'Max'imum city to Mastiff's aid

Actors Salman Khan, Pooja Bhatt among those wanting to adopt abandoned dog

Your city does have a human heart, after all.

A day after MiD DAY reported the plight of a starving, abandoned Mastiff rescued from a locked Bandra home after three days, several well-known people offered to help the canine.

Actor Salman Khan, actress Pooja Bhatt and her husband Manish Makhija and a restaurant owner are among the few who reacted to the MiD DAY story, Starving Mastiff rescued after 3 days, carried in yesterday's edition.
The two-year-old dog, Max, was left under the care of a man working at a restaurant on Chapel Road. Its master has been missing since 12 days. While the caretaker, Alex Baro, looked after the dog for nine days, Baro himself was out of town over the last weekend, leading to the dog's neglect.
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Neighbours rescued the petrified dog, found lying in its excreta in the locked house.

Bandra to Panvel?
Actor Salman Khan, who has four dogs in his Bandra home, has offered to adopt Max and take it to his Panvel farmhouse. Also, former actress Pooja Bhatt and her husband Manish Makhija have offered to adopt Max for a few days and keep him at their farmhouse. "We want to take the dog with police permission," said Pooja Bhatt. All what we want is that the dog should be physically and mentally healthy."

Also owner of Gajalee Restaurant, Nishant Joshi, offered to send a car to pick up Max, and shift the dog to Joshi's Vile Parle home. "I have had 23 dogs with me and I do not have a problem taking one more. Dogs need love and pampering. Now that Max's owner is not around since a while, it must be stressful for Max."

Don't move Max
Juhu-based veterinarian Dr Hitesh Swali, who had a look at the Mastiff, said, "Max is doing fine physically. It's just that he has been through a lot mentally. So, the dog requires being around familiar faces and surroundings. If shifted to some new place, it might have a reverse reaction, and it might stop eating or get too ferocious."
Meanwhile, people in the neighbourhood have also offered to help the dog.

"After reading the article in MiD DAY, the landlady of the house will be here on Sunday and plans to shift the dog out of the house," said a neighbour.