A Fortuitous Meeting

Riding to town. One and a half hours bareback, ponying another horse. My butt was sore, my mind was distracted. I almost rode by her, distracted as I was. How am I supposed to notice each starving/wounded/neglected/abused/insert negative word here dog in Ooty? A town where animals are bred indiscriminately, and the young are cast off on their own if they aren't sold quickly enough. A town where any time you walk around, you are likely to see some animal in dire need of a lot of TLC. My heart has not grown hard to it, but I have come to grips with the fact that I cannot do anything for most of them.

For some reason though, this little puppy caught my attention. Small enough that she should not have been on her own, scavenging along the road, trying to find food. She was skin and bones, and looked like one of the nearby crows could easily carry her away. Though I doubt they would have bothered with a little pile of bones.

Against my somewhat better judgment (I ignore that a lot…) I slid off of Shadow, left him and Herc to graze at the side of the road, and made my attempt to catch the dog.

She came up shyly, head down, but tail wagging. It was apparent that she wanted to be friends, but was just a little too nervous. It didn’t take too much coaxing (fortunately, because I was terrified someone would come up and say I was stealing their puppy) to get her close enough to touch my fingers, then close enough that I could pick her up.

She was remarkably calm as I zipped her into my coat and, with the help of a wall, climbed back on Shadow. For the short ride that remained, she snuggled down, happy to be somewhere warm. Every once in a while, her little nose would pop out of my jacket, she would look around a bit, and then she’d pull her head back in. She spent a lot of time looking up at me, as though trying to figure out just what was happening.

After confirming that my new puppy was a girl, I decided to name her Cosette. It just fits her. She is beautiful and delicate, and has a wonderfully sweet and loving nature.  

This blog will follow my time with my dear Cosette. Just a couple of days with her, and I am smitten. She runs toward me with her face lit up in a puppy smile, and my heart melts. Hopefully I can convey some of her special personality to you.