dogs club

Say hello to Major, commonly known as Mayj!  Our latest Indy cutie lives in Ahmedabad with his human Parijat Pandya.  He's clearly perfected that doe-eyed melting look we Indy owners know well...the key to getting away with pretty much anything. The bat-ears are adorable too! Parijat's description of him reminds me of Mr Kiba of the K Gang. Read on, and enjoy the pictures! 'I came across this beauty almost two years ago. Before that I was really scared of dogs', writes Parijat. 'He is a bit of work and a huge pain in the neck, but I love him. My friend was going to give an exam. She had a little time so she stopped by an ATM to withdraw some cash. She found Mayj in an obscure corner of the parking lot, almost bleating. He had many injuries, including dog bites and a fractured shoulder, that we think was caused by a scooter hit. He was covered in ants. She picked up this little thing, who literally fit inside a size 6 shoe box.  We gave him to someone who was ready ...

As always, we Khalaps are working hard to keep the canine bosses entertained and busy. Last weekend we all went to one of Kiran's regular bouldering sites, on the outskirts of Navi Mumbai. Aren't we lucky to have the beautiful Sahyadri range right next to the city?! We've been to this spot a couple of times before. It's a very pleasant sun-dappled walk up a wooded hill to the boulders, and there are very few free-ranging dogs on the route: an important consideration for us, given Kiba's hostility to dogs in general. The lovely forested hillside is gradually being encroached on by local builders. Large patches of woodland have been cleared, and at least ten temples have mushroomed up in the last few years. Building a temple is a well-established first step in land-grabbing.  The bouldering site has been left undisturbed, at least for now. Scroll down to see our photos of the K Gang among the rocks and trees! And if you're new here and would like to see more K Gan...

Every year I get an update about beautiful Indy princess Sophie.  I'm late posting this one - her human sent it nearly two months ago (so sorry for the delay, Sophie and Sophie's human!)  For those who haven't met her before, here are her earlier stories: Sophie Sophie's choice Sophie at three As you can see, she's as pretty as ever! 'Yes, Sophie the little Goa Indy is four years old now,' writes her human. 'And not so little any more... She celebrated her fourth birthday in September with some delicious red velvet cupcakes, her absolute favourite. And I thought to send across some pictures of her doing her usual things with her  human and animal friends. For those who are following her story. So here are some more pics of her, at her South Goa residence, with her friend and elder sister Annie, our nine-year old white rescue cat, and two of the neighbourhood indies, Brownie and the grey-buff girl Piquen, which means "small one" in Portuguese. E...

Rio Kamodia is a very handsome INDog-mix from Mumbai.  His human Mallika wrote to me about him last week.  His story begins very sadly, but he is one of those lucky few who found a really loving, understanding family! (When you've finished reading the story please read my footnote at the end). Rio was about one month old when his mother was brutally beaten to death by a watchman, somewhere in the Powai area. The man had hit her really hard on the head with a thick wooden stick, because she peed on the tyre of a car.  Her poor puppy was found shaking and shivering, totally traumatised and all alone, next to his dead mother. An American girl who was living there at the time saw him and felt really sorry for him. So she picked him up and took him home. I belong to a lot of non-profit rescue groups in Mumbai, and I foster animals too whenever possible. This girl posted a foster appeal for the pup on Facebook, as she was leaving for Hyderabad that very night. I saw the appeal ...

INDog fans! BIG news!!  Seven years after we first made it, our I NDog Project website has been recreated from scratch, and most importantly has been made mobile-friendly. Oh good, it's mobile-friendly now! My colleagues Javed Ahmed of the INDog Project, and Dr Krishna Mohan, put in months of hard work and late nights to make it happen. I can never thank them enough! Lots of new content, and many many links to books and scientific papers, for those who want to read more. (We recommend reading all of them). You can also download the classic reference book 'The Indian Dog' by W V Soman, from our 'Read more' section. A very important part of the site is still under construction, so keep watching this space. It's our updated 'Map of Aboriginal and Primitive Dogs Around the World' and it's going to be gorgeous! The next part of this post is addressed to that smaller but creepily persistent, unpleasant segment of readers who like to harvest other people...

It's the tenth birthday of this blog! And I'm celebrating it not with an INDog post, but with this photo- essay about another breed of landrace dog far, far away: the Greenland Dog! We met Greenland Dogs and other gorgeous 'Polar' dogs in Svalbard this summer when we finally went on an Arctic trip - something we've been wanting to do for years!  Before embarking on a seven day cruise-expedition to North Spitsbergen, we spent a couple of days in  Longyearbyen, the administrative centre of the Svalbard Archipelago.  At 78 degrees latitude this is the northernmost human settlement on the planet. It's actually a charming little town in an odd way, despite its somewhat bleak industrial appearance. For instance, you see signs like this: And sled dogs all over the place! Some have signs pasted on their kennels requesting people not to touch them (because a lot of people actually do silly things like trying to pet every dog they see). There are photos of some of these d...