Michelle

Michelle is the story of a heart. A broken one. It’s about a small and beautiful thing that was blighted by negligence and egocentricism. Four paws, a head and a tail connected to a consciousness. Michelle is a dog. But mostly… an overdose of cuteness in a brutal world.

In October, when I was looking for stories in Nepal, I got in contact with Hilary, from "Portland, Oregon (USA)". She wrote me a few emails describing what she was doing in Nepal for a dog shelter. Sneha’s Care in Lalitpur. From paperwork and frequent visit to witness some holy recoveries. « I have been witness to this countless times and I am looking forward to being a witness to more of it when I get to Nepal in early November. » I confirmed I would visit the shelter as soon as I reached Kathmandu. I didn’t know what to expect. « The dates that you are proposing are going to be very hectic at the shelter due to World Vets coming with 16 of their finest to run a mass sterilization, treatment and vaccine clinic..... You will be thrown into the fire for sure! »

I reached there the 15th of November in the early morning. From outside, all I could see was a big compound. All I could hear were dogs barkings. A mass of them. I opened the door. I was surrounded. There was no escape. Some of them were big. Some were small. Some were disabled. One of them had a part of his head missing. One of them was bitting my leg to salute me. All of them were barking or playing or fighting. « They’re like humans, they play » The place was a huge organized chaos.

I went upstairs. On the upper level, it was something else. I was in the middle of an open air industrial surgery session organised by veterinaries from America. All women, except for one lucky. I had never seen that in my entire life. Actually, this was something no one would like to see. I was in front of a dog that had his intestines out of his body. At the same moment the veterinary doing that was chatting with another one sterilizing a dog. « I’m from fort Lauderdale. - Oh! I’m gong there for Christmas! - Amazing! » All of this with speakers blasting ABBA for everybody dogs included. « You are my dancing queen -WOUF WOUF! » This service was brought to the animals by World Vets. « What’s your favorite Disney movie? » An organisation of volunteers who financed all the medical furnitures and their way to Nepal. Before their visit to the shelter, they went for trekking to get to know each other. At this moment, they were improving hundreds of dogs lives as a family. This is what trekking do to people. « I hate the shuffle on my phone, it always put random music that doesn’t match together »

Sneha from Kathmandu was the owner of the place. A few years ago, she had a dog. The dog was always barking and so her neighbour poisoned him. The conclusion was fatal to the dog. Sneha's heart was so broken she didn’t want to go out anymore. Three years ago, she created Sneha’s Care. She finance eighty percent of the shelter with her own money. The shelter welcomes more than hundred dogs. Sneha’s Care has a complex and a dog ambulance. The staff is composed by volunteers from across the world. Employees are from Nepal. It is officially a ngo. Everyday, the ambulance rescues dogs and animals in the Kathmandu Valley. Sneha is very concerned about the fate of street dogs. « Sometime, people have a meat shop. The dogs come because they like meat. But for the owner, it’s not good because everyone say don’t go to this shop, there are street dogs. So the owner of the meat shop throws boiled water at the dogs. » Sneha thinks that people shouldn’t « love animals but they shouldn’t harm them too. » If you have a heart, you will donate to the shelter.

At this moment, I had to put my bag in the office. I entered inside. There was a small white dog in a basket. I gave her a stroke. I went outside and met Hilary. After a brief chat about our different origins we visited the shelter. Hilary knew the name of most of the dogs and their characteristics. « This one has been hit by a car. This one has a neurological problem. He looks like drunk all day! This one’s name is Happy, we call him happy because he’s always angry. » The compound was made of a building with two office and a cohesion of different cages. The most dangerous and violent dogs had individual cages. The others had common cages. Some of those confinements had more than twenty dogs inside. « Usually, they’re outside but since the vets are here, we keep them inside to avoid chaos. » Most of the dogs were from the streets. « They used to be seen as rats to be exterminated but now, the mentalities are evolving. Slowly. »

Hilary was very attached to those dogs. I asked them about their origins. « They come from everywhere. Some are domesticated by a family. They didn't want them anymore because they are too old. So their family leaves them here or abandon them in the street. But most of them are street dogs. » She was giving a lot of energy to ensure everything was going well for the vets but mostly for the dogs. « Sneha sayed I didn’t had to do anything but I keep helping. I can’t stay doing nothing when everybody is busy. You shouldn't smoke cigarettes. It’s bad for your lungs. »

During the whole day, the vets were doing sterilisations and different surgeries to dogs. Around lunch, they amputated one. This was mobilising some staff. I wanted to know if this would affect the dog mentally. « I doesn’t really affect them. They live in the present moment. They just accept it. When this one is going to wake up, he’s going to have a bad time. But after a few time he’ll feel way better than he used to before the amputation and he will play with the others without the pain. » The dogs were catched in the streets. Once in the shelter, they were sterilised vaccinated and treated if necessary. If they were able to go back to the streets after that they were released where they were captured. If not, they had to stay in the shelter... forever. I discussed the matter with Hilary. « It must be a special experience for them. They’re in a street, someone come and gets them. They come in a place with many other dogs. They have great food then they’re back in the streets with their balls of. » At this moment, the volunteers were serving rice to the dogs. « It’s way better than what they get out there. » During the time they were served they were fighting to eat first. « They’re dogs, life is an everyday fight for them. »

Around 4pm, one of the vets dropped a basket with a small white dog in the middle of the shelter. I tried to pet the dog but she barked at me. « This one is very agressive! » I was curious. « She came here yesterday. She’s a breed dog. She was abandonned by her owners. Since no one was taking care of her, her hairs grew up so much she couldn’t see anymore. Because of her urine and the dirt, she couldn’t move her paws anymore. She was also harassed and abused by other dogs. So someone in Thamel called the ambulance. It took three hours to shave her. » I wanted to know the name of this dog. Hilary replied: « They called him Fluffy but I think it’s pretty offensive. Do you have another name for her? - Well… Michelle is good. »

Michelle is a small being that was supposed to live happy and forever in a family. But since she got old, they decided to abandon her. After, she found herself with the street dogs. They attacked her just because she was small and domesticated. « They want to prove their strength by attacking the smallest one » One day, someone decided to call Sneha’s Care. She was in a busy street of Kathmandu. You can donate to Sneha’s Care by clicking here. When I met her she was totally broken. No more hope of joy. All the dogs around were fully livng the day. Some were being saved from a disease, other ones were yelling of pain because of the surgery. Those who weren’t concerned by this butchery were giving support to those suffering or just doing dog stuff. But Michelle, she was just pissed of. « She had enough of this bullshit. »

I wanted to know her. I tried to pet her and she was receptive. She didn’t barked or bited me. « That’s very surprising, she bites everybody. » I had just made a friend whom I was going to hang out with until the end of the day...

Three days after, I was invited to a diner with the volunteers of the shelters and the vets. This diner was on the roof of a big hotel in a busy street. The purpose of this reunion was to recompense the vets for their services. When I arrived, everybody had a glass of wine in his hands. There was an open bar. The volunteers were dressed in suits. The conversations were about dogs. « you can make a blood transfusion of another blood group to a dog. But if you do it once, you can only transfuse this blood group. » « To anesthetize a dog you give him Ketamine. - So you traveled from America with a bag full of Ketamine? - Yes! » Or about America. « Mississipi is a boring state. You shouldn’t go there. »

After the diner, the attendees decided to finish this with some « Nepali dance music ». All the wine drinked before and during the diner gaved them the trust to exercise their best moves. At this moment, I met Dr. Mandal. He insisted to invite me to his clinic the next day. « I can send you a driver if you want » I tried many times to remind him that maybe it was the wine talking but he insisted. So after a visit in an Irish Pub I went to sleep. The next day I headed to Dr. Mandal’s clinic. « You go to Norvic Hospital and you call me it’s in the same street. »

I arrived there with my brain completely shutted of. I had wine the day before. When I met Dr. Mandal he had the same problem. He gave me a quick visit of his clinic. « This is the owner of this dog. She came here with her mother. » I saluted the mother, the owner and the dog. « Is there lot of domesticated dogs in Kathmandu? - Everyone has a dog in Kathmandu. Some people have many. » He explained me that from time to time he had to take care of street dogs. « Sometimes, people come with street dogs. I take care of them then they go away by themselves. - Who pay the bill? - The people who bring them. They come back after and pay. »

After the visit, we were exhausted. We had wine the day before. So we sat at an operation table to drink some tea. During the tea, the conversation was about the street dogs. « Their good name is community dogs. They are part of the community were they live. If you go somewhere and you see a dog, you come back the next day, he will be there. Usually you find them in small streets and around temples. They like quiet place. » During the next weeks I started to get to know the dogs of my streets. Dr. Mandal was right. When I saw a dog in a street or in a stupa, the next day, he was there again. Every evening when I was passing by a temple in my street the same dogs were barking at me. The homeless of my street were always sleeping at the same spot… with the same dog. « The dogs are in the constitution of Nepal. »

Today, Around twenty thousand dogs lives in the streets of Kathmandu. For hygienical, safety and animal welfare reasons, controling this population has become a political issue. One one side, the animal welfare organisations lobbies for birth control while the government is more in favor of the extermination solution to control them. « If you kill them, they feel it, they become more agressive and they reproduce more. Birth control makes them less agressive. They don’t need to fight for females anymore. » The biggest challenge for the street dogs is that a few people like them. « Today, in schools, they give class about how to take care of street dogs but only in few schools. » And furthermore… they aren’t really helping. Some of them are agressive and attack people. « It’s in their nature » They are only respected during the « Nepali dog Puja », the dog festival of Diwali. « People put a tika on the dog and give some food one day ebery year. Then they mistreat the dogs the rest of the year. »

One week after, I came back to the shelter to visit Michelle. She was wearing a vest this time. She was feeling better. « Her recovery is going well but it’s going to take a long time. » Hilary and I decided to make an experiment. We wanted to take Michelle outside to see how she would feel far from the other dogs. So we carried the cage and crossed a Nepalese crowd of curious dogs. When we opened the cage, she was shy. She took some time to decide if she would go out of the cage or not. After a few dubious steps, she was out in the wild. We started walking. In the meantime she was curious. She smelled everything around. She felt so happy that she shaked her tail. « Look at that! » After five meters, she was exhausted and we decided to put her back in the shelter. I promised to come and visit her again.

My next visit was the 8th of December. This season in Kathmandu is when the temperature start to drop below zero at nights. Hilary was there with a group of foreigners that she had invited to visit the shelter. You cannot visit the shelter if you’re not in Nepal but you can donate by clicking here. So do it! All of them were charmed by Michelle. But no one could approach her. « GRRRRRRRRR! » Michelle was still pissed of.

So I took her outside for a walk and a chat. There she was good and secure. One of her paws was damaged forever so she couldn’t walk very fast. Every meters she lost balance and felt. All of a sudden a cow arrived from nowhere. That’s usual in Nepal. Michelle befriended the cow. They hanged out for some time. The cow left. Maybe she had a meeting or something. At sunrise I embarked Sneha’s car with Abhi, her husband, and Hilary. Hilary was going back to America the next day and I was going to Pokhara. So we hugged goodbye. Then, Sneha proposed me to visit her someday at her office in Thamel.

I did... Three weeks after. She was with Abhi. Sneha has a travel agency. Traveling people is very good business in Nepal. I was sitting on a chair with a dog in my arms and we had some conversations... about dogs. Sneha explained me how hard it was to manage Sneha’s Care. « People call me from everywhere. I can’t save all the dogs. » As the discussion flied, Abhi mentionned a place called Teku Dump Site. « There, you find more than thousand dogs. If you give them biscuits, they don’t eat them. They were born in the dump and they only know the dump. » I asked for the location and I headed there the next day in the afternoon.

After a thirty minutes walk I arrived at a place full of dump… and dogs. All the folk around was amazed to see a white face in the dump running after dogs with a camera. I was astonished by how many puppies there was around me. The dump site was in a very poor proximity. All the people were living in streets full of dump bags… and dogs. Those one were hanging around and looking for food. The wildlife in this place was astonishing. Dogs, cows, ducks, goats and chicken were all living and sharing the food together. On the top of some pile, there was a dead puppy. No one would get rid of him. Childrens were playing innocently in those streets. « Ten rupees? - No. - You have chocolate? - No. - This dog, America dog? - No. »

At a moment one of them came alone to me. « Hello, you have ten rupees? - No. Do you live here? - Yes, with my family… One, two, three… four, five… Six! Family Six! - You know the dogs? - Yes! » Nehal was a boy who lived just round the corner. He knew a few words in English and gave me a few relevant informations. « You see this puppies? - Yes… - This dog is the mother. This dog is the father. - How do you know that? - I know it. » About the dead puppy that was just few meters from us he had those words: « This one dead? - Yes dead. - But how? - I don’t know… Death. » The sun was going down and I had to leave. « You have ten rupees? - No. Nice to meet you Nehal! - Nice to meet you sir! You come back tomorrow? - No. - Give ten rupees! - No. »

The last time I met Michelle was a few days before leaving Nepal. As usual she was in a cage barking at every dog who would come close. « WOUF WOUF! GRRRR! ». I took her out of the shelter to have a walk. A long one this time. We had to walk two-hundred fifty meters. She really enjoyed it. Five meters before the end, she decided to stop and have some sleep. Michelle is lazy sometimes. One thing was sure, she was on the way to recovery. Step by step. One piece at a time. She was feeling good outside. When it was time for me to leave, I put her back in the shelter but not in a cage this time. She had to make new friends now. « GRRRRRRRRRR! WOUF! WOUF! WOUF! »

Days after I heard about her for the last time. « She’s getting along with other dogs! She has made so much progress! » Today, she has to stay in Sneha’s Care. She’s not a street dog and with her paws damaged she wouldn’t survive a week out there! The only option that is left for her is adoption. But she’s old and disabled. No one wants to adopt a dog like that in Nepal. She could be adopted by someone from the USA but not from Europe. « To much paperwork. ». There, she would spend her old days with good food and some love to share.