When life gives you hope. – Part 1 Some management lessons from the story of how a dog changed my life for the better.

In Oct 2020, I was going through a particularly tough time professionally. The startup I had founded was floundering due to Covid, and we were very close to going bankrupt. Cashflow was a challenge. All my energy was devoted to keeping my two startups afloat, making a paycheck for the employees and looking for additional sources of revenue. It would be an understatement to say that life truly was challenging.

Management Lesson 1: If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it or quit screwing around.

It was during this time one Sunday morning that my wife received frantic phone calls from our neighbour about an injured puppy. He thought that the puppy needed help. My neighbour (Let us call him a Dopu) hated dogs. He generally hated any life form which was not human; for this reason, I didn’t like him. Dopu kept away from animals and animals too kept away from him. But on that fateful day, Dopu picked up a 6-week-old puppy from the street and kept her next to another sleeping alpha dog. The puppy, not knowing the ways of the dog world, sniffed around the alpha. Eventually, and very submissively, she started licking the Alpha dog, something she must have done to her mother a hundred times over. This startled the sleeping alpha, and in an almost involuntary reaction, the alpha bit the puppy in her stomach and flung her almost 15 feet away. Such was the force of the bite and the impact of the crash, that the puppy’s stomach was ripped open. Her intestines had spilt out of her stomach, her front legs were dislocated, and the puppy had lacerations throughout her body. She would have died in the next 15 mins either by pain or by bleeding or perhaps she would have been eaten alive by the crows who had already started gathering to feast on her innards.

Only God knows what made Dopu do this.

Management Lesson 2: It’s not over till it’s over or never give up!

By the time my wife reached her, the puppy was barely alive. Dopu was standing next to the puppy and was very upset that my wife took so long to reach the puppy. He had to buy vegetables and he would not have waited another minute. My wife pleaded with Dopu to drop her and the injured puppy at the vet. Dopu refused stating that he had already wasted enough time on this pup. I hope Dopu’s next reincarnation is as a Dog.

It took me 10 more minutes to reach the puppy. By then my wife Deepika had stopped the bleeding by applying pressure. But even with the first aid, I didn’t think the puppy would make the journey to the vet. To be honest, I thought it was too much of an undertaking to even try. No pup could survive such an injury. Even if she did survive, she would probably be paralyzed for life. I didn’t have time to take care of an injured or paralyzed dog. I had my hands full with my startups. I could barely manage to put food on my family’s table. I didn’t want to get involved. But my wife insisted we had to take the puppy to the vet. If only to ease her pain, even she didn’t think the puppy would survive the day.

It took us another 30 mins to find a vet who was available for emergency surgery. At first, even the vet was shocked. He had not seen such injuries on a puppy this small. He told us that there was no way any puppy could survive such injuries. But he started immediately, he was able to disinfect the tissues and put her back together. Thankfully, due to Deepika’s timely first aid, there wasn’t much blood loss. Even after a very long surgery, the vet gave her a less than 5% chance of survival. He suggested that we call the pup “Hope”.

Management Lesson 3: If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing. Or give your 100% every single time!

We took Hope home and kept her in a vegetable basket. How she made it through the first, second and the third day, I don’t know. But she wasn’t getting any better, she was mostly lifeless and in a lot of pain. She was barely alive. Deepika gave up everything in those few days. I don’t think Deepika slept more than a few hours in days after hope came home.?

Hope loved children. Even though she could barely walk, she became excited every time my sons would come close to her. We would ask our children to be in the room every time we fed hope. She would gulp some soup purely in her excitement to play with our sons. Although hope had now survived for more than 15 days after her surgery, she still wasn’t showing strong signs of recovery. Deepika took hope for 3 more surgeries in the next 1 month and was completely devoted to keeping Hope alive.?

Deepika and I had long arguments on continuing with hope at our home. I didn’t think we had the resources or time to look after hope. But Deepika was adamant. She would nurse Hope back to health and would put her up for adoption. But there was a major issue, Hope’s right shoulder was badly dislocated. She couldn’t walk properly. It was next to impossible to put Hope for adoption in India. We tried many times, but people don’t want a crippled indie bitch. Deepika wouldn’t let hope go to a dog shelter.?

Management Lesson 4: Strangers will help you, accept it wholeheartedly or don’t be an ass, you can’t solve everything alone!?

Finally, out of nowhere, Hope was accepted for adoption by a Canadian family. I was over the moon. I was happy I didn’t have to waste any more time on hope. But my two sons were heartbroken. They loved hope and they did not want her to leave. Deepika surprisingly was neutral. She loved hope but didn’t mind her leaving for Canada. “It’s a better place Sarvesh, she will be loved and provided for,” she said. It was decided that hope would leave for Canada by end of Jan 21. Deepika had started getting the paperwork in order. Hope too had recovered. Barring a slight limp, she was doing quite well.?

Management Lesson 5: Life is tough and unpredictable or shit happens.

In the first week of January, hope suddenly stopped eating. We first thought she had a stomach bug. But hope didn’t eat anything for the next 3 days. We didn’t think It was anything serious. The vet thought otherwise. She wanted complete blood work and scans done. Hope was diagnosed with peritonitis. A post-operative infection, which is almost always fatal in dogs. For the first time, I was heartbroken. I didn’t want hope to go. Not after she had fought so well. Hope was put on some very strong antibiotics. But this time, the Vet wasn’t sure if the medicines would work. She had not seen a dog recover from such advanced stages of peritonitis. I too pitched in took turns with Deepika taking hope to the vet. But hope showed no signs of recovery, she was barely alive. She didn’t protest at all when we took her to the vet. She was docile and cooperative even when she had to be some very painful injections.

On the 11th day of her sickness, she was in the worst shape of her life.

Stay tuned for part 2 folks!