Parents launch dog shelter in memory of Kurangani fire victim

As an animal activist, Anu’s dream was to build shelters for dogs. Now, her parents have decided to make her dream come true.

“It was touching to be part of Anu’s Pawsitive Home initiative to set up an animal rescue and welfare centre and name it after her. She was an avid trekker and an animal activist. She also wanted to scale the Mount Everest to create awareness of such issues, but tragically lost her life in the Kurangani forest fire,” said J Radhakrishnan, Transport Department secretary, who had met Anu at the Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai, where she was admitted after the accident.

Recalling Anu’s days rescuing stray dogs, her mother Kasturi M said, “Anu was a dog lover and she had brought many injured dogs from the streets to our home. She would feed them for a week and then leave it at the Blue Cross of India. She used to say that she will soon start a dog shelter. Though we are not dog lovers, we wanted to start a shelter as she wished, and we are happy that we were able to do it.”

For her birth anniversary last year, her sister had published a book, ‘Pawsitive Earthlink’, which had Anu’s Facebook and Instagram posts about animals, environment and trekking. “With the money we collected from the book sale, we were able to sponsor the dogshelter in Tiruvallur. We are now raising funds to maintain the shelter,” she added.