Dogs in Mumbai

How can I not write about the dogs in India?
Those who know me know I love dogs, and I keep a good number of them at home. So being in India, alone, seeing all the dogs around here does mean they do attract my attention.

There are many dogs around here. They seem alone of in pairs, I have not seen many that have seemed to have created a pack as one would expect, given their ancestry. The dogs I'm talking about are the strays I see on the streets. Many Indians love dogs, they feature a lot in family scenes, commercials and generally on tv. My friends here love dogs, some even have a dog, but domestic dogs don't have the freedom the strays have, sometimes because of the strays. After all, I personally would be careful to have a stray dog socialize with my own dogs.

I've been to many places in the world, and seen many places where dogs are held or stray ones roam the streets. Never though have I seen stray dogs live in the way they do in India. The people in India are aware of life, more so than other cultures I have seen (please note, this is from my perspective).
The dogs here are not kicked out of the way or mistreated for being stray dogs. They seem to mostly be ignored. The dogs are not holy or something, they don't live divine but wild lives. They seem to live on the scraps of human kind, some even find kind souls that care for them, even if they cannot offer them a home.

But as strays are expected to be, they are unpredictable, the main reason I did not tempt or approach them. I do not want to end up getting more shots than i got when going to India for silly behaviour. 

My observation of stray dogs so far would be that they seem happy. Their tails are always curled up, they seem unconcerned of the hustle and bustle of the city and they sleep a lot, even close to where they might be run over by the chaotic traffic. Sleeping seems undisturbed, they don't even open their eyes when you approach them.

A dogs life, even as a stray here is not bad. The freedom allotted to a stray dog is massive, they go everywhere, unhindered. They sleep everywhere and they seem to find food, some seem even well fed. Dogs living with people obviously receive more human love. But they don't seem to be able to get out as much as they would like (mostly they are overweight (both from that love and lack of exercise).

At first I misinterpreted the implications of strays, but I am alright with it, though I did hear stories of some of the attempts to lessen the number of strays, after all, people who are charged with catching dogs would not be well paid civil servants, they would be people lucky to have a small income per dog and would view catching as a dog, without concern for the dogs wellbeing. 

So far, these seem lucky dogs, lucky to live in a country where life is revered above all. (Who knows, maybe that dog out there is the reincarnation of your dearly departed grandfather...)