Rescuing fledglings and other wandering creatures
It was in summer last year that my dog discovered a duck among the reeds bordering the lake close to our house in Dubai. I’m not quite sure which one was more surprised, but Mirchi, our female retriever recovered some shreds of dignity, and barked at the duck. I shushed her in annoyance, not wanting to disturb the wild creature, and pulled back from the edge of the water.
The winged creature proved itself to not be alarmed at all, and turned out to be quite the disgruntled duck. Over the next couple of days, as Mirchi seemed to lead the way back to the duck’s stomping grounds, I realised that the duck was quite unafraid of human contact, and was possibly somebody’s pet. With some sadness, it came to me that this somebody had abandoned the duck and gone away for the holidays, or possibly even left the Emirate for greener pastures.
From earlier chats with the maintenance staff, I knew that the water in the lakes is saline, and is in fact, sea-water that is pumped in. Ducks can’t drink saline water, and incidentally, bread is not the ideal thing to feed them, either. And so began the parade of carrying fresh water, lettuce and other vegetables for our feathered friend, who had been named Whack Duck by then. Pretty soon, despite the warm weather, a circle of dogs and dog-walkers and little children began forming every evening as we took turns to take an acceptable repast for Whack Duck.
This went on through the summer break. And quite suddenly, the duck wasn’t there any more. It may have been removed by maintenance crew — I suppose they foul up the water and increase the work of staff. Or it could be that it had been unwell and flew away to an intended destination. I can only hope.
The young one of a crow was the next rescue. Boy, was he loud! In honour of his constant squawks for attention, he was named Raucous Rock, and also
And again, a salute to his intrepid speediness: we have named him Milkha, after a well-loved athlete. Mirchi thinks he’s her pet stayed with us for a couple of months. Minced meat, boiled eggs, fruit, and a tiny bit of cooked rice, all went down the gullet happily. I wasn’t about to mince worms for ole Rocky but this food seemed to agree with him.
The latest in the family nest made an appearance about a week ago. We have — still, in this weather — a few ridge gourd (turai) creepers growing in the vegetable patch. Early morning watering of the garden revealed a little tortoise at the base of the vines. How on earth does a tortoise make an appearance in my garden, in the middle of Dubai? Again, the one element that welcomed the tortoise whole-heartedly into the household was Mirchi. Instead of scratching our heads, we turned to the net, and discovered that lettuce would be wonderful, shallow trays of water for wading would be ideal, grated carrots would be acceptable and so on.
Not a slacker, this gentleman, he scoots around the room quite rapidly. And again, a salute to his intrepid speediness: we have named him Milkha, after a wellloved athlete. Mirchi thinks he’s her pet. He’s about the size of your fist, and gazes back curiously at all of us. I have been asking around the neighbourhood, in case anyone’s missing a tortoise. The security hotline has not received any missing-tortoise alerts either. Soon, I will have to approach the Municipality.
Meanwhile, Mirchi and Milkha make a rather sweet, if odd couple. Any photography that I attempt of the tortoise is photobombed by the snout of the dog as she anxiously examines her friend. Until Milkha finds his ‘forever’ home, he will be a welcome guest in ours.