The Story of Sugar – Born to be Wild.

 
I was walking back to my room one afternoon from a morning at the beach in Arombol, India, when a small black and white dog crossed my path. He stopped to sniff fhrough the garbage on the side of the road. I walked over to him and took a closer look.

What I saw was indescribably horrible. The little fellow was crawling with fleas. Thousands of them. They covered every inch of his entire body. Compounding the problem was that he couldn't bite them since his jaw was deformed and he couldn't fully close his mouth. As a result the fleas were having a field day and propogating like crazy. He just had to endure what must have been constant 24 hour torture.

I also noticed that every few seconds he would shake his head. This twitching thing is a sure sign of the contagious and often fatal disease, distemper. But it was impossible to know if he had just gotten it or had survived it. Only time would tell.

I was able to convince the little fellow to come with me in a three wheeler to a rescue house near the beach. Some kind tourists had taken in some of the worst case conditions in the area and did their best to treat them. God bless them for that.

The first thing we did was cover him with flea powder. It began to rain fleas. It took effect almost immediately. Within minutes they had all lept off the poor pup to save their lives.

We bathed him and discussed what to do next. He was terribly underweight and needed to be fed on a regular basis. But since we had no idea if he had just contracted distemper they couldn't keep him there since the first stages of the disease is so contagiious.

On the other hand, if he didn't get any worse we would know that he had survived the disease and not be contagious anymore. But someone had to keep an eye on him to know that. What to do?
The only place we could put him was my room. Just until he gained some weight and we deternmined if he was contagious or not.

So that's what we did. I took him in, made a bed for him and started to feed him. Four or five times a day to begin with. He quickly gained weight and started looking a whole lot better.

I had a bicylce at the time and fashioned a back seat out of a plastic laundry basket which I bungeed to the back of the bike. With a blanket in the bottom, I put Sugar (because he was so very sweet) in it. And off we went. Me peddling and Sugar as pillion.

Every day we went for rides. We'd visit some friends, have lunch and every day go to the internet. Sugar would wait outside for me while I checked my email. But one day, he wasn't there when I came back out. I searched the area several times but no Sugar could be found.

I figured he had headed back home. He knew the route well since we had taken it so many times before. But when I returned home, no Sugar. What? What happpened?

Days went by and no Sugar. And then I visited some friends who told me Sugar had dropped by to say hello. He looked great and seemed happy enough.

And then it dawned on me what had happened. Of course, Sugar liked his life on the street. Even more than being with me, loving and feeding him. Wow. Bow Wow Wow.

This was great good news for me since I had previously mourned for all the street dogs without a home and a master. I figured that's what they all wanted. Not at all. Some were simply born to be wild.