ramya's photo journal

Category: puppy love

Little Brownie Girl.

I grieved her loss in phases. The grief came in waves and only now has it settled. Settled enough for me to be able to write about it. It has been three months since we lost her, our darling streetie girl, Brownie. Somehow, I found it rather hard to make peace with her loss. Perhaps because she was with us, yet on her own. Because we weren’t aware of what brought about the fatal accident that would eventually take her life, while under our care. Because we were left helpless after trying over and over again, to save her precious life. I was so numb the day she left, that even tears wouldn’t form in my eyes. By the time they gushed down, she was in doggie heaven, presumably chasing away other dogs, because that’s what she’d do – so her best friends Yogi & Angel could walk away, with the road to themselves.

Over the years, I have grieved for the beautiful doggie souls that have touched my life and left almost as soon as they had come ( as it seemed to me) and what struck me most with Brownie’s leaving was how differently grief manifests with each loss, how it shows up in the most uncertain of places and how it changes you fundamentally by reinforcing that truth that death is not permanent. It takes that course of grief to know that it is not. And each time, that is what life is trying to reiterate through grief. But it’s not that easy, is it? It never can be.

But that is the truth and so my darling girl is living with us now. I still feel her gentle licks, hear her silly i-love-you howls, and I can see through her crystal clear, bright brown eyes. The doe eyes that had captured R’s heart, the day he met Brownie girl on the street and led her home, two years back, which was the beginning of this precious bond with our favourite streetie. She came home almost every evening from then on, after her daily meanderings about the area. Almost. Until she went missing for a few weeks last year, and resurfaced with injuries that would eventually take away her little mortal doggie body.

Her soul is here, however. With me, as I write this at last, and therefore setting me free.

“God’s finger touched him, and he slept.” ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Sleep well my sweet child. For there is so much play ahead of you.

January 31, 2014
The Rescue Diaries : CUPA Calendar 2014

My life is entwined with a non-human species called dogs, in a manner of pure blessing. Over the years, I have found simple answers or somethings-like-that, to life’s complex questions through daily living with my puppies and all the fellas I get to interact with.

For the past three years, I have had the opportunity to work with CUPA and it’s amazing team on the theme based annual calendars. Every calendar is a series of carefully captured and curated images, created over many months, and aims to spread an urgent message of love, by showcasing the wonders of the simple possibilities that are all around us. The calendar project is also an important fundraiser for CUPA, where every single penny from the proceeds goes into caring for the helpless, injured, homeless creatures. I look forward to this project each year for the light and the great learning that it brings into my life, the incredible humans involved, and of course the balls of pure joy that come with four legs. The support we have received in this regard, over the years, from you all has been so moving and on behalf of team CUPA, I’d like thank you all deeply.

I’m ever so happy to share another close-to-my-heart CUPA calendar. For the year 2014, we went with Rescue for the theme. Spanning across various rescues consisting of canines, felines and wildlife (at CUPA’s wildlife wing, WRRC), this year’s compilation of photographs pays homage to both the beautiful creatures and their caregivers – who work tirelessly to help and provide them with loving, gentle care at all times. Photographed at CUPA’s various centers around Bangalore and WRRC, the photographs express, albeit in a small way, the joys and the profound empathy that belies Rescue.

As always, I appeal to you all to join hands in this effort and spread the love. Every purchase is precious to enable the bigger cause at play. All the details for purchase of the CUPA Calendar 2014 are in this poster below. Thank you all again. xo

I’d like to dedicate this year’s calendar to our dear streetie, Browine, who we lost recently.

December 4, 2013
When a Little Goes a Long Way

by

Shreyas Jayakumar, Ramya Reddy & Ashita Mathew

It’s hard to summarize the overwhelming feeling we experienced when our paths crossed with the troubled souls residing at what was once the economically Weaker Section housing complex at Ejipura. What were once secure housing blocks, have now been reduced to dirt to benefit mankind’s greed. A swanky shopping mall is destined to occupy a site that has seen some tragic outcomes as a result of its deracination. Mountains of excavated earth, tons of trash and leftover remnants of the residents’ paltry possessions – the scene was eerily similar to what we see in many disaster movies, but this is exactly what greeted us when we – Ramya, Varsha, Ashita, Tiya and Shreyas – entered the hurriedly-barricaded entrance. Armed with boiled eggs, biscuits, bread and milk, we made our way into the plot, with only one objective in mind – to feed as many of the hungry, displaced dogs (and cats) as we could find.

That sense of sinking despair had already set in as we were approaching the folks who would lead us to the several dogs that desperately needed to be fed. We were received with a sense of remorse and bitterness (as we had expected). ‘Dogs over people?’, we were asked by many. We had done sufficient homework and knew that the meals for the human population were being tended to, and were also told by our peers not to be bogged down by these very human, outbursts. We went right ahead and started feeding the needy babies – over 80 dogs and puppies that were rendered homeless and abandoned – without any further thoughts affecting what we had set out to d0….Read the rest of the story here

April 30, 2013