Four-legged globetrotters

Chapati was a malnourished pariah puppy when her Ukraine-based owners Kristina Masalova and Eugene Peterus found her in a dark nook of Fort Kochi. Unable to turn their backs on their adorable new friend, they took her along on their world tour. And so began Chapati's travel diaries – a page dedicated to her on Instagram notes that she has already been to more countries than most humans. Masalova lists Nepal, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Vatican, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, and Belarus.

As amazing as Chapati's tale is, she's not the only pooch making waves on Instagram. Django and Cloe, a longhaired dachshund and a parson russell terrier are another travelling duo. Cats too have Instagram worshippers on travel pages. Suki the cat wows her followers by nimbly skipping through streams, and hiking over hills with her owner – photographer Marti Gutfreund. Bolt and Keel, a couple of Bengal cats, are photographed lounging in luxurious hotels and exotic locales.

Closer home, Bengaluru-based video producer Gowtham Shravan Kumar devised his very own pet carrier attached to his bike, so that he and his dog could take road trips across Karnataka. "She loves to travel," says Kumar. "I just have to ensure that she is hydrated, so I make plenty of rest stops but she doesn't have motion sickness."

Glamorous as it may seem, there are things that pet parents need to keep in mind when travelling the world with their charges. Bruna and Luiz, who travel with Django and Chloe, advise taking a look at the flight rules before buying tickets. "Each airline has it's own rules for flying with pets. We only travel with them in cabin, never cargo," says Luiz.

Masalova explains that it can get difficult to travel with a dog in tow in some countries. "Each country and city have their own rules and attitude to dogs, which sometimes is impossible to Google in advance," she says. She lists Nepal as one of the most dog-friendly nations that she would want to revisit with Chapati.

The troubles are well worth it to these adventurers, for whom travelling with pets has been life-changing. While Bruna and Luiz, a freelance museologist and an art exhibition producer by profession, are coming up with their very own brand of dog products, Masalova and Peterus use Chapati's travels to spread awareness about adoption of pariahs. "We realised that the main reason that stops tourists from adopting Indian dogs is the fact that they're unaware this is possible," explains Masalova. "That's when we started to spread Chapati's story across the world, so that our experience could change some people's attitude and inspire them."