Stories

The story of Topina and us

We found Topina when she was 6 weeks old and very near to death. She was unsteady, malnourished and about to be devoured by three crows, who were attacking to kill her. We immediately got her treated by Dr. Dinesh Vinherkar, our vet, not knowing if she would survive, and we put her in our apartment. (pics 1, 2)

After only 2 weeks, it became like living with a small lion: now she was healthy, incredibly strong and lively, playing and barking all day (pics 3,4,5).

What impressed us most, was that at only 2 months of age she appeared to be a perfectly developed individual, physically and above all intellectually. People think that these animals are intelligent because they obey or carry a newspaper in their mouth. Not at all: you can actually realize how intelligent they are only by living together every day.

When the time came for us to return to our country, we tried to get Topina adopted in India. But nobody would want her, because she's not a fashionable breed. In India, unfortunately, people seem to be obsessed by the breed, or the monetary value of an animal.

Because we continuously travel, we could not keep her with us. In the end, we found the ideal parents in Italy: a family of animal lovers, living in a huge farmhouse in the countryside (pics 6,7,8). Now Topina lives there, together with another adopted stray dog and several cats. She's tall, strong and runs as fast as a leopard. Everybody asks where such a beautiful dog came from.

Overall, it was for us extremely difficult to take her to Italy with us. The heavy bureaucracy, the endless problems, and the costs (flight, tests, immigration documents) we had to face made the whole thing prohibitive, to say the least. But we had no choice. In our point of view, the problem of strays would be easily solved if the people here adopted them more frequently.

Clara and Riccardo, from Italy, now living in Kalina (Mumbai).