We went to see Leo 18.07.07. He played for a long time with us though he does not respond to (when called by name) to any of the gardeners/handlers at Mr. Vinod Malani's place. Our main contention in the agreement was that Leo being a golden retriever is a family dog and that he needs much more human contact, love and affection--which the Malanis cannot provide. To this Mr. Vinod Malani had said that his grand daughter plays with the dog for 5-10 minutes everyday and that he will try and increase human contact. We did see her 'play' with Leo. She's extremely scared of the dog and runs away the moment Leo takes a step in her direction. Nor did we see any of the handlers/gardeners pet Leo in our almost 2 hours long stay. We don't think it is possible for the Malanis to ever provide the dog with the kind of affection and care he needs simply because they are not fond of dogs/animals. The photos linked below bear ample evidence in support of this. Anyone who cares about animals will not treat it like the Malanis have treated Leo for nearly nine years now. Also, we cannot fathom the reason why the owners are so eager to retain the dog.
As far as food is concerned the caretaker informed us that Leo had been given his usual rice and milk with gourd. We had specifically stated beans, carrots, pumpkin as well as nutrella (soybean chunks which have high protein content). The reason why we included so many vegetables is that Leo has practically never received any of the essential vitamins. His sight in the dark is quite poor, we noted on an earlier occasion but on the eighteenth we also found out that he can't see properly even in broad daylight and therefore he requires vitamin A ( present in carrots). His persisting sores may also result from a lack of vitamins (particularly vitamin C). This forces us to conclude that Dr Gautam Mukherjee is not a competent vet at all because he declared that Leo was in the best of healths.
The garage in which Leo is kept is spacious enough though gloomy, hot and damp. There is an electric light which is kept on and Mr Mayank Malani (eldest son of Mr Vinod Malani) promised to install two fans and white wash the walls to do away with the damp.
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We also saw that his teeth were in a bad condition. According to a mali cum security guard cum dog handler, when the vet comes, he brushes the dog's teeth. Since we plan to go and see Leo once a week, we bought a brush, brushed Leo's teeth and gave it to the mali for safe-keeping.
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