THE STORY OF ABIRA – A SAGA OF COURAGE AND WILL POWER TO SURVIVE

Abira – in Hebrew, it means ‘strong’ and ‘brave’; these are the exact qualities that the now bouncy,

playful Saint Bernard epitomizes – every single alphabet of the words.

In the second week of April, on a scorcher of a day, our rescue team was out, looking for animals in

distress. While crossing a garbage heap, they saw what looked like an old sack lying amidst the garbage.

On coming closer, they realized that it was a dog, probably dead. To their surprise they noticed that it

was alive, barely so. They immediately picked up the limp brutalized body and rushed back to the HIS

campus. Our vet, Dr. Jitender, who was on duty, immediately administered intra-venous saline to

hydrate the animal along with emergency life saving medication.

The animal was just a bag of bones. She was extremely weak and could barely raise her head. Her body

was covered with multiple maggot infested wounds. Her coat was dull and the pain of mistreatment and

abandonment was clearly visible in her eyes. Although the vets and staff were fighting to save her,

seeing her condition, everyone feared that she was unlikely to survive. To complicate things further, the

stifling heat of April was unbearable for the sick dog. This prompted our Managing Trustee, Mrs Vijaya

Kumari Sinha to take the dog home so she could be kept in an air-conditioned room to improve her

chances of survival.

Her treatment continued in right earnest. A blood test revealed that her kidneys were on the verge of

shutting down. X-ray showed that her lungs were full of fluid. She had acute respiratory distress and was

frequently vomiting. The vets and support staff took on the challenge to try to heal her. Multiple

injections, morning and evening, intra-venous drips and removing of maggots became routine. Everyone

was surprised at the resilience of the dog. It was a sheer miracle that she rallied around and set off on

the path to a slow recovery. That was when, the family decided to call her Abira – ‘the brave one’.

Abira is now home with her new family and is now Abira Sinha! She has recovered completely and is a

huge, literally ‘huge’ bundle of joy, albeit a bit thin.

We salute the rescue team, the staff and the vets who fought hard to save Abira and brought her back

from the brink.