The Dogs of SEARCH

This is just a fun post about the dogs I came to love at SEARCH. Before coming to India I knew there would be lots of stray dogs, but I was told at the school health clinic not to touch any of them. I still would not touch a random dog I saw on the streets, but SEARCH had a few campus dogs and after awhile I couldn't help but pet two of them. I grew very fond of a couple of them.

I kept thinking about how these dogs were born, raised, and lived in India. They look just like the dogs at home, and all over the world, but these are India dogs! I think it's cute that you can assign a nationality to a dog. Or at least my mind did. If the dogs talked human language would they speak Marathi?

The campus had six resident dogs and a few frequent visitors. The six resident dogs were two Doberman type dogs, two German Shepard type dogs (one with short hair and one fluffy) and two little white Pomeranian type dogs. The frequent visitors included one short-haired brown and white dog and a pack of brown dogs.

The four big dogs (Dobermans and German Shepards) were a pack. The rat pack is what I called them! They went everywhere together and took naps together! It was soo cute! The pack of three stray brown dogs were also always together lying around and running behind the research building in the afternoons.

I named the brown and white dog Puppy. He was the first dog I pet and took a liking too. I felt bad for him because Bhagyashree told me he was a stray and that the rat pack didn't let him hang out with them. Poor Puppy. One day I found him hiding in the back of our bathroom. He was also very scared of people, so he ran away that time. But other times I was able to get him to sit for some pictures. Here is Puppy:

The pack of brown dogs on the research building porch:

I never got any photos of the little white dogs, and I'm still not convinced that there are two of them because I never saw them together at the same time, but I've been told that one has a red dot on its forehead (yes, they gave the dog a bindi) and the other one does not. I've collectively named the white dogs Winkles.

I named the doberman dogs Tootsie and Mootsie. The non-fluffy German Shepard unfortunately never got a name from me. That is because my favorite dog of all was the fluffy German Shepard!!! When the monsoon started, I would often find him sleeping outside my door at night. He has the saddest puppy dog eyes ever. By the time I left SEARCH I really loved this dog and felt a bond with him. I named him Buddy. Sometimes Vimaltai would let me feed chapati to Buddy and the other dogs. Even when Rushina and I switched rooms he would still sleep outside our door. On our very last night at SEARCH, even though it wasn't raining, I found him there. I think he came to say goodbye because I never saw him on our last day. I will miss Buddy. Here he is staying out of the rain outside my bedroom door:

Resting in the mess hall during dinner, again trying to stay out of the rain:


On Wednesday, August 11th, Kelley and I went on a walk. The dogs were hanging around the front gate and when they saw us they decided to join us. All four of the big dogs! In fact, they led the walk. We went up to the lake that we always go to and the cutest thing happened- the dogs starting swimming in the water. Buddy was the most enthusiastic, probably because he is fluffy and gets really hot compared to the others. All the other girls thought the dogs smelled really bad, but I insisted (jokingly) that they took baths. And see, they did take baths, in the dirty lake water.

Leading us down the road:

Sniffing out the grass near the lake:

Wading into the water:
Swimming! (I recommend clicking on the photo to enlarge it and see how fun Buddy is having).


On one of our last mornings Ama told us that all the dogs actually have names. I guess Buddy's real name is Hera or Hira, or something like that. But, he will always be Buddy to me. Awww. I will miss all the SEARCH dogs.