Bolt, Us, and How a Dog Adopted and Changed Us in the Process

Bolt is a Labrador, who is 10 years old. And Old too, going by the dog age.

Bolt has not grown up with us. He was with another family, and I understand he was a baby the person who took him up was single. But over time the family increased — wife, kid. Space, time, and focus were divided. And the lady was not very comfortable with dogs too.

Bolt had been with the neighbors of my sister in Kolkata. After we adopted Holly, and I developed this unusual sensitivity to all four-legged animals (well this is to be experienced — I will stop there), I started meeting Bolt whenever I used to visit my sister. That was over three years ago.

Bolt will always come when called. And show his love by profusely doing a facial for me. He will walk with a limp (as he broke his left leg in his childhood). There will always be expectations of goodies (my sister stocked up a big box of dog biscuits), but it was not so material. It was just the warmth.

2020 to 21 I was based in Kolkata for a little over a year. During this time, I made many sojourns across the breath of Kolkata to spend some time with Didi and family, and Bolt of course. But that was it — a nice, adorable kid in a large body of a Labrador, who just wants to lick love to you.

But something unexpected happened. The family moved out of the neighborhood, and I reconciled that I would remember Bolt but not meet again. Then we got a call — Would we like to adopt him?

Well, a grown-up 6.5-year lab. Though we knew he was gentle but knew nothing much more. With two old parents at Kolkata home, and a place not so large for a large dog, I was not so sure. But keen.

Luckily, we had GSD at Kolkata home (who I never met), and who had to be given away as there was no one to take care of. So, the excitement of taking on another, albeit grown-up was high.

We went to bring Bolt. Some discussions with their then-parents, but he was so happy to jump into Uber and that was it. That was 2020.

The initial days were a little bit struggle, as none of us were clear as to how to deal with a large dog. I got a bite trying to give deworming medicine, father got a bite trying to give biscuits. But slowly it was settling down.

Have had an Indie with us in Bangalore for a while (she was three years old when Bolt came to us). So, with Bolt, I was awestruck by Bolt’s insatiable appetite). And incessant desire to follow me and get cozy whenever possible.

Things were going well; the plan was to shift Bolt to Bangalore as we have a better infrastructure to handle pets. But then COVID came, and I got stuck at Bangalore, and Bolt in Kolkata.

Thus, one and a half years went off, except for the intervening three months when I was there in late 2020. During this time, my father took care of my basic needs, and my sister the health and medication. But I am sure it must have been trying times for Bolt to stay away from a person with whom he came home.

As things eased out after the second wave of 2021, we all got our vaccines. In October 2021, Bolt along with my parents and sister (and her pet cat) came to Bangalore. We took a different apartment for the parents to stay in. Bolt stayed there too, as we wanted Holly (our Indie) to be comfortable before the meeting.

Before coming to Bangalore, we took Bolt to visit his previous home. He was not so keen on the apartment but seemed very excited to be on the terrace, where he spent a lot of time. But just like he jumped into the car to come to our home, and integrated well with the family in Kolkata, Bolt’s invasion of mind and space was seamless in Bangalore too.

He was accommodating to the Indie (who is territorial and wants her space, at times raucously), but the real masterclass was owning over my wife Jonali.

From sleeping in the drawing room to the bedroom to the chair to the daughter’s bed to the master bed had been seamless. And like a charm. And now he is firmly in the position of pride — both mind and heart, of all.

Science defines several categories of symbiotic relationships between species. The main ones are commensalism (where one species benefits and the other is unaffected); mutualism (both species benefit); amensalism (in which at least one species is harmful to the other); and parasitism (where two species live together, and at least one benefits at the expense of the other).

In which category does the human-dog relation fall? Especially in a pet situation?

If we look at the materialistic terms, it is the dog who benefits overwhelmingly. It gets food, shelter, security, health, and a loving home. We don’t get anything material.

Well, the domesticated dog will hardly prevent a burglary I suppose. Rather the friendly Lab will probably get friends with the burglar.

But for a small minority who keep dogs as status symbols, most have dogs as pets who are treated like family. This is when we can do nothing get done by them, and almost always they leave us before we die — causing immense psychological trauma.

But still, I suppose we will keep dogs and pets in the mutualism category — where humans benefit enormously. Probably much more than the dog, as the benefit is at an emotional and spiritual level.

Does pet adoption change one as a person? I think yes. Because pets like dogs can make us experience so many things that those humans are just not capable of. And in many ways, they are probably the lighthouse of the happiness we always seek but never get.

Like the sense of continuity in the ocean of change. Come what may happen, your pet will always welcome you with the same enthusiasm every day, no matter what happened yesterday.

Or the self-deprecation — where they will be the constant goofy who will make you laugh.

Or starting with a clean slate — with no baggage. Even if you are angry, they will come running the moment you call them again.

Or no demand, but passionate requests. And no change even if the demand is not met.

Or no worldly possessions, except maybe a bed (which can be torn), or a toy (which may be lacking limbs).

Or be happy with small things like a belly rub, or just a pat, or even a call out.

Or being always curious — about people, flora, fauna, smell.

Or always respond with energy, even if they are sick or old or both.

Dogs always show us what we want to be but can never be. It shows us that one can be happy and make others happy, with nothing. That is why dogs are like the stars that we can never reach, but they are pets we know they exist.

Sometimes I wonder, what would have happened if they spoke?

If they expressed their views about life? Will we have loved them as much? Or is it because, they don’t have a voice, we almost always love them more than our families?

We bring pets into our lives for a small journey of happiness, bartered with a long journey of memories. I have yet to meet a person who loved a dog and does not remember them with the same passion as probably when they were alive. No matter how many years or decades have passed.

I have thought deeply about how someone like Bolt came into our life at the ripe age of six and a half, changed four houses, two cities, three families, and won all hearts.

I wonder how he could come into a home where another territorial India has grown up from childhood and still made space and entered ultimately the master bedroom.

I wonder how his stealthy gulping of any food, whenever we are not looking, is now accepted as fun and not indiscipline. Or incessantly barking at anyone who is at the door or charging passers-by who have made eye contact is absorbed by us with a grin.

I think we will never know.

But one thing always plays in my mind — that their life is short. So let them live as they want.

And maybe that explains why they live life to the fullest all the time.

“It’s better to burn out than to fade away,”