Update: Dolly found a home! The best family I could wish for.

Contribute to cover the expenses for her travel from India to Alberta, Canada: Get Dolly Home!

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Yet another abandoned dog. Yet another dog adoption request.

Dolly’s story isn’t exceptional.

It is the all-too-familiar tale: cute puppy >> let’s get her >> some lockdown fun and cuteness >> she grows into a high-energy pup, needs mental and physical enrichment >> world opens up >> we are not bored anymore >> we’ll just drop her off in a new neighborhood in the dark of the night.

What’s different is that she is an Indie dog—the native dogs of India, mostly living stray, or if they’re lucky, as community dogs where the neighborhood good Samaritans ensure the dogs are fed and mostly cared for. They are still homeless. Not hungry, even loved—but still no family to call home or shelter from the elements and traffic.

Now, if Dolly were a purebred, expensive Retriever, Labrador, Pug, Spaniel, she would have adopters queuing up. But we, in India, have a colonial hangover even after seven decades of driving the British out. And that spills over into our preferences for our furry companions too. Sad. Frustrating. Infuriating. Reality.

So, Dolly’s story.

I had arrived back in my city the night before, after a two-day drive from the mountains to meet my newborn twin nieces. They were still in the hospital, so I had a day to rest before I could get to hold and welcome them in my arms.

In the meantime, another little girl decided that she would welcome herself into my arms and heart.

At 5 a.m., I was stirred from my deep sleep by a ruckus outside. Cats fighting, probably. There is one loner cat and a couple of younger cats I’d spotted now and then on an apartment ledge. Went back to sleep. At 5:20, I jumped out of bed and without a thought rushed out my second-floor apartment door, down the stairs. It was instinctive because I don’t remember any conscious thought process happening.

Everything happened in under 15 seconds.

From opening my eyes, dashing out the door and down a flight of stairs, picking up this shivering pup trying to fight off six big dogs of my neighborhood pack (they are the sweetest dogs, but it’s their territory and no other canine is afforded an easy entry) to running back into the apartment, and shutting tight my bedroom door. (Our 13-year-old guy, Adi, still struggles with abandonment issues even after 10 years of being with us and doesn’t do well with other dogs, especially inside his own home.)

I would’ve been her home in the blink of an eye, except that I’m a rootless free spirit with no foreseeable plans of anchoring down.

For now, Dolly is in a boarding facility with lovely caretakers.

She deserves a home, a family of her own. And someone out there deserves this furry, leggy nugget of love in their lives.

Ask me more at [email protected]

Breed: Indie dog/desi dog (desi = native)

Age: 6-8 months, estimated

Sterilized: yes

Vaccinated: up-to-date

Gender: female

Current location: New Delhi, India—can travel anywhere in the world

Good with other dogs? Very, very

Friendly with people? Oh my goodness, wait till you meet her!

Seeking: a house with a backyard preferred (for all the zoomies she’ll entertain you with); will do well in an apartment too, but will need a lot of exercise

The oomph factor: her name says it all. She can give Victoria’s Secret models a run for their money with her slender, long legs

Spunk factor: high-energy; zoomies on demand

So she’s perfect?

Almost.

She’s a wee-bit clingy, probably due to the still-recent trauma of being abandoned with no street skills at all. But she’s made good progress and is getting more independent by the day. Dolly is currently boarding with a fellow abandonee, Mia, the sweetest pup to exist and a grumpy German Shepherd. They are helping her be more secure and less whiney when the humans are out of sight.

If you’re not able to adopt her, please do share her story and help her find her home.

Contribute toward the expenses of Dolly’s rescue journey here.

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