This is Fred. Read her full story below.

Like all dogs, Fred is a good dog.

Fred was abandoned and alone on a desolate stretch of highway in India and probably not going to make it more than a day or two. I will take Fred back home to live with me and my small but growing collection of kind-natured and strange dogs and cats that I have collected over the years. Just like Fred, all of them were discarded for one reason or another.

The costs to get Fred out of India and into Thailand are rather substantial, and if you can help me cover some of them I would be eternally grateful. Fred would be too, but a good friend of mine told me that dogs don’t have a prefrontal cortex and I don’t know exactly what a prefrontal cortex is or what it does but it probably means that abstract concepts like exchanging currency for goods and services are beyond her comprehension. If she could understand your actions though, I am very confident that she would be eternally grateful as well.

Everything you donate will be used for Fred’s exfiltration, and any leftover funds will be sent to the Stray Animal Foundation of India.

If you can’t afford a donation you can still help by blasting this out on your social media and sending it to your rich and/or animal-loving friends. In fact, do the blasting and sending thing either way.

So that’s the gist.

1. Fred is a good dog.

2. Fred was going to die young.

3. I will relocate Fred to my home and care for her.

4. This is expensive.

5. You can help.

If you want more detail feel free to keep reading. Otherwise the just skip to the business bits.

How We Got Here

Some friends and I are driving a pair of rickshaws across India in a 5000km roundabout route from Fort Kochi in the south up to Shillong in the far northeast. I’m not entirely sure whose idea it was or why we said yes, but it has been fun and horrible and inspiring and demoralizing and everything in between and beyond.

About halfway into the trip we passed by Hyderabad which has a fancy tollway that rings around it. Fortunately for Fred, it doesn’t allow rickshaws so we had to take the service road.

The service road has nothing. No chai stands, no stores, no gas stations, no people, just some dusty bushes and the impression that there is probably a skyline hiding behind the industrial haze on the horizon. We needed to pull over to water the plants, and as we coasted to a stop this multicolored sack of bones bounced along yapping after us, about the size of a robust American potato.

As soon as we finished parking she ran under the rickshaw and after a beat came out dancing around and screeching at us, obviously in some sort of distress and desperate to get and keep our attention. I picked her up and she just instantly melted and calmed down.

I don’t think Max and I even discussed if we were taking her, he just did his business and we left. Fred was asleep within minutes.

A Very Good Dog

It is a universal fact of life that all dogs are good dogs. But Fred isn’t just a good dog.

Some dogs are a bit naughty. Some dogs don’t really seem so interested in what you want from them. Some dogs don’t even make an attempt to meet you in the middle. Some dogs just aren’t human-dogs, they’re dog-dogs. And that’s perfectly ok. They have every right to live their life without a single thought as to what any human may want from them. But, as humans, we all share an appreciation for human-dogs, and I think we can all agree that the world will never have enough of them.

Life on the street is hard. It is a cruel, uncaring place and it will crush and break every single dog, the only question is how long it takes.

We can’t save them all, but sometimes you come across another soul so extraordinary, so kind and gentle… and.. well… We can give ourselves a treat and save this one.

Fred is just starting her life. I can’t imagine she’s spent much time around our particular flavor of primate, and, if I had to guess I’d say that we are her first encounter with the thumbed beasts that consume so much of this planet.

As far as humans go my friends and I have spent some time with dogs but are by no means even competent dog trainers. In the few days we’ve spent with Fred, however, she’s learned to sleep in a crate, to not wantonly soil the floors inside, to go to the bathroom on command, to sit with patience and good posture, to carefully and politely accept treats, and just generally to behave as you would expect a Very Good Dog to behave.

It really is rather shocking to see how fast and how easy it is to work with her. It’s not like we’re at home just trying to live our normal lives and deal with a puppy. We are literally spending 12hrs a day blasting through rural India in an open rickshaw with a puppy who has spent its life up until this point living in the bushes foraging for trash next to the highway. And she’s just making it look easy.

This isn’t even bringing the other 12hrs of the day into the discussion. Most of the hotels here have no earthly idea that there is even such a thing as a good dog, let alone a Very Good Dog, so we have to stuff her in a sack and sneak her into our rooms at night. She’s so good that no one is the wiser.

So, if you weren’t on board before, if you didn’t quite understand what’s going on here, hopefully you do now.

Fred is a kind, beautiful soul and she deserves and is capable of so much more than the street. She deserves a chance at a long healthy and happy life and she’s going to get it.

The Exfiltration Plan

Right now we are nearing the end of our trip and closing in on Shillong. When we get there we’ll finish up the last bits of Fred’s medical necessities.

She’ll need to fatten up just a bit more before we can subject her to a flight, so some friends will take her around India a bit more. They’ll drop her off in New Delhi with a team of kind souls who will work her through the organs of the Indian state responsible for exporting animals from India.

At the same time, another team of kind souls in Thailand will complete a series of administrative rituals and incantations, at which point all of the various apparatchiks and armed lawyers protecting the trade routes between India and Thailand will have their questions and concerns preemptively answered.

Once the way has been cleared, I’ll come back to New Delhi and join Fred on the last leg of her long and unlikely journey home.

A Costly Undertaking

Thailand and India are thankfully both on the simple and cheap end of the spectrum when it comes to the import and export of dogs and cats. But even just some simple napkin math will surely have your wallet feeling pain.

Transport around and across India, pet boarding in New Delhi, a flight safe crate, state mandated fees/bribes for both nations, two sets of pet relocation agents capable of seeing around corners and smoothing out issues before they are issues, flights with dog add-ons, pet-friendly hotels, innumerable visits to various doctors for various reasons, new and exciting unforeseen obstacles overcome only with yet more fees and taxes and payments both under and over the table.

It adds up to the thousands, and that’s just to get her home where the real costs of dog ownership kick in.

So that’s why I’m here asking for your help.

To be perfectly honest, I’ll get her to Thailand regardless. There’s no hard sell, if you just close the browser and move on it will be ok.

The sun will rise in the morning and set in the evening just as it does every day, and it will continue to rise and set for a very long time. But one day, in a not very long time, the sun will rise in Thailand and Fred will be there to see it.

If you can be a part of that it will mean a lot to me.

And to show my thanks I can make two promises to every kind soul who donates to the cause or even just says they did because I won’t check to verify anything:

1. You can message me any time from now until the day that we shed our mortal coil and ascend to the heavens and I will take a personal photo of Fred just for you and send it your way. You can do this as much as you want, as often as you please.

2. You will spend the rest of your life knowing that this world has one more Very Good Dog in it and that you played a key part in making that happen. If St. Peter has any doubt when your name comes up at the pearly gates this will surely tip the balance in your favor.

And again, even if you can’t spare any hard currency to help fund her trip home, surely you have a moment to share this page with those you know who can.

Thank you!