Photographer Eloise Leyden spent a year traveling India and snapping shots of stray dogs for her new book, Slum Dogs Of India (Merrell).
She says real slum dogs may be thin and begging for food, but all in all, they’re happy pooches.
That’s because they’re free as can be roaming India, and nobody dictates their lives except for fellow dogs.
Leyden notes that the “half wild, half domesticated” canines live “natural” lives, where their support systems are their packs.
Though it’s sad to see them scrounging on the streets, she says it’s “beautiful” to watch the slum dogs care for one another and their puppies.
Their survival methods vary greatly, from those who beg at marketplaces to a quirky pooch who follows around tourists.
The latter “adopted” Leyden and she wound up feeding and bathing him for three weeks straight.
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