animals

While paying for vegetables, I learnt something. Shop owner: What job do you do? Young man: I don't have a job. Whoever prospered by having a job? Shopowner: Speculative look. (He himself runs the vegetable shop, he doesn't have a "regular" job!) Young man: I breed dogs and sell them. All kinds of breeds. I get Rs.20K per dog sometimes. Me (unable to stop myself): Which breed? Young man: Rajapalayam hounds. Me: Oh! Young man: But that includes Rs.8K for the licence, and another few thousands for the microchip (inserted in the dog's collar). The economics of the pet trade…

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I got this photo of a stray dog, with a plastic juice or shake container in its mouth.     We have now conditioned even the animals around us to like processed food, lots of sugar. They have learnt to try and ingest plastic in a bid to get that food. I wonder where we are headed....

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I thought about how we house our pets when we have to travel or cannot take  care of them for short periods for any other reason. Enquiring for one friend, I found that two others mentioned that they had put their dogs in the following kennels:   Petstepin #38, Rustam Bagh, Behind Manipal Hospital, Old Airport Road, Bangalore – 560075 +91 98865 84925 | +91 97422 79644 petstepin@gmail.com and 666 Kennels #34/2, Kanakapura Road, Adjoining Nice Road Bangalore-560062 +91 9740007070 666kennels@gmail.com Both do mention cats, but I do wonder how other people manage to arrange for the stay of their…

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It is not just tourists visiting Tirupati and surrounding religious places affected because of the Telangana row, but also animal lovers and animals. The wait to see a giraffe walk around in Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) is going to take a while longer. This is because the only cage available in south India to get the giraffe from Mysore zoo to Bangalore is available at Tirupati zoo, also known as Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park. Due to Telangana row, the officials and team of veterinarians from BBP are unable to get it. Giraffes in Mysore Zoo. Pic courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/Mutyala Rao.…

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 If you have rescued an animal or bird and do not know what to do with it: There is a wild life rehabilitation centre close to Bannerghata Nationalpark.Bannerghatta Rehabilitation CentreSurvey No. 129, Jigni Hobli, Anekal Taluk, BannerghattaBangalore, Karnataka 560083ph: 91 80 22947307alt: 91 80 22947300You can get in touch with them and hopefully they should be able to guide you appropriately. Sorry, I still don't seem to have any mobile nos. for them.  ⊕

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Some conversation... Quite unusual for me to be off for several days, as I subject myself (and the rest of you!) to the discipline of frequent posts. But it was a full weekend...Saturday morning, to Hessarghatta, getting back only by 3pm and then having visitors...Sunday morning, to Valley School, back at 1pm, and then off to JLR Bannerghatta (where neither mobile phones nor 3G seems to work) to volunteer for a nature trail with 49 students of Vidya Niketan, on an overnight camp. Got back yesterday evening, and was rather tired...and today all the home chores demanded attention, so had to…

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