As the pandemic rages through the populace, one worry that gnaws pet parents is what will happen to their furry babies if they themselves test positive.
The thought had occurred to Sucheta Sinha as well. “Sobai manush ke dyakhe, eder keu dyakhe na. I heard even pet creches were refusing to keep them after hearing the family was infected,” she says.
Sucheta, a trained para vet who runs a pet ambulance service, has started keeping such dogs at her spacious Jadavpur home while their parents serve out quarantine or isolation.
It started with a call she received with news of a Dhakuria family in despair at having to leave their pet alone at home. “Many people have the wrong idea that pets can spread the disease too. I realised that I could keep a few in my 2,200sq ft apartment with terrace, especially since I have a couple of dog handlers at my disposal too.”
The pet could not be sent to her as none of the pet cab services agreed to carry an infected family’s pet. “So I drove my ambulance over and collected the three-year-old Lhasa apso myself from the family.”
This was while the nationwide lockdown was on. Sucheta was then busy feeding street dogs across the city. “I started with 75-80 dogs in the Golf Green-Bikramgarh-Jadavpur area on the first day. But from March 24, with my two associates, I started criss-crossing Dharmatala to Babughat to Exide crossing. For 93 days, I fed 600-plus dogs daily. So many people helped me once I appealed on social media — with money, rice, oil; some even sponsored our petrol. We stopped only after the lockdown eased. By then, I had lost 19kg by having to walk so much.”
But once the infection started spreading, her attention was drawn to the pets at home. Her second lot of guests comprised two Indie dogs from New Town. Like the Lhasa apso, they too returned after their owner got well. Now five cats and two dogs have landed at her doorstep on Sunday from a quarantined north Calcutta family.
“I don’t want to keep more than six or seven at a time,” says Sucheta. The charges vary according to the size of the guests, the rate for the toy breeds, like spitz and Lhasa apso, being around Rs 400 per day while for giant breeds like Great Dane and St Bernard, it is about Rs 1,000 per day. The owner of K9 Pet Cab Service, who is busy ferrying clients’ pets all year round when she is not out feeding the 37 street dogs she calls her responsibility, can be contacted at 8017462335.
