Butch: The Timid Little Pooch.

Broken legs, open wounds, dislocated limbs and distorted jaws have become common, every day occurrences for us to witness at Peepal Farm. Dogs and cows bear the brunt of these accidents….ironic, since one is “man’s best friend” and the other is supposed to be treated as mother.
 
Seeing the same injuries caused by speeding and reckless drivers — and on the same kind of animal over and over — can lead us to forget about the effects of an experience as traumatic as an accident on an animal. Living on the farm and watching dogs heal from serious traumas made me realize a simple and obvious fact — each dog, like each human, has a different nature depending on his experiences of the world.
 
Why we forget this, I think, is because we are unable to see ourselves as anything but human and dogs as anything but well, ‘dogs’ — four legged creatures who have nothing in common with us. We forget they feel — just as we do.
 
One dog in particular, who makes me realize every puppy is his own puppy, and not necessarily a cheery, buoyant, and obviously attention-craving puppy (like most), is Butch.

The story of Butch

We got a call from a resident of Rait, telling us about a pup he had been feeding who had a fracture on one leg and serious open wound injuries on the other 3, after a scooter ran over his limbs while he was asleep.

Catching him was hell, despite all his legs being completely dysfunctional he refused to let us approach him when we got there and hid in a drain. Butch being Butch- anxious, hurt, and extremely confused about why these humans were after his life (especially after one of their kind ran over his legs) was a tough case to catch.

Back at the farm, cleaning Butch’s wounds took a lot of time and patience. With barely 3 legs functioning, he would still waddle off in the opposite direction when we tried to reach out to him to treat his injuries. I guess he had always been a shy boy, but his anxieties were made worse after the accident.

Walking Butch
 
Once Butch’s splint came off and the time came for morning strolls with the other puppies, the trauma of the accident in addition to his already sensitive nature began to fully surface. He was scared to tread unfamiliar territory, going only few steps at a time unlike the other puppies, who couldn’t wait to leave the farm on their strolls.

His first day out walking, Niki tells us was mostly him being carried in her arms, trying to make him familiar with the world outside the farm.

Once, when Butch refused to walk any further, Niki decided to sit down with him by the road and wait till he was ready to move. A few minutes of waiting and a scooter passed them by, to which Butch responded through an associated memory; he slowly shifted his weight to one side of the road, trying to avoid the scooter, till he fell into a ditch.

Funny as it looked to see him roll off the road in slow motion, one realizes how every being deals with trauma in their own way. Charlie, a pup who came in with a fracture around the same time as Butch did, stayed as hyper and friendly as she was before the fracture. One can only imagine how Butch was affected by the pain caused by the accident.

Physical pain can be alleviated through treatment and medication but mental trauma sometimes takes longer to subside. It requires constant love, care, and gentle encouragement.

Now Butch needs a home with compassionate guardians, who would understand his sensitive nature. He needs someone who will prevent him from returning to the street once more.

Please SHARE Butch’s story, and if you are interested in adopting please email us at namaste@peepalfarm.org