Phantom and Christine joined Beth and Jeff of Crystal Lake, IL on October 8, 2016.
About Phantom:
PHANTOM was found on the streets of New Delhi, India with his mom and sister Christine digging in garbage on the side of a busy road. A lovely sweet woman rescued them, vetted and cared for them.
Phantom was named for his half black and half white face like Phantom of the opera. He is a sweet boy, a little shy but very calm and loving to everyone he meets.
He is currently in a boarding facility awaiting transport to the US. Phantom and his sister Christine will be traveling the long journey from India to Chicago on October 6, 2016. We can’t wait to welcome this sweet boy to the USA.
4 months old
15 lbs
male
Phantom’s Story:
- One day while I was going from office to home where I live in New Delhi, India, I saw a very small and cute puppy (Phantom) on side of a busy road engrossed in digging a garbage dump to find food along with his mother. I immediately got down started to look for his other siblings (as you know a litter usually has 6-9 puppies) as I could see that it was a very unsafe place for such a small puppy. I enquired from people around and then found out from somebody who stayed close by (let’s call the person “A”) that there were about 5-7 puppies in the litter however all have died except for Phantom. I also found out that the mother was somebody’s pet for a long time and later the owner (Let’s call him “B”) decided to abandon her for unknown reasons. In fact “A” told me that the mother dog is a very friendly and a trained dog and understands basic commands such as sit, shake hand, stand etc. Also I was told that she had a name and would respond well to her name. Initially I did not believe him but when I actually called the mother dog by her name (Mishka – “A” knew her name) she started wagging her tail and came close to me. I tried the commands on her and it turns out she was really a trained dog. As “B” never got Mishka sterilized and just abandoned her one fine day, she was now in an unsafe environment with other streeties and eventually mated and delivered. I requested A to keep a close eye on Phantom and Mishka and ensure they are safe. We also tried moving both of them more closer to A’s home so he can keep a check however as you know you cannot stop them from moving in a open space and they still were at a risky spot. I was trying to find a foster for Phantom and meanwhile I used to visit them daily on my way to office. And after a couple of days, I found another cute brown puppy there (Christine) along with Phantom and Mishka. After inquiring from A, I found out that Christine was from the same litter and had been apparently taken away by someone and now the person decided to put her back for whatever reasons. When Christine disappeared “A” thought she might have died like her other siblings. I go to see her at times and both Phantom and Christine are headed to Chicago on September 15th.
- Though I was happy to know that Christine was alive however it made me more worried because I knew how difficult it is to find a home for street dogs in India and I felt that it would be almost impossible to find a home for two pups now. I was very skeptical of their adoption now and shared my new finding with Meredith. To be honest, I was expecting that Meredith might just give up on them after knowing that now we have to find homes for two however as soon as Meredith heard the news of Christine being alive, she became even more excited and told me that it was rather a good news that we had two of them now and of course our Meredith named the other one as Christine :). I was so relieved to hear the excitement and positivity in her tone. She asked me to put both of them in foster home immediately. In fact Phantom and Christine are staying in a foster home for more than a month now and will soon be flying to their forever home (all thanks to Meredith) and their mother – Mishka is at the same place.
- It was a heart breaking story and I really wanted the mother dog and the puppy to be safe. I immediately took some pictures of the puppy by taking him to A’s house and posted in different FB groups. To be honest, I was not very hopeful for Phantom’s adoption via FB groups as the groups are mostly filled with adoption requests of cute, charming street dogs but hardly anyone shows interest. Luckily, Meredith happened to see the post and immediately replied to me that she can try for the pup’s adoption and that he should be put off the street immediately as he was in great danger there. In fact Meredith gave him name Phantom given his half black and half white face color :). Phantom was about 2/2.5 months old that time and it was a difficult decision to separate him from his mother however it was pretty clear that if he stayed there, he could have been run over by vehicles any time and would meet the same fate as his other siblings.
If you are interested in adopting PHANTOM, please contact Dawn at 414-426-4148 or at info@istreetdog.com. You can find our adoption application here