HOWRAH:
Residents of Kazipara
in
Shibpur
, along with firemen and police, rescued a dog stuck on a ledge on the third floor of a building on Tuesday evening.
Lalua
(3), a chunky mongrel popular among the residents of the building, suddenly disappeared on Sunday. This prompted the local youths to launch a search operation in the neighbouring lanes and bylanes.
Lalua and its gang of seven are fed and looked after daily by elderly residents
Tapan Chatterjee
and Amrit Singh. When Lalua couldn't be traced even after 24 hours, Chatterjee went to Shibpur police station to lodge a missing complaint. "We were distraught when Lalua couldn't be traced," said Amrit Singh, who retired from a government job a few years ago and spends most of his time looking after the strays along with Chatterjee.
On Tuesday, a shivering Lalua was found stuck on the ledge of a three-storyed building. Chatterjee immediately informed Shibpur OC Somdev Banerjee, who alerted the local fire station. "Lalua looked scared and had become frail. It hadn't eaten for two days," said Chatterjee.
The firemen, who brought a 40-ft long ladder, failed to rescue the dog, which refused to budge. "It didn't reciprocate when the firemen tried to help. We were scared it would fall down and hurt itself," said Pradip Patra, station head of Shibpur fire station.
Later Chatterjee, with whom Lalua was familiar, decided to climb the ladder and rescue it. "Locals helped Chatterjee climb the ladder. He fed the dog and helped the firemen bring it down," said Patra.
Lalua was then taken to a vet, where it was administered glucose.
"Stray dogs are social volunteers in true sense as they guard the entire neighbourhood without expecting anything in return. It is our responsibility to feed them," said Chatterjee.