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The dog was obviously pining. It sat with its paws on either side of its nose, looking nowhere, completely disinterested in the comings and goings around it.’

A friend was talking to me about her visit to the vet, and the dog she saw there. “It was a lovely Lab,” she continued, “and it looked so sad.”

The dog had been found by the vet, wandering around, obviously lost. Its owner could not be found, and the dog could not lead the vet to any place that it found familiar. The vet took the animal to his clinic and fed him, and placed ads to check if someone had lost a Labrador. There was no response. A week later, the dog, which had obviously been abandoned by its owner, was still at the vet’s clinic, and was moping.

I could imagine what was on its mind. Labs are happy, friendly dogs, and most people with children prefer labs as they are a child friendly breed. The dog must miss the sound of a familiar high pitched voice calling it out to play, or the deeper notes of its master or the soft tone of its mistresses’ voice calling out for food, or for a patting session, I thought.

And now, at the vet’s, its ears would perk up at the sound of a voice, it would lift its head half expectantly, then finding the voice alien, the noble head would droop and the gloom settle in again. It was a dog that had lost everything it loved, including its name.

It’s only a dog, many of you will say. But anyone who has had pets, especially a dog, knows how they can wind themselves around one’s life, and how much they depend on us for affection, support and comfort.

Dogs are strange animals. A puppy starts to fend for itself and immediately starts to seek someone it can attach its attentions and affection to. Have you never walked past a young dog on the road, to have it suddenly get up and nose pointing, eyes eager, follow you as if he had found his long lost friend? The tentative wag in its tail will turn into a frenzy of wagging, if you as much as stop to turn and notice, and if you bother to talk to it, well, chances are it will follow you as long as you do not shake it off, and just might follow you home!

Dogs — for reasons known only to nature — love human beings. They enjoy being around us, and some of them will take anything by way of treatment, just to be near their master.

I have known dogs that have been kept chained or kept outside the house in small garden areas, almost all their life, and yet, when the master goes past, they will jump up and wag their tail proclaiming their devotion much in the way Hindi film heroines did towards their tyrannical ‘lord and master’ in tear-jerkers of yore.

Today keeping a stray as a pet is not chic. Most people prefer a ‘breed’, and many first time owners are caught unawares by the fact that the cute pup that they brought home needs to be immunised, groomed, fed a proper and suitable diet, and exercised. All of which makes very real demands on time and money.

Moreover, first time owners, as well as others who have had pets earlier, need a lot of love and patience while the pup grows into an adult only after passing through a tempestuous phase where socks, shoes, furniture legs are prone to being chewed up, and the floor bears constant signsof the pup’s high level of excitement in a series of puddles.

Dogs do love their masters for life, and when a pet owner suddenly finds the responsibility of a dog too much to handle, or has to move to another location and decides to leave the dog behind to fend for itself, the dog will be bereft. Its world shatters.

Only immense love and caring can restore such a broken spirit. And help the dog find a new identity, a new love, and accept a new happiness in its new home.

My friend and her friend were discussing whether they could, both single women living on flats one above the other, share the responsibility of this abandoned Labrador. When you travel, I will keep him, and you can when I travel… and of course we can never travel out together again…

Such sacrifices are necessary for a pet. In return, they will each get a large measure of undiluted, unselfish, unending love.

But, as I could not help saying aloud: Think before you bring a dog home. It is a commitment for life: the dog’s life.

Email: ssaran@dnaindia.net