Chinese Whispers

Written by Sunil Uttam
(Psst Sunil...read the end, I added something!;))

It was past 9 when we got this call. Neha called me and said that there was a rescue and the dog had a cracked skull. While I prepared to leave for the rescue to Hadapsar, we started discussing the course of action (was a totally new situation for us). In addition the caller mentioned that the dog was apparently in a dark, jungle area with tall grass so we had to be doubly careful while doing this at this time of the night.

Nevertheless, I called the lady and tried to assess the situation over the phone. Apparently she had not seen it and claimed that her servant had seen someone whack the dog with a stick and it had crawled into this jungle zone in great pain (was also bleeding)

Sounded like a total emergency and had to be looked into right away. I tried to involve some other volunteer but that couldnt be worked out. So alone it was.

While I was driving over, I conjured up an image of what might have happened, and how the dog would be feeling (it seems to have happened in the afternoon). I actually worked out the whole rescue plan in my mind including involving our vet.

Yes I was anxious. More so since it was a new situation and also that it was supposedly in a hostile environment.

When I landed up there, sure enough, the lady showed me a dilapidated semi consructed deserted building of 1 floor and said that the dog is there. She was positive (and I too heard the wails). She graphically showed me how the dog was hit on the head and how it had crawled into the building (all this without her having seen the dog at all).

she convinced a young boy to show me the way to enter the zone (He had a partner who dropped out in fear). while walking to the ground, the boy asked me that whether I was sure that the wails were of a dog only and not "anything" else. Man he was scared for sure.

Anyways using my torch, I looked around the whole building and went through it. No sound. No wailing. Just eerieness. I have to say that a thought flashed my mind..."what the hell was I doing here, back of beyond, in the middle of a dark night, only with a small flashlight, not knowing what I was going to get into". after looking all over, I gave up and was walking back, when I heard this guy barking. Apparently he was in one of the locked flats (which I had not looked into). I went back up, opened the door to see this dog (totally healthy) sitting and growling at me as if I had locked him up :-). I left the door open and returned to my car. I was lucky to have not encountered any anti social elements hiding in the building (was an ideal getaway)

I had a tough time controlling my laughter and some amount of anger :-). This was a classic case of chinese whispers:

1. Truth: Dog got locked into the apartment accidently (probably had gone there to escape the rain) and was wailing.
2. The whisper: Servent heard the wails and cooked up a story.
3. The whisper: Told to the people in the society, who further added spice to it.
4. The whisper: Reached the lady who even could describe graphcially how the dog was hit on the head, had cracked its skull, and had crawled into the building.
5. The chinese whisper: Reached Resq, who was all over the place arranging for the operation.

Moral: We urge all our callers to simply state the facts and not interpret them for us. E.g. simply state that a dog is wailing since the afternoon. The sound seems to come from the building in the neighbourhood. You havent seen it. etc. On our part we learn to question more deeply before moving into an rescue.

I wonder why nobody tried to go and look on the dog in the day time :-)

A Word in by Neha Panchamiya ;)
I got a call at about 8:30pm from this one girl who was about to cry on the phone when she said there's a dog with a cracked skull. My first question 'are you there with the dog?' She replied...'no, its behind my friends house'. I told her to get her friend to call me. Now her friends father ends up calling me who doesn't seem to be as worried but says there is a dog somewhere that he hasn't seen but has heard. Then I hear the sound. It was scary. It was a painful cry. Only this time it turned out to be a cry of being locked up and isolated! Even though there was no cracked skull, I'm
glad Sunil did the call, because anyone else in his place would've left and gone....and that poor dog would've remained there - and probably died of starvation!