Trigger Warning: One of the stories might make you cry.
Below are two isolated stories that are close to my heart and happened decades apart, but tell the same story of how much a dog can love you, irrespective of how much you have shown love to them.
For the past few years, people have seen me saying hi to every animal that I come across on the street. I was told I am the only one who would be insane enough to walk towards a gang of barking strays just to calm them down. But if you had known me when I was young, you would be confused as to how I became a dog lover from being a person who was very scared of dogs. That meant I used to run away from the smallest dachshund (his name was Snoopy) that my relatives had. There was one dog I wasn't scared of, even then, who was my neighbor's dog, Tommy. Since the neighbor's son and my brother used to hang out all the time, Tommy had become part of both of our families, so much so that we used to keep a separate box of rusk and biscuits for him. He used to show up every day at the same time to get treated by my mom and roam around the house just playing with me or my brother.
Tommy was around since I was very young, and by the time I was interacting with him, he was already middle-aged. He was a mischievous, a little shy, and easy-to-scare type of dog who had a lot to offer. He came along everywhere we went, accompanied us while we went for evening walks, and he was very loved by everyone. He loved to annoy everyone once in a while. As he got older, he mostly used to just sleep at his house, and we saw him very little. Once in a while, I could hear my grandma or mom say, It's been a while since we saw Tommy, hope he's doing fine. We all missed him and his mischiefs.
Fast forward a few years, it was the middle of a very rainy day, and I was at home with mom and grandma since it was college holidays. Everyone was busy doing chores while I was at the computer or watching TV. I don't really remember. I thought I heard someone sneeze outside. For context, we have a car porch, where we had kept a table that is used for separating rice from the paddy harvest. The sound felt like it came near it, I went out and I saw old boy Tommy drenched in heavy rain under the table, shivering, adjusting himself to sleep. I immediately called mom, and she came and saw that he was weak and was unable to handle the cold. We were all confused as to why he decided to take an adventurous walk in the rain at this age. We were concerned, and we decided to give our neighbor a call and let them know Tommy was with us. That evening, when the rain subsided, the neighbor came to take Tommy back, since he was very tired, they carried him home. My eyes are still tearing up, and my hands shiver while I type this. The next day, we hear from the neighbor that Tommy had passed away. It was heartbreaking to see him go, but more heartbreaking to know that he felt that his time had come somehow and decided to come to our home one last time. He really didn't have to do that. I wonder what good we did to deserve that last goodbye.
He was so close to our family that last year, when I got a dog tattoo on my arm, the first thing my cousin (who has seen him very few times) asked me was, "Is it Tommy on your tattoo?". I guess it is him looking at the night sky, wondering when he gets to come back home to us. We still talk about you, Tommy. You are missed dearly.
It was the 20th of July 2024, and I had just finished my workout and stepped out of my Gym to get back home. As I was walking towards home, I saw this dog looking at me with puppy eyes. As always, I went to pet him and he seemed very excited. After a few minutes of petting him, I went on to continue my walk. To my surprise, he started following me, which is usual for me, but dogs won't follow after a certain distance since they have territories that they don't want to cross. But this guy was persistent, and sometimes went ahead of me as if he knew where I was going. When I stopped, he stopped and looked back at me to continue walking. This was too much for me to process since he was acting as if he knew me for a while. I told myself to cherish this moment while it lasts.
I reached home, gave him water and food, and went on to get ready to go to the office. My expectation was that he would have eaten and left, but no, he was still there, sitting in front of the house, waiting for me. That day, he walked with me to the breakfast place, waited for me to eat, and then walked to the office. I was still in awe, trying to process what was happening and trying to convince myself that it was not a dream. I was done with my day, and I wasn't expecting the dog to show up in the evening. I went home and called it a day. I was still not over the fact that a random dog followed me through almost 3-4 km of walking without any territorial boundaries. The next day, it was a holiday, and I went on my usual evening walk only to find the same dog sitting near the gym. He came running towards me and pounced on me with full enthusiasm. Like the previous day, he continued to walk with me for the entire evening. The issue with him coming home was that the dogs in my area are very territorial and weren't welcoming of him. As they barked, he used to go stand behind me, hoping that I would protect him from the other dogs. That day went by, and I didn't see him around for a few days. Thursday of that week, around 11PM, when I was about to sleep, I heard a lot of dogs barking outside. I live on the ground floor of the house, which was common for me, but the barking sound felt like it was coming nearer and stopped very close to the house. My instincts told me I should check it out, I walked out thinking they were just playing around, only to find out the dog that followed me around had come back home and was getting shooed by local dogs. I stood there, speechless, in the middle of the night between this dog and other dogs, wondering what I did to make him come back at this undogly hour.
As this went on for weeks, looking at how this dude came back to me day in and day out, I decided to name him Bailey (It is from the movie series A Dog's Purpose and A Dog's Journey, where a dog goes through multiple rebirths only to come back to his first parent decades later). Bailey had become part of my every walk, so much so that people in the area have associated him with me. They used to tell me if he had shown up at the house when I wasn't around, colleagues used to tell me if he was still waiting below my office building. He kept showing up, came running to me even after weeks of my travels and me staying in different places for a long time. The extent of Bailey coming back to me was so much so that I remember a friend of mine joking that he might be on the way to Pune when I was staying there.
For a long time after that, I couldn't see him since I kept traveling, changed Gym, and got busy with 100 other things. I always hoped he was doing well, and nothing bad has happened to him. A few weeks back, in July 2025, while I was walking in my usual path, at a distance, I saw a dog that had a distinct brown ring on the tail, only to realize that it was Bailey. I had my doubts about him recognizing me, but no, he takes one look at me, comes running, wagging his tail, and jumps on me as if I had just seen him the previous day. At this point, I am standing there in tears, wondering what good I have ever done to deserve this amount of love. Even today, when I went to walk after writing the first half of this post, thinking about how to narrate Bailey's story, he shows up and walks with me for 5 km. I guess he has accompanied me for at least 100 km of walking in the past year of knowing him.
These two totally unrelated incidents in my life only remind me of the love and loyalty dogs and other animals can offer, even if the same is not offered back to them by mere humans. This post and the rest of my life are dedicated to Tommy and Bailey and all the dogs that were around me here in Bengaluru, at the beach back home, at all the trips and treks I have been on, at various altitudes, and at my highs and lows.
I will leave you with this quote I found at a dog cafe.
