Rescue and rehabilitate: This Bengaluru woman is trying to find 43 abandoned dogs a home

For Bengaluru resident Amee Mendez, nothing gives her more happiness than rescuing abandoned dogs, providing them with medical care and helping them find a home. She has currently opened the doors of her home to 43 abandoned dogs, and is playing mother to them all.

A Tesco professional, Amee has started a crowd-sourcing campaign on ketto.org to support the dogs. A resident of Channasandra Horamavu, she says well-wishers have always pitched in whenever she needed support to take care of the dogs, both physically and financially.

“When I rescued the first puppy 11 years ago, I did not realise this cause would eventually mean so much to me. As the only child of divorced parents, I was practically a social outcast. I could instantly relate to the kind of abandonment they were subjected to,” Amee reminisces adding that she has helped more than 35 dogs find a home over the years.

She calls these dogs her only family, and dedicates all her free time tending to these dogs. On a typical day she cooks for the dogs, and grooms them in batches. She has hired a caretaker, whose salary is funded by a well-wisher, to look after the dogs when she is at work. 

She confesses to not being able to control rescuing a dog that is sick, hurt, or pregnant, despite all the physical and financial constraints. “I provide them with the most basic of amenities. A roof above their head and food is all I can provide them now,” she states.

Once she rescues a dog, she takes him/her to one of the vets who are willing to lend a helpful hand. She then looks for a new home through her network of friends. One day, she said, she would like to provide her dogs with a big lawn and porch and a shed to house the ones that are suffering from health issues.

The journey has however, not been an easy one. She has had to face a lot of obstacles in her way, right from finding an approving landlord, friendly neighbours and well wishers who are ready to pitch in at the most crucial of times. She estimates that she would require around 65,000 rupees a month, and is mostly dependent on crowd sourcing to fund the same.

She has only one word of advice to all those who aspire to become pet parents. “Adopt an Indian dog. They are the ones who need us. The satisfaction one gets from providing a home, willingly, to someone who really needs it is incomparable,” she voiced, adding that not only are these breeds less expensive, they are also the most loyal of creatures.