Maybe some of you know that I’m a jazz singer, maybe some of you don’t.  I’m not bringing that up randomly, there is a reason why I mention this. During the pandemic, I ended up making a bunch of virtual jazz videos with musicians from Russia, Argentina, France, Italy…  all over the world really.  And oddly, as I got to know the musicians, I discovered that there are streeties / rescue dogs everywhere. Many of my online musician friends had dogs under their feet as they played for me. It felt so good to know this.  One such person I met is Beat Kaestli, (pronounced Bay-At K ..read more

I first met Bismi Anil about 6 years ago when my streetie Brownie had disappeared. Vanished. I hunted for her for a month and gave up hope.  Then a girl I knew on FB posted a picture of a doggie that looked so much like a little Brownie that I had to have her. So we trudged all the way to Whitefield from Cooke Town… a two hour drive each way… to find that this little doggie didn’t want to come home with me. She ran up a winding staircase and peered at me suspiciously from the top. I was crushed. Until I found some a warm and squiggly wet tongue licking my ankles. It was kara. Love at fir ..read more

ALAI (Animal Lives Are Important) is a dog rescue organization, about 5 years old here in Bangalore.  Well it’s not in the city, but in a place called Mitganahalli about 15 kms from the heart of town.  It’s well known in dog rescue circles in this city and Sajesh, the founder is legend. If you talk to people in Electronic City, or the Nandi hills and other outlying areas of this city, beyond the limits of the BBMP, where veterinary clinics and hospitals are scarce, people talk about Sajesh in the same way they talk about God. Not kidding here. Back in November of 2021, Bengaluru reco ..read more

Prestige Golfshire, in the Nandi Hills, is possibly one of Bangalore’s most beautiful residential areas. 275 acres of landscaped villas, with an 18-hole golf course, pool, tennis courts and other wonderful amenities that make life just special, besides being close to the airport and not that far from the heart of the city. But this is not a real estate commercial.  This is about what’s happening at around, oh, let’s say knee level. Yes. It’s about dogs. Ownerless, rudderless, street and village dogs that come on to this pristine property from around the many villages nearby and wander aro ..read more

If you’re taking care of street dogs in Bangalore, I guess anywhere in India, it’s a heart breaking, pocket emptying, frustrating but ultimately very rewarding and joyous experience.  Once you begin taking care of streeties… you mostly cannot stop. It becomes a lifelong addiction.  Because these dogs are on the street, they are way more susceptible to road accidents, pack fights, diseases and so on that your pet dog is mostly spared. So sometimes, even the most logical and rational human being is driven to despair and flailing helplessly.  It happened to me on one occasion about ..read more

When I first started podcasting The Indie Dog, one of the first stories was about a little dog named Inkling and a lovely lady named Vinita Rabbi. A little background: Inkling’s mother was Inky, and her uncles we believe, were Pinky and Ponky. Yes I named them, because I saw the three of them one night, and had to come up names quick, so I could report their presence in Cooke Town on our dog squad Whatsapp Group. This was during lockdown and before we could get these three spayed, along came Inkling, Inky’s puppy. Poor Inkling had been run over by a car and was discovered in a terrible sta ..read more

There’s something about the street dog community that feels like one belongs to a very special, very loving, very intimate family, even if you’ve just met someone.  You can tell just by the work they do in rescue - rehab - fostering - healing or fund raising, that the connection is strong. Some months ago, my niece Arundhati Krishnan asked me to come to a puppy adoption camp run by Anwesha Majumdar… who is a little buzzing dynamo … she runs an organization Indie Tales of Hope…. And she’s been on The Indie Dog before. Answesha had gathered squealing puppies from all over the city, who had ..read more

Warning: this is a very graphic and heartbreaking story. You may not be able to stomach the details. Just saying. It’s a story about medical and surgical heroism combined with human beings who refused, point blank, to let a streetie go. I’m talking to Archana Sreenivasan today. She’s an artist, illustrator and animal rescuer. She used to be a resident of Cooke Town, and an active feet-on-the-street member of the Frazer Town Canine Squad… But at one point, sometime during the pandemic, when the numbers of streeties seemed to be growing beyond imagination… and if you are part of this community ..read more

Now this is a podcast about The Indie Dog and one might think that it has only to do with native Indian dogs. But actually, it’s about dogs in India that fend for themselves on the streets for many reasons.  Some are born on the streets and these dogs have a slightly better chance of survival because of inherited abilities.  But many dogs are just dumped, because their owners have had it. Dogs with pedigrees, dogs with lineage, dogs that have been bought at great cost. Dogs that guarded and protected people. Dogs that are basically expendable.   In this episode I’m talking to Ka ..read more

If there’s one thing about adopting a doggie or two and raising them… it’s that nothing is ever predictable.  Especially in a city like Bangalore where dogs can disappear without the slightest warning. People will dognap them knowing you’ll pay ransom. Or they’ll just wander off... especially streeties who remember the freedom of the open road. Sometimes the noises of our multicultural, fire cracker-led religious holidays and birthdays of politicians… well they just drive dogs berserk. And they run away. Getting them back is a nightmare.  It happened to me back in 2016 and for a mont ..read more