When Shelee Ganguly Burman had just adopted a Golden Retriever puppy, the little one needed feeding every couple of hours and could not be left at home unattended. “My office is full of dog-loving colleagues, but the office building per se isn’t pet-friendly. But I had no choice. I would tuck the puppy into my handbag and sneak her into my office,” laughs Shelee.
After all that hide-and-seek from the authorities, it makes perfect sense then that the puppy got christened Tokyo, after the fearless bank robber from the web series Money Heist.
Tokyo is puppy number two. A couple of years before her, during the pandemic, Shelee got Oreo, an Indie from her old neighbourhood in Lake Town. “Oreo’s mother and siblings got run over, but I managed to bring her home,” says the media professional who named the puppy so as her black and white patches reminded her of the popular cookie.
Shelee has had pedigree dogs all her life, but she finds Oreo, the Indie, to be way more hardy and intelligent. “At the age of six months, she swallowed 250g of ghee and even chocolate, which is deadly for dogs, but didn’t even so much as suffer from a tummy upset,” says the lady who has duly trained the dogs, too.
They won’t tear leaves from the plants, won’t step out of the house even if the door is open, they will dress up happily for photoshoots and be on their best behaviour when visiting cafes. But their most impressive feat is how they wait for commands when eating. Shelee demonstrates this by placing some treats on the ground but tells the dogs to eat them only when she utters the word “three”. Shelee then walks around the dogs and talks on random topics for the next few minutes, remembering to utter “three” suddenly, and wham! Both the dogs pounce on the treats.
“It’s just as important for pet parents to be trained,” Shelee says. “As I grew up with dogs, my father instilled this in me. If I were ever to get bitten, he would have asked me what I had done to aggravate the dog, because they never bite unprovoked.”
Shelee and her husband Abhishek want to promote the message to adopt instead of buying dogs, especially Indies. “Besides our own dogs, we feed street dogs, and Oreo is, in fact, showing interest in a Lalu who comes over to our place for meals. I’ve told her that if she wishes to marry him, I’ll gladly take Lalu in too,” she laughs.