The secret lives of Mumbai’s pets

One day Bella got a call from a chowkidar at Kalina He was concerned about some stray cats that needed food because the family that fed them was leavingThe chowkidar was a migrant worker a kind of stray himself among the towers and new gated communities of Mumbai He instinctively understood both homelessness and hunger Bella used her contacts to arrange for cat food to be delivered daily to KalinaldquoArenrsquot there other families who can feed themrdquo she asked himldquoEveryonersquos leavingrdquo said the chowkidar ldquoTheyrsquore being forced to leaverdquoThe chowkidar worked at the serene campus of a green gated colony The entire area came under corporate ownership and was eventually sold with its buildings to a wellknown builder who had acquired most of Kalina and had plans to plant skyscrapers everywhereIn the grey zone between boundless greed and unbounded compassion for animals in distress fall Mumbairsquos stray cats and dogs welcome till they become unwelcomeLetrsquos talk about Bombai Click the QR code above to join my WhatsApp group to share your Bombai stories for my bookmdashand perhaps answer some of my Bombai questionsAs always when a builder gets his paws on prime property its human residents hurry to relocate elsewhere before the jackhammers and piledrivers arrive In the empty apartments they leave behind suddenly there is no one for the homeless stray cats and dogs that depend on humans to surviveUnless you count people like Bella whose waking hours are spent in the service of godrsquos creatures abandoned by the cityBella and Chum have a family of five Here are their names Zimbo Pillu Chidambaram Mayavati and Monica Here are their storiesThe building Pillu lived in for 12 years was up for redevelopment Being just an indie dog Pillu had nowhere else to go but the watchman was kind and fed her daily so she stayed on happily after the wrecking crew brought the building down She even fell into a construction pit eight metres deep once ldquoAfter the building became snazzy and new nobody wanted a stray dog hanging aroundrdquo says Bella Now Pillu has cancer and is one of Bellarsquos many saved soulsZimbo was Pillursquos friend on the street but timid Bella rescued him when she found him cornered by a pack of street dogs For a year she kept him in a pet foster home paying Rs 700 a day But that couldnrsquot last so finally Zimbo came home too The two dogs once friends on the same street became enemies when they had to share a territory and are now kept apart in different roomsThen there was Monica a cat Chidambaram another cat they thought looked uncannily like the former Finance Minister and Mayawati a kitten they found cowering under a carrsquos bonnet ldquoThey stray from their mothers and crawl inside some carrsquos machineryrdquo says Bella ldquoThen they donrsquot know what to do so they sit right there and travel with the car for miles and miles terrified out of their witsrdquo said BellaThe world she and Chum deal with daily is full of iniquity and malfeasance and its casualties are always the mute animals bred to depend on humans for their needs A veterinarian billed Bella Rs 17700 just to rehydrate a dog that had dried up and suffered a sunstroke Pet foster care homes reap profits by charging 3star hotel rates to harbour homeless animalsMumbai has a small community of grifting ldquoanimal whisperersrdquomdashwith 4316 messages at last count in their WhatsApp groupmdashwho claim to be able to communicate with animals and charge money for tracing lost dogs and cats Their main skill however is not telepathy but the ability to play on the emotional attachments humans often form with their pets like circus oracles who will connect you with longdead relativesBella and Chum struggle to pay for the work they do They are not party people or bingewatchers of Netflix movies They donrsquot barhop or check out new restaurants Childless by plan they have chosen to live lives of continuous sacrifice using their earnings for the animals the universe brings into their livesldquoMy vet bill will be approximately Rs 2 lakhrdquo says Bella ldquoChum is retired now and I donrsquot get much money from my little business so I thought I might liquidate an FD Recently I sold some of my jewellery to pay my bills Providentially a Recurring Deposit matured just this monthldquoI look at all this differently I want to leave everything I have to the animals Irsquom not 25 anymore I may have max 15 or 20 years of life Therersquos always a hand above us Somehow or other something works out I didnrsquot even know I had an RD about to maturerdquoBella asked not to be named in this column partly because she fears being trolled by the mercenaries who live off the cityrsquos strays but also I believe an innate humility If you want to use your considerable wealth to support her work with strays mail me at cygopigmailcomIf yoursquore serious and substantial Irsquoll connect you with herYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paperatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params