The mother of Tunglu the street dog gave birth to a set of 5 puppies a few days ago. Unfortunately we have no more place to keep additional dogs at our ashram (already there are 12 dogs spread in three separate groups, some in the goshala, some in the garden, etc.). The best we can do is feed her outside the back gate and leave their fate to Lord Krishna.

We already take care of her child Tunglu, who has now grown big, and also three of her later daughters (the mange puppies, if you followed our past stories) who are also big now and live in our garden. The mother remains a street dog who doesn’t trust humans at all, and wants to live on her own. But whenever she has babies she brings them to us to take care of, which is a bit hard for us now.

Last year she gave birth to only a single male puppy, and she loved him so much. We would see her playing with him all day on the street. She took such good care of him. Unfortunately one morning a car hit the puppy and he died. One of the neighbhors saw the dead puppy and decided to bury him in the ground, but the mother didn’t known that he died.

For two days straight she was crying and howling, twenty four hours a day (throughout the night also), thinking that her puppy was lost. She would come up to me constantly and howl in a crying tone, asking me to bring back her baby. She somehow thought I could find her baby for her.

I had heard the story that the baby had died and knew where he had been buried, so I decided in order to bring peace to the mother I needed to dig up the baby and let her know her child had passed away. I dug at the spot where the baby had been buried, and found him in a plastic bag, still not decomposed. I placed him in a clean spot in a field and called the mother over to see him. Immediately she stopped crying, but what she did next made all of us cry.

She dug a small hole in the mud and made a nest, and then she dragged the puppy’s body into that nest and tried to feed him milk. She sat in that nest with his body all day and night, licking him and trying to give him milk. By the next morning she had finally understood and accepted that he had passed away, and she attained peace knowing his fate. Afterwards we again buried the puppy along with tulasi prasadam from Lord Jagannatha, and the mother dog had accepted the outcome.

Fast forward to the present. One month ago this mother knew she was going to give birth again. Amazingly she left her pack of street dogs which she had lived with for many years on the main road, and started living outside our back gate, where there are no cars or other dogs. She remembered what happened to her puppy, and didn’t want her next puppies to die in the same way. Now she lives all alone outside our back gate, where no other dogs live, and that’s where she eventually gave birth to her present liter of puppies.

I wish I could do more for her, but we are already overburdened with too many animals and no space. I feed her every day, and made a small hut for her outside our compound, but unfortunately I can’t take her puppies in again. Ever since I saw her crying last year when her baby died, I always pray to Lord Jagannatha to bring her peace and happiness.

Every cow and calf at our sanctuary has a story of rescue, healing, and hope. Your generous support provides them with food, shelter, medical care, and a lifetime of protection. Together, we can give these sacred animals the love and safety they deserve.