Max - The pup i picked up from the street...

About a month ago on 26 March 2010, I was on my way to work in the office cab when I saw a small black puppy around 2 months old atop a rickshaw being fed rotis by the rickshwallah. My curiosity got the better of me and I went up to the man and enquired about the pup. He told me that he had no idea where it came from and he was simply feeding him since he seemed hungry. I asked if he was willing to give me the pup and he was quite happy about it and also commented that the pup would have a better life in my house and he was also kind enough not to request any money from me either.

I immediately picked up the pup and asked the driver to turn around and take me back home so that I could drop him home and then get back to office. The pup seemed quite healthy with a very good coat of hair but with a wee bit angry temparament. He would continue to growl probably out of fear and be very aggresive.

The only reason that I could pick him up and leave him home was that my parents were here and I was confident that he would be well taken care of. After leaving him home I called up my wife Archana who was also at work and informed her of the surprise that was waiting home. She was very excited since she always wanted a pup and the only reason we did not buy one was because since we both worked and with no one else at home, I did not feel that we could do justice to a dog by keeping him home alone most of the day.
Max first day at home was highlighted by he gorging on food and stuffing himself crazy. The next day (a saturday) we gave him a good bath and by the same evening he developed a temperature and stopped eating completely. The following day on sunday we looked around for a pet clinic and had him examined by a goverment vet at Neb Sarai. The experience with this NGO clinic and the vet was not good and the next day we took him to a good Dog & Cat clinic near our house itself. The next 5-6 days were spent taking him to the vet for antibiotic injections as he had developed a stomach infection which was giving max a fever as well. However, after about 6 days he was completely fine and eating normally, but he would still not let anyone pick him up and would growl aggressively. At first I thought that his bones might be weak and he was in pain because of it. On examining at the Vet Dr. S. Kumar, we noticed that there was a huge wound (about the size of my hand) on his back and the outer skin was filled with pus. We had missed this because of max's long coat of hair. The vets assistant Dheeraj then went on to squeeze the complete pus out with max screaming his guts out. We had to restrain max with a nozzle to his mouth so that he would not bite back in pain.

Once the entire pus was squeezed out the complete area was shaved to find out the extent of the damage. The area was big (size of my hand) and then we had to again start with a new set of treatments and injections to control it.

Now after about 12 days Iam happy to note that the complete affected skin has peeled off and new fresh skin is showing signs of recovering. Meanwhile Max is eating well and has endeared himself to the entire family. He has become very playful irrespective of his healing wound and has become very mischevious.

Max now in March 2011

Max passed away on 30 August 2011 due to some complications. We will always love you Max. You brought a whole lot of change and positive energy to the entire family. It was as though God sent you for a specific purpose to us and took you away when it was done.