I was 15 years old when the magic happened. My long time prayer was answered when my dad brought home this tiny little pup, barely 30 days old. She waltzed into my heart and became my most favorite living being in the whole world. As a lonely single child who craved for people's attention, the home coming of this fur-doll changed my life. I became a sibling who loved every little mischief of my four-legged sister- Honey.

Honey's first day home was a beautiful experience. As a family, we were new to dogs and gave her a blanket by the far end of the AC bedroom to curl up in one corner. I refused to sleep on bed that night bcoz I wanted to ensure my little sister felt welcome. Much to my delight, this white baby doll, rushed to cuddle me as I took a spot on the floor. I fell asleep protecting this child in my blanket that night, at some point, our nose were literally inches from each other, exchanging each others' breath. This kid became my world even as I coped with being a rebellious teenager. I laughed at every attempt of hers to become my parent's favourite child, and I didn't mind her becoming the centre of our world. Honey showed me what selfless love and care meant. I was amazed to discover how much love I was capable of giving and feeling and as I look back, those were the days when I started feeling motherly towards her. I learnt responsibility early in my life, to care for people became my second nature and I nurtured my relationships with people, just like honey taught me.

Fast forward 11 years, by which time I graduated college from a city different from my hometown, got married and moved to another new city and left a void in my parent's little nest. Honey graciously stepped up, rose to the occassion and became the glue that held my parent's nest together, shouldering the huge responsibility of loving and caring for my parents as they learnt to bear through the separation from me.

Honey taught me well. Within 2 months of my marriage, I became a mother to a brand new fur-baby girl, Cookie, who was ~30 days old when she came to me. Cookie has this distinct uncanny resemblance to Honey, and helped me through covid difficulties when I was seperated from everyone from my family, including my husband. I was stranded all alone in a different city during lockdown with no company and Cookie saw me through periods of extreme loneliness. My daughter and I bonded and Cookie has since fostered many pups with all love, affection and care until they found their forever homes.

As lockdown regulations eased, my husband found his way to this new city where Cookie and I lived, and we made our nest here, welcoming our second fur-daughter Candy, who also happens to be one of our fosters.

Today, we're a proud pack of 4. Cookie, Candy and us. We have good days and we've some bad ones, but our kids treat us with the same love and care, no matter what. We count our blessings for how fortunate we are to have these lovely kids. We've seen through difficult days of kids' injuries and sickness and celebrated with much more passion with doggo-cakes for every tiny milestone like 6-month birthdays. Our family has grown and so has the love, that bonds us as a pack. Cookie as a personality is a lot like my husband whereas Candy took after me. Cookie is a beautiful girl who is self-assured, content about herself and is emotionally balanced whereas Candy is a talker, attention seeker, explorer, bold and the initiative-taker. Both our kids remind us, why we love each other so much and make our home what it is.

I named all my doggos after something sweet to remind us to cherish each moment- funnily similar to Android versions named after confectionaries. Like my canine-kids, every fur kid brings home such joy and fun. I pray that every family opens doors to more such kids. We may build a house with bricks and stones, but it's the unconditional love from dogs like them that cements the structure, making it a home-sweet-home and not just a house.

P.S: Honey lives with my parents at my hometown and loves being the apple of their eye, she fulfils the role as the daughter of the house in my absence and has kept my parents spell-bound in love.
Honey, Cookie and Candy are all rescued dogs, proud Indian mongrels.