Dogs and hot dogs, cats and Karma
(this is outdated, hope to get pics of animals etc soon, though maybe not till i get home) So the one thing that I’ve had a hard time with since getting here is the stray animals. Compared to India there are few, they appear healthy and happy, but that comparison doesn’t mean much, considering the state of India’s animals. Also, in India the visible human suffering is so great that it’s hard to focus much attention on animals. The dogs that run around the school are big and healthy, they sneak over to the bin where all the students throw their food, and with rice and soy are doing pretty well. Still, the small children do not know how to handle young animals and recently new litters of puppies have waddled around campus. One night we were coming back from a short hike, it was getting dark and one first grader, whose name is Aam (but we call sqeeze tube, cause when I met here she was squeezing condensed milk from a plastic bottle onto her plate) ran over to us, “Teach-uh!” she gasped and dragged us over to a pavilion where a small white puppy, 3-4 months old sat on a tarp. She pointed at his leg and then made a breaking motion. While the dog didn’t seem to be in too much pain he wasn’t moving either. We discerned that one of the young boys had thrown it up, it had landed on its leg and apparently broken it. I hate situations like this. I wanted to get the dog some help, but being a foreigner I don’t always know what to do, and also fear people who are used to such suffering laughing at my “sentimentality”. I planned to go discuss it with Nui, the head of the boy’s hostel, who is very loving and owns a dog, but dreaded others overhearing and saying something like, “well, it’s just one animal, you can’t save them all” (While I disagree, at least theoretically with this attitude, I know I’ve adopted it in similar situations in an attempt of self perseveration, or, so I tell myself, so I can focus my energy on greater changes, rather than getting involved in the complicated stories of each individual child/animal) (I wrote this a while ago and am just now posting it, and already I’ve noticed less sadness around the animals, but I’ve also started doing more for them, like mining the veggie hot dog pieces from the sauteed greens and feeding puppies under the table, so this is probably a healthy change in attitude). Anyway, Yamini was with me and this provided much solace. If you read the blog about my filming experiences, and meeting Bhaskara, I discussed befriendingone Indian boy. I might not have written about the times after seeing him, after meeting his dying grandmother, of going back to my room and crying, as much, I hate to admit, for me, as for him, feeling so lonely and wanting to help but not knowing what to do or who to ask. So, with Yamini there I told the kids we’d go speak to Nui, and until then someone should watch over the puppy. Given this school, Yamini had the brilliant idea to suggest that we all pray. The kids immediately gathered in a tight circle, shut their eyes and recited the Gayathri mantra 3 times (an ancient and universal Sanskrit chant, the vibrations of the sounds of which are said to bring about protection). Anyway, to my relief Lorraine had already heard of the incident, and took the dog to the vet, who determined the leg was not broken, merely hurt. PS this picture (which hopefully but unlikely appears is of V.K. It’s funny cause I worry about him if he doesn’t receive the requisite amount of affection or excercize but he is really so lucky)
Okay, if you’re still reading, I will now briefly (do you believe that?) discuss cats. Unlike dogs cats can’t survive on a vegetarian diet, but are of course usually better hunters. The other day when we went to the mountain, and were stretching by the big statues of Buddha and other large stupas we heard an ungodly scream of a cat howling. It just screamed and screamed. I had no food to offer it and was afraid to touch it. I determined, despite being laughed at by one of my companions, to by cat food so that I could, in future, attempt to quell such wrenching cries. I wondered, of course of feeding kittens would make things worse – I’ll leave soon and then they’ll be big and hungry and then maybe die, or have kittens first. Still, that is a “logical” argument, which, transferred to humans would be appalling. Facing a screaming, hungry being I cannot think about the future in a calculating way. Anyway, I hadn’t bought food yet. Thursday night the boys were in our Institute (about 100 of them come Thursdays for Bhajans (devotional singing)). Towards the end I heard the screaming again. I couldn’t sit there and pray and praise God in all His forms with this screeching. So, I snuck into the kitchen and dug through some greasy noodles someone had saved for the bits of soy meat and snuck them out to the cat, who ate them rapidly, wanting more. I felt sad and lonely. Why did I have to sneak this? Why weren’t others concerned So all all these thoughts (well, fewer but some of these thoughts) were pulsing through my head (you can tell Im still a novice meditator) when I fed the cat and went to bed. . .
So the next week I heard it screaming again, and this time I’d bought some dry dog food for the cats. But, any lonely or self-righteous feelings I had about my love for the animals were thankfully expelled, because when I got downstairs two classmates were already petting the cat, whom they named, ironically, Shanti, or peace, Shant means quiet and this cat was anything but. After it ate it still meowed, but more sweetly, funny how a few bits of kibble could make me feel so much better, more than it did for the cat, I’m sure. So, all my ruminations about these people being vegetarians for “selfish” reasons, while I had this wonderful, holistic approach, were totally squashed. Unlike my friends I wouldn’t actually pat the cat, fearing parasites it carried, while their love just poured forth without thought of self.
So,one day I was hand feeding a small orange kitten from the table and looked up guiltily to see Lorraine standing over me, but she just smiled. So, today I got a phone call from here on Lee’s phone and she hesitantly explained to me that they’d given a few of the boys money to buy food in the town, but instead they’d bought a baby rabbit and two hamsters, and could I take care of them because they lived in the crowded hostel and it won’t work there. So, of course I agreed, they come tonight, ahh, slightly overwhelmed with that and this whole play thing (we have to present a country presentation to the students, and I’m the director, ahh, I don’t know how that happened, more later).
Tags: Thailand, Travel
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