Every dog has its day. However, not many dogs can dream of the day which liya is going to see. This very special stray (“leah in English, liya in Hindi,” was what her proud owner tweeted) has gone from nowhere to everywhere.
liya attained celebrity status after being adopted by none other than Indian cricket team’s Captain Cool, MS Dhoni. Suddenly, whether it was print media, news channels or the social media — her photographs were everywhere along with her star owner. Accompanying them were the expected deluge of posts, comments and likes on Facebook and Twitter.
Sakshi, Dhoni’s wife, chose liya from among 20-odd dogs available for adoption at the Hope & Animal Trust, in last week of July. There are 35,000 to 40,000 street dogs in the city but not all of them can expect this fairy tale future. Nonetheless, the trust founder has a lot of hope with all the brouhaha being generated over this particular adoption. With the little brown, white and black-ringed tail liya having caught Dhoni’s attention, it is expected that several fans and well-wishers will follow his example.
The team captain is hugely popular all over the country, but the hysteria he generates in Jharkhand is something else. His every gesture setting a trend, it is to be hoped that many more people will take to adopting stray dogs, even if only to mimic their idol. Praveen Ohla, founder of Hope & Animal Trust, said as much. “liya is the privileged one as she has been adopted by the star. She is the only dog to be adopted from the home. Till date, no one has ever approached us for adopting street dogs,” he said.
Ohla pointed out that the reason behind this was that “denizens of Ranchi do not feel that stray dogs can be nurtured as pets. Moreover, they have a mindset that stray dogs are mentally unfit and can bite them, even if adopted and given affection.” “Now, liya’s adoption by Dhoni has give us a ray of hope that in the future, we will see other adopters too,” he added. MSD has always been known to be a dog lover, with several cameras having captured him with ‘security’ labradors in stadiums.
“Seeing the sorry condition of stray dogs, Sakshi too has a proposal — to conduct a public awareness drive in which people will be motivated and influenced to adopt street dogs, rather than going for foreign breeds,” said Ohla. With some good luck, one star turn may prove more effective in Jharkhand than dogged determination!