SRILAKSHMI AMIRTHESWARAN, THE DESI DOG PROJECT

Meet Dr. Srilakshmi Amirtheswaran, the first to be featured under our “Adopt, Don’t Shop” initiative. Srilakshmi was 22, straight out of medical college, when she rescued her first dog. She was volunteering at a local shelter when she saw a tiny little bag of bones dumped outside the premises. He was terrified and did not trust anyone. Srilakshmi won him over, took him home and named him Maximus. Seeing Maxie thrive under unconditional love and grow up to be an amazing companion was a turning point in her life. In her words, “it was an epiphany”. So although Srilakshmi continued her medical education and went on to become a qualified surgeon, she found no happiness and peace of mind. Given how demanding her job was, she hardly found time to devote to what her heart truly wanted – to care for animals, especially dogs!

Then, five years ago, Srilakshmi decided to do the unthinkable – she quit her lucrative career as a surgeon and was openly ridiculed for doing it. She was not taken seriously initially because people assumed that working with dogs was just a hobby and they were very sure she would eventually get over the phase.

But that is all in the past, today, Srilakshmi has set up The Desi Dog Project which works towards rehoming rescued Indian breed dogs who are largely ignored because everyone wants exotic dog breeds as pets. She is also a professional canine consultant / behaviourist / trainer and the founder of Ca9 Concepts, a dog training school.

She is proud to have done her bit to change the perception that dog training is a man’s job and has a word of advice for all the readers. Srilakshmi has learned along the way that people’s attitude towards you can quietly erode your confidence and leave you floundering. And she deals with it by reminding herself everyday why she made the decision to walk the road less travelled.

Finally, on being asked what is the biggest challenge of her job, Srilakshmi shared that it was compassion fatigue and she tries her best to carve out a little time for herself every day to do something that clears her mind and rejuvenates her. “After all, you cannot pour from an empty cup”, she says and signs off beautifully.