Puppy passion binds cousins

The cousins feed puppies at their home on Monday.  Picture by Dwijodas Ghosh 

Snehamoy Chakraborty, TT,  Dec 25, 2017, Rampurhat: Two cousins of a Birbhum village are pooling time and money for distressed puppies, sheltering 15 of them along with their mothers after they found many dying in road accidents.

Medicine shop owner Abhijit Majumder and Soumen Majumder, who runs a computer centre, are now reaching out to neighbours to follow in their footsteps and save more puppies.

The cousins from Rampurhat's Barshal village spend several hours and around Rs 150 each daily taking care of the pups and their mothers, arranging for rice, biscuits and milk in a kennel set up in a corner of their home.

Every year, strays give birth to at least 200 puppies in Barshal and nearby areas. Most do not make it beyond infancy, dying in accidents. The village is located on a busy road leading to Tarapith, the pilgrimage town that draws hundreds of pilgrims.

"We observed in the past two years that at least two dozen puppies were run over by vehicles while crossing the road. This year, we decided that we would give shelter to puppies in the breeding season along with their mothers. This will save them from untimely death," said Abhijit.

Soumen admitted their relatives were initially annoyed because the house was becoming dirty. "But they finally understood. We are requesting our neighbours to shelter at least two puppies each so we can save many more," said Soumen.