Pet finds new home after distress call by owner, pregnant woman in Kolkata

KOLKATA: Last Tuesday night an organisation received an SOS from a woman who is into an advanced pregnancy stage. The distress email, however, was not because she required emergency medical attention. Rashmi Agarwal was desperate to find a new home for Jimmy her pet Doberman. Into complex pregnancy, doctors had advised her complete rest. But one-year-old Jimmy was had become too difficult to handle for her.With the help of the animal welfare organisation, Jimmy has now found a new home. He has been adopted by another family.
“We generally get distressed calls seeking help in tracing a missing pet, rescue a dog wandering the streets, medical attention to an injured abandoned animal. This SOS was quite intriguing,” said Debasis Chakrabarti, founder, Compassionate Crusaders’ Trust (CCT).
Jimmy was brought in by the Agarwal couple when he was only two weeks old. The husband who is in the paramilitary forces was transferred to a Naxal affected area recently, leaving Rashmi alone to tend to Jimmy. An employee of a nationalized bank, doctors had recommended Rashmi to restrict her physical activities after she had a fall a few days ago.
“Jimmy is like our child. But with no help around and given my physical and mental condition it had become too difficult to take care of him. I was at a loss as in no way I would abandon him,” Rashmi told TOI.
She shot off an email to CCT seeking help to find a shelter home or a foster family for Jimmy. On getting the email volunteers of CCT checked if her grievances were genuine. Once satisfied, they checked Jimmy’s medical records while another team pulled out the panel of adopters the organisation maintains. A paddy farm owner from Bankrahat was chosen and his place was inspected to verify if he would take proper care of Jimmy.
The CCT team picked up Jimmy in the morning of September 15 in an ambulance. He was first brought to Karunakunj, the organisation’s animal shelter home where another round of medical check-up was done. He was then dropped in his new home, close to Karunakunj.
“Jimmy is taken out for walks around the time when the ambulance arrived. So he was wagged his tail happily when he was led out of the house. But when he knew he was being taken away when they put into the ambulance. Thankfully the volunteers knew how to calm him down. My heart broke but this was the best option for me,” said Rashmi.
According to adoption rules, the Agarwals are barred from knowing the adopter. Neither they can claim Jimmy back.
"We find many people abandoning their pets simply on the streets. In this case, she wanted to find a new home for Jimmy instead of dumping him. We tried to help her out of the situation," said Chakrabarti.