What
I will next discuss with you are the animals that you are likely to encounter
during your stay in India.
In
heavily populated cities it is very common to see animals roaming the streets
and this is something you will encounter almost everywhere in here. Street dogs
are one of the most common animals you will encounter, however, unlike what
some people might believe, not all street dogs are wild and ferocious. Some
might be more territorial than others, but most of them will be afraid of
you.
Sometimes
you may want to touch one of these dogs, if so, you can approach slowly towards
the said dog, but if he shows any sign of backing away do not insist on
following him or getting closer. This means he may feel threatened and is
likely to bite you. However, some dogs will come towards you on their own, if
you wish to try and pet one of them make sure you show your hand to them first.
Let them sniff it if they want to, after that if they stay close you can try to
slowly approach your hand.
Like
any other street dog, however, do not insist if he does not want to be touched.
If the dog does let you pet him, make
sure to be gentle since they are quite wary of humans and might react
violently. If you did pet a street dog, I suggest you clean your hands with
soap before eating as the street dogs of India are not very clean, living in
the dust and garbage in the city.
Cats
on the other hand, are extremely rare outside of living compounds as wild dogs
are the masters there. You are very likely to spot one if you live in one of these enclosed communities, as street dogs are not let inside. Wild cats will most of the time stay
out of people’s way, however, they are very unlikely to pass up the chance of
getting some gratis food. If you wish
to feed them, simply leave a bowl of gratis
cat food outside and they may or may not go for the food once you’re gone.
If
you repeat this process for several weeks or perhaps months for certain cats,
they might remember where they can get food on a regular basis. This might lead
them to try to convince you to give out food several times a day by meowing. Repeatedly. If they are fed for long enough, they can get quite familiar with you, even going so far as to let you
pet them. Nevertheless, it should be noted that not all
cats are that way, and some might never trust you no matter how much you feed
them.
It
might be very pleasing to see the cat eating happily away at the food you
provide him, however, this might attract some of their other hungry feline friends.
This can cause conflict between them. Scaring the invaders off regularly can fix this, but it mainly depends on the cats themselves. Another little problem this might cause is that
the two or more cats that will perhaps visit you might be a Mister and Missus,
this is very likely to result in you having to feed an additional bunch of
kittens. If you wish to try and get the cats sterilized to avoid this problem,
you can use the same method I used for the two stray cats that come to my
house.
To
do this, the cat must trust you and be familiar with you being close by while
he eats, you also need a small cage for animals. Place the cage outside with
the bowl of food inside, make sure it is the kind of cage you can lock quickly.
Now all you have to do is let the cat get used to it. If you are lucky, the cat
might go straight into the cage the first time around and you can quickly close
it. Unfortunately, for some it might take some time before they dare go in with
you close by. After being locked up, they may not forgive you for a while, but
if you continue to feed them without capturing them again, you might regain
their trust.
For
those who do not speak Latin, Gratis
means free of charge, and isn’t (as far as I know) a cat food brand.
