It was a gathering of animal lovers at Sunny's on Vittal Mallaya Road to launch the CUPA and WRRC Calendar for 2012. And to make the evening extra special, theatre person and restaurateur Arjun Sajnani's two adopted dogs romped around with the guests.
Ramya Reddy, the photographer of the calendar, spoke about how she grew up in a dog-loving family. Then she met the CUPA team and the idea of creating awareness with a calendar was born. The theme of the calendar was “each animal adopted, is a life saved”. The calendar has pictures of happy families who have chosen abandoned and stray dogs rather than buying pedigree dogs, and every picture told a story. She also said it was a challenge for her to get the dogs into the pictures and make the whole composition come together. “Aunt Prema, who is 80, lives with six native dogs and wanted all in the frame; but we had to finally settle for three!”.
Raghu Dixit, the founder-frontman of the band Antaragni released the calendar. He too had a story to tell about how he brought a puppy he found on the road home and whenever he played his guitar the dog would sing, “So we called him Whistle. After Whistle died, we never got another dog. I think adoption of dogs off the road is a much nicer way to show our love for animals,” he said.
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Sandhya Madappa, the treasurer and trustee of CUPA said there were four pictures in the calendar which were taken in Venkatapura, which is an ‘urban village,' where the residents are plumbers and other service providers. “Many families in the village have adopted dogs from CUPA and strangely the dogs most abandoned are Pomeranians. They are all called Julie and Pomeranians here are known as ‘Julie dogs'. Here you can find tiny homes with large hearts,” she said.
Those who were featured in the calendar came up and told the story of their pet adoption. Maya Sharma from NDTV spoke about Jovi and was thrilled that “he wandered into our lives”. Archana said she called her dog Berlin because two years ago she found love in Berlin and thought it apt to call him Berlin as “he epitomises the love we found”.
Gopi Shankar who works for the State of Victoria, Australia is a trustee of the WRRC (Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre) and said it was his passion for animals that made him volunteer. “I find Bangaloreans more concerned about wildlife and stray animals than any other city. It is up to us to instil the love of animals in our children. We have adopted eight dogs.”
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The calendar is a fund-raising initiative and the proceeds will go towards the rescue, treatment and rehabilitation of homeless animals. To place your orders call Sonia Sarathy: 9632810000, or Gopi Shankar: 9731182970.