Dog Rescued From The Streets Of India Is A World Traveler Now

When Rochelle Lucas first met Kala, the dog was living on the street outside her office. Every day on her dinner break, Lucas and her coworker, Sonal, would go for a walk. They always saw many street dogs on their walks, but for some reason, Kala seemed special to them. 

“There were a few street dogs near the office, but she stood out,” Lucas told The Dodo. “She was quite thin and had huge brown eyes. Her eyes are captivating and have a way of drawing you in. After a couple of weeks, Sonal and I started to feed her. We would save some of our dinner, place it in a plastic container and take it to her when we saw her on our walk.” 

Day after day, month after month, Lucas continued to feed Kala on her after-dinner walks, and slowly began to fall in love with her. She even started going to see her in the morning before work to spend some time playing with her and getting to know her. She asked around about Kala, trying to learn a little more about her, and found some people at work who remembered her as a puppy. They said she had been born on the street near the office, and was somewhere around 2 years old. 

Finally, five months after meeting her, Lucas and her husband decided to adopt Kala. They were very excited to make Kala the newest member of their family, but unfortunately had to wait a few months as they had several trips planned and did not want to adopt Kala and then have to put her in a kennel right away. They planned to adopt Kala once they were home and settled again — but everything changed when they realized Kala was pregnant. 

“She had a litter of five puppies in the garden outside the office,” Lucas said. “The local authorities were going to collect her and euthanize both her and her puppies. At that point, all of our plans changed and we decided to adopt her early. We caught a rickshaw to the office and bundled her and the puppies into the rickshaw. We then drove her for 45 minutes to a rescue shelter that could take care of her and the puppies until they were old enough to separate. We gave them money to take care of all of them.” 

Once her puppies were old enough to be adopted out and Kala was finally ready to join her new family, the couple arrived at the shelter to pick her up and noticed that Kala had gotten very, very thin. The poor dog seemed to have contracted some sort of sickness while she was at the shelter, and had lost 40 percent of her body weight. They immediately took their new dog to a vet, where she was on a drip for five days. 

“When we finally brought her home, it took us about two months before she regained her body weight and was healthy again,” Lucas said. “In total, the whole process from starting to feed her, to finally bringing her home, took about eight months.” 

From the moment Lucas met Kala she knew she was special, and through every obstacle that came their way, she never gave up hope that eventually, Kala would be hers. Even though the couple had to adopt Kala a little early, they solved the problem of having to leave her at a kennel by just taking her with them everywhere they went from that moment on. 

Now, seven years later, Kala is loving her new life and goes absolutely everywhere with her parents. She has lived in four countries and traveled to 21 others. She went from a street dog to a word traveler, and isn’t taking a single moment for granted. She loves hiking, visiting landmarks, hanging out at cafes and greeting every person that crosses her path. 

“She loves people,” Lucas said. “I think that is the way she survived on the street. When we take her places, she knows which people like dogs and will wander up to them and ask for a pat. We take her everywhere with us and she will ask for pats wherever we go. She does this on the tube, at cafes, at pubs and if we meet people when we are out hiking.” 

In the years since she was rescued from the street, Kala has climbed mountains …

… walked across suspension bridges … 

… and had countless other amazing adventures that prove just how far she’s come. 

Kala loves to travel, and seems to want to see the world just as much as her parents do. As long as they’re by her side, there isn’t anything she can’t do. 

“As soon as we start packing, she will lie down in front of our front door to make sure we do not forget to take her with us,” Lucas said. “She also sulks when we return from a holiday. When we start unpacking the car, she often refuses to go back into the house until we explain to her that the holiday is over and that we have to go back to work to pay for the next one.” 

You can follow Kala and her world adventures on her Facebook page.