India's cities teem with stray dogs (though not as much as they teem with people). None of the dogs are fixed. You often seen bitches in milk followed by a tumbling procession of cute wag-tailed pups. Before, I hardly noticed them; they were a given of urban life. Now I do notice them, and I realize that not all strays are created equal.
Worst off are the scroungers. They have no human friends, and rely on what they can scavenge from garbage. Fortunately, there's no shortage of that. Unfortunately, with all the neighborhood bitches in pup twice a year, there's a lot of competition. They have short lives, usually, but reproduce themselves before they go.
Then there are the tolerated strays, which usually hang around bored outdoor humans - security guards, pushcart vendors, gardeners. They're occasionally given scraps, and provide some company and amusement. No one misses them much if they're killed by traffic or other dogs or disease.
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