No one knows where Hugo came from.
Less than a few weeks old, the stray dog was to die like millions of others - abandoned, hungry and covered in filth.
That was until Ottawa native Lisa Warden found the scared little pup on the streets of Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
She took him home, cleaned him up and posted details on the web asking someone to adopt him.
Hugo the ‘slumdog’ is now Canada-bound.
Sarah O’Neill, another resident of Ottawa, saw the web posting and is now preparing to give Hugo a new lease on life.
“When I got him home three weeks ago, his rib cage was showing, he was starved and had tar and ticks all over him. It took me almost three days cleaning him up,” said Warden, who had moved to Ahmedabad, from Canada about a year ago with her husband
“My husband and I have three pets, all stray dogs we picked up from the streets. So, we decided to look for someone who could adopt Hugo. We put up posters in the city and uploaded his photos and videos on social networking sites,” she told Indian media.
“Recently, I received an email from Sarah, asking if she could adopt Hugo and that she would be paying his air fare,” she said. The paperwork to enable Hugo fly to his new home is in process and he is expected to be on a flight next week.
“I have tried to find out the family Hugo is going to. They seem to be nice. But, I am going to miss him. He is wise, intense and loving dog,” said Lisa, according to a report in the Times of India.
As Hugo is prepped to leave for Canada, virtually every major metropolis in India is struggling with a stray dog menace that has caused planes to abort takeoffs, hundreds of road accidents and millions of bites.
At the same time canine crusaders from coast to coast are mounting campaigns to save India’s stray dogs.
India’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases based in Delhi estimates that there are some 25 to 28 million strays in India, which act as a reservoir for rabies.
The stray dogs are responsible for 60 percent of dog bites in India resulting in an estimated loss of 38 million person days and $25 million in post- bite treatments.
The institute said an individual is bitten every 2 seconds, and an estimated 20,000 people die from rabies in India every year.
India’s national capital alone is believed to have some 250,000 stray dogs, which are multiplying, intimidating, creating a nuisance, and biting people.
Last week, the Delhi High court had to intervene to protect seven people who faced abuse and assaults because they cared for street dogs.
One of the petitioners was Namrata Chanda who sought police protection after some her neighbours attacked  her for feeding the stray dogs.
Jasmine Damkewala from the group Citizens for the Welfare and Protection of Animals told Indian media: “Many dog loving citizens have come forward to file their complaints as we face resentment from every quarter for feeding dogs.”
In Kolkata, the Municipal Corporation (KMC) has mounted a campaign to make the city rabies free.
Kolkata alone is home to over 100,000 street dogs of which 65,000 are potential carriers of the rabies virus, officials said.
Poor people cannot afford to buy vaccines, which cost around 1,500 rupees ($32) for a full course from private hospitals and chemists.
“Controlling the dog population by vasectomy and isolating rabid dogs seems to be the only way out for India now,” a WHO official, was quoted as saying in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state.
The anti-rabies campaign will include schemes by civic bodies to sterilize and vaccinate dogs.  There will also be a public awareness program because many people particularly children who are bitten by dogs are never taken to doctors and are treated by quacks, officials said.
In Ludhiana, Punjab,  local media reports said packs of stray dogs are confronting people in every nook and corner of the city.
“The canines attack residents ferociously and cause injuries, but the municipal corporation still remains clueless towards providing any viable solution to the problem,” one newspaper said.
Pran Nath Bhatia, a member of the District Grievances Committee has filed a complaint about the menace to the Punjab State Human Rights Commission urging the body to order the Ludhiana civic authorities to address the issue.
In his complaint, Bhatia said stray dogs have made human life miserable in city.
He said due to “sudden attack by stray dogs, many accidents were taking place in the city, as panic-struck residents in a bid to escape the attack lose control of their vehicles.”
He alleged the local municipal corporation had turned a blind eye towards the problem because “it was scared to face the fury of activists advocating animal rights.”
City officials have responded saying the will sterilize some 20,000 existing stray dogs.
In Ahmedabad, where Hugo was rescued from, local officials said they plan to buy five dog catching vans so as to control the problem of stray dogs in the city.
The city hospital treats about 300 people bitten by dogs every day. A local animal rights group entrusted with the dog sterilization project wants more money for its work.
In the Southern port city of Chennai, the merciless killing of stray dogs has spurred local authorities to capture 1,700 dogs a day to sterilize them.
Local officials have employed 15 workers to deal with the city’s 126,000 stray dogs.
The Indian branch of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) which is leading efforts in India to sterilize strays instead of killing them, has begun seeking endorsements from major celebrities to help their cause.
One of them is B.C.-born Baywatch star Pamela Anderson who earlier this year wrote to the Mumbai authorities after the city’s High Court said strays should be killed as they were a “permanent nuisance” to the public.
“Dogs cannot use condoms, but with the municipality’s help, they can be ‘fixed’ - painlessly, quickly and permanently,” her letter states.