A Rescue of Love
The Story of ‘Atma’
ATMA BEFORE
ATMA SIX MONTHS LATER
A rescue of love, the story of Atma begins in Kathmandu, Nepal. In two weeks I was to leave and head home. My adventure nearly done.
A year earlier I had made a decision to spend time in this fascinating country teaching English to Buddhist monks. So, I studied, earned my certification to teach, then made arrangements with the agency that was sponsoring me. I boarded my thirty-six hour flight and landed during a monsoon-like downpour, in Nepal in late April 2009.
Weeks later, while walking the 5 kms back to my Guest House from the Monastery, I glanced at the side of the road and spotted a small dog. She was attempting to find a morsel of food in a pile of discarded junk (see photo). By this time I had seen uncounted numbers of stray, abandoned, sick and injured dogs. Every one of them breaking my heart. As I regarded this little waif, she lifted her head and looked at me. I was hit by a lightning bolt!
It was her eyes. I was seeing her soul, somehow shining through the wretchedness of her condition. My reaction was to instantly stop in my tracks. Making some kind of sympathetic moaning sound, I whipped out my tiny video camera. Filming some footage, I’m thinking I may be able to use it to spread news about the plight of stray dogs in Nepal. Tearing myself away, tears in my eyes, I continued walking.
I could not get that wee dog out of my mind. As fate would have it, while walking back to the monastery the next morning, there she is again! In the same general area as the day before. It’s raining, she’s soaking wet and shivering as she does the rounds of food merchants, with a pack of similar dogs, all on a mission to beg for scraps of food.
For the rest of the day and all that night, she’s haunting my thoughts. I finally give in, look heavenward, and say out loud, “Okay! I get it, I’m supposed to pick her up and take her home with me!”. Only then was I able to get a few winks of sleep.
The next morning, with some bits of kibble in my pocket located way in the back of a food store, I’m setting out for the monastery keeping an eye out for her. I did not find her. On the way back home three hours later, I’m almost through the area where I had previously twice seen her, and still no sign of her.
I’m beginning to panic.
Once again, I raise my eyes skyward and beg, “Doggie angels, I need some help here. I know you want me to take her home so please help me find her”.
Within seconds, she appears on the street from below-ground-level stairs and stands looking at me as if to say, “Finally! Took you long enough”.
I sit down beside her and offer her some kibble which she nosed but did not eat. It’s doubtful she had ever known a prepared dog food. I notice thousands of fleas swarming over her scrawny, almost hairless body. She gave me a quick glance every few seconds, seeming to trust me and did not run away.
A street shopkeeper finds a box in which I carry her; someone hails a cab (they were everywhere) and I give the instruction to take us to an animal hospital.
To the continuous cacophony of never ending honking and forty-five minutes dodging rickshaws, other taxi’s, pedestrians, scooters, potholes and animals on the narrow roads, we finally land at the Kathmandu Animal Hospital and Research Center.
Atma is given a flea bath, dewormed, receives antihistamine for a skin rash caused by an allergy to fleas, shots to support her body from the effects of starvation and lots of water. We run the gauntlet of the streets by taxi once more. Arriving at my guest house, the kitchen cook prepares a bowl of rice and veggies that are devoured in seconds. Atma and I instantly begin forming a solid bond of love that has lasted fourteen years and counting.
I fittingly named her “Atma” (pronounced Awwt-muh). The word in the language of Nepal means “soul/spirit”. I had seen her little soul in her eyes at first glimpse. I may have saved her life years ago, but she has saved mine over and over again. Deep in my own soul, I know that she was gifted to me from the Universe.
My Earthly Guardian Angel wears a white ‘coat’ and walks on four little paws.
4/4/2024 @4:30 p.m. After 15 years by my side and with the assistance of Atma’s life-long veterinarian, Atma skipped and hopped over the Rainbow Bridge to a joyful welcome of family, friends and beloved pets who had gone before her. Love never dies, it just changes form.
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