, once they realized that their daughter had found her calling in pursuing this career. Pallavi is not only passionate about her work, but also is quick at diagnosing the issue accurately, even though her patients are unable to verbally describe their plight. Accurate diagnosis is the precursor to optimum treatment and recovery. One case she reminisces about is of a puppy rescued on the Bombay- Goa highway, which the rescuer had named ‘Bombay’. Bombay had to be operated for a stone stuck in her intestines. She was operated and in a month’s time recovered completely and got adopted into a good family too. There was another of 3 baby squirrels stuck on the sticky rat trap. Along with a few of her colleagues had to free them out of the adhesive and then sponged them with warm water with a little detergent in it. According to Dr Pallavi faith in a doctor’s capability also helps in the recovery of a patient with the most complicated medical issue. She cites a case, when she was doing her thesis in ophthalmology in Kerala. “One case that I remember was one tiny Pug puppy Mia, who had gotten a very bad corneal ulcer. In Kerala people used to come from far off places to the Government hospital that we worked in. Post-op care after eye surgery is extremely important. They used for constant follow-ups whenever they were called. Mia’s eye recovered beautifully. The faith and trust they had shown in us to save her eye was amazing”. She feels that no other profession would have offered her so much experience and learning as this in which she has treated almost all kinds of animals namely dogs, cats, rabbits and birds and many more and a wide variety of medical conditions too. In this technologically advancing world, good hearted Doctor Pallavi is happy that on a large scale pet animals are getting better medical facilities and post-operative care, but she also believes that the overwhelming number of street dogs and cats need to be tended to as well. She says, “Though it’s not practical to rescue and rehome each and every one of them, the least people can do in housing societies is, they can collectively feed and take care of a few dogs and cats of their locality, take them for regular checkups and vaccinations to a vet and get them sterilized for sure. So that we can create a safe haven for them right here in our own localities”

Looking ahead, there is hope in her young eyes of a better tomorrow as her prognosis of tomorrow’s society is that attitudes are changing towards the positive and a lot of kind-hearted animal lovers are taking the initiative of holding adoption camps and many common folk as well as personalities getting in, outdoor cats and dogs and giving them a good life and some day she wishes to adopt one too, when of course the time is right.

                                                                                                                                 By Supriya Bhonsle