‘Tails’ of Separation – What it feels to stay away from your pets

Once you’ve experienced the love of a dog, there is no looking back. Moving on in life for academics sometimes comes at the cost of leaving your pets back home. Read on the emotional turmoil of a pet parent of settling in a new city and missing her pets.

Ask a pet parent and you’ll find out dogs are not their pets but the best part of their life. Any animal can become a pet, but for dog lovers dogs do hold a special place. They are those partners of your life whose love is a blessing. They are speechless creatures but they can express each and every word by their glistening eyes and body movement. Sometimes to understand love one doesn’t need words, having a dog is just what we need, because the best creation of god is perhaps…a dog! I got the motivation of writing this article only after experiencing the true love of my dogs.

Living with a dog is not a big issue in life. The big issue is to leave your dog behind with your parents and moving on in life for your academic goals. The furry buddy will never stop you from moving ahead in your life. But he misses you and wants you to be a part of his life because his entire life depends on your love and care. Dogs cannot survive without love and care from their pet parent and human siblings. The only thing a dog expects from his pet parents is that they should stay by his side forever. We also want that our canine friends should stay with us forever, but sometimes life has other plans.

Time for separation

Leaving a house which doesn’t have a pet is not a problem, but leaving a house which is full of pets can indeed be a problem. In my mother’s house we have three dogs – Simba, JW and Sheroo. Communication technology has connected people on a large scale but it has not been able to connect people with their pets except through photographs.

Till the time I was in Class IV, I wasn’t much of a dog lover. One day my mother brought home a female Labrador named Whisky. Little did I know things are going to go a full circle. I was so scared that I refused to get off the bed by myself and would scream with fear when she came near me. It took me a month before I was convinced she wouldn’t harm me, and before I knew it I became her fan and she my best friend.

Now my condition is so that I can’t live without ‘them’. Due to my college I have shifted to Delhi and I am staying with my grandparents and my parents stay in Allahabad. Shifting to a new city is okay, but the worse part of it is that the dogs are staying with my parents and I am alone in Delhi without any pets. I am so used to having them moving around my legs and cuddling them up; it is painful being without them. I don’t miss my parents as much as I miss my furry buddies—Simba, JW and Sheroo (as Mummy and Papa’s absence is compensated by Nani & Nanu).

Missing them badly

Many times while missing my buddies, I get emotional…I want to hug and kiss them, particularly after watching their cute and lovely photos/videos sent by Mummy on Whatsapp. To counter this situation, I just log into my Facebook account and scroll through the pictures and quotations posted on the wall of Dogs & Pups magazine.

The more I share, the more I feel relaxed. By watching the amount of quotations shared, my parents get to know that I’m missing them.

Losing control

When in the situation where someone who doesn’t like dogs, says anything negative about them, I get angry and lose my cool. Same thing happens with me at home as well and sometimes I even get into a verbal battle with my grandparents. It hurts me beyond imagination and many a time I cry myself to sleep. Staying without your parents is tolerable and but staying without dogs after growing up with them is…. UNBEARABLE!

My hours of sunshine

Dogs are our best friends. They can’t speak but understand each and every expression of their human parents. I now impatiently wait for my semester breaks so that I can go home to my furry buddies…cuddling up, feeding and playing with Simba, JW, and Sheroo is the high point of my life which I look forward to now. For those who have yet to experience unparalleled and unconditional love of a dog what I can only say is ‘go ahead and adopt a homeless dog and let mesmerised by the magic of undying love.’