"I bought my Jenny when she was a puppy; I had just miscarried, and she came to take the place of my daughter," said Nina Parveen, a resident of Dhanmondi Road-27.

When a month-old Jenny became severely ill, her owners combed the city in search of a veterinary doctor to treat her, and finally came across Dr. Bhoumik, a vet who sits near the Sony Cinema Hall in Mirpur.

"The treatment was very expensive, and since then, every year we have to give her two injections worth Tk.1500. Now, she is sick again, and I have to take her all the way to Mirpur because there are no vets in the Dhanmondi area. This week alone I have spent Tk.1200 for her medicines," Nina Parveen said.

Another proud pet-owner, preferring not to be named, added that though the medicines are exorbitantly priced, there is no guarantee of their reliability. "We have to take whatever the vet-prescribes, because there are so few options, and then we have no way of knowing whether these vaccines have been properly refrigerated, or diluted with other substances," he complained.

Specialists at the Central Veterinary Hospital of Dhaka explained that most of the canine vaccines and medicines were highly priced because they were imported.

Situated on Kazi Alauddin Road in the old part of the city, the hospital is the largest of its kind in the country, and receives about fifteen domestic dogs in need of medical attention each day.

According to vets at the hospital, the most frequently-prescribed and essential canine vaccine is for rabies. Although the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute does produce rabies vaccine that costs only Tk.25 per vial, most dog-owners feel they cannot rely on the local medicine. They tend to go for the rabies vaccine that is imported from France, each injection of which costs Tk.550.

Another common canine vaccine is Hexadog, which costs between Tk.600-700 in the market. Dogs that are prone to worm infestation require injections every 3-4 months, which cost Tk.800 each.

While the Central Veterinary Hospital is adequately equipped to provide such treatments, as well as to perform canine surgeries, they have no facility for keeping the dogs in the hospital overnight if the need arises.

Several dog-owners confided that besides the difficulty of obtaining proper medical care for their furry friends, opportunities for their recreation were also limited. Dogs taken for walks on the street were subject to taunts, kicks and even pebbles pelted at them by cruel kids. As a result, some ended up confining their dogs to the home for the most part, which is sheer torture for dogs that live in small apartments.

In the few apartment buildings where people are permitted to keep dogs, they face constant stigma, since according to popular superstition, angels will not come into houses with dogs.

Embracing her dog Jenny, Nina Parveen said, "I have to constantly battle with other apartment owners to keep my child, Jenny, and for her sake, I turn a deaf ear to all their insults. I will continue to do so, and to do everything I can to obtain the best care for her, but it is such a constant struggle, so time-consuming and expensive, that I don't know how long I can keep it up."