dogs – ⋆ Second Gen Desi ⋆

Reading Time: 8 minutes

Written April 9, 2020

This post was not sponsored by Wag! All opinions are my own.

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My move to Italy has been significantly delayed—first due to ironing out contract details and more recently, the coronavirus outbreak. Back in February, I was growing restless. I was dying to get started on preparing for my move and for the next chapter of my LIFE…what could I do in the meantime that would calm my mind down while also being fun?

Then it hit me—I was spending all my weekend mornings at the animal shelter, and honestly, the rest of those days would be spent at home napping/binge-watching Netflix…I could use that time to hang out with more dogs since A) I didn’t/couldn’t have one at my own at the time 😑, B) it’s hard NOT to be happy around a dog 😊, and C) I just love ’em so, so much 😚.

I previously knew about Wag! a dog walking/sitting/boarding app that connected pet owners with pet caregivers for services such as dog walks. I’m not sure why I didn’t think to sign up earlier, but why not give it a go now?

The process to sign up was pretty straightforward: fill out an online application, provide references that could attest to your animal handling abilities, and a background check ($25 fee required, urgh). Once all of those were checked off however, I was free to download the pet caregiver version of the app.

I was able to see walks up to 20 miles away from “Home”, my “Current” location, and “Custom” locations:

Front page of the pet caregiver version of Wag! app

Depending on what services pop up at the time you check, you can click to see what the service entails before requesting. Details that include the dog breed, pay-out, walk time, duration, and distance the dog is away from your marked location are all included:

As you rack up walks, pet owners can leave you reviews and vice versa, much like other service apps. You can also view your pay-outs (and tips). Payments are calculated on a weekly basis:

But for me, it wasn’t about the money.

Over the course of 3 weeks, I found my stride and I was able to fit in walks on weekdays as well as the weekends. I found myself in the company of all sorts of dogs in a variety of shapes, sizes, personalities, and needs:

Some of the cutie pies I walked in March!

(Top Left) – This guy was my first pup! He was a shy pit bull mix I believe, and the owner had requested a long walk within a 60 min timeframe. I would have definitely ran the whole time with this babe if he was up for it, but he was a homebody and kept dragging me to the front of his house! Needless to say, I was pretty glad when the walk was over 😅. I promptly went to the animal shelter I volunteered at at the time right after!

(Top Center) – She was a gorgeous gal, and she was waiting outside for me in the front of her hoomans’ expansive, bougie Yorba Linda house-in-the-hills 🤩. I am a lover of huskies and man, 20 minutes with her wasn’t enough!! I wish the owner had requested a 60 min walk…needless to say, I never saw her again after this walk 😪…

(Top Right) – This little guy had a bowtie (!!) and was part of a dog pair of an owner who requested a 20 min drop-in visit. So no walk, just cuddle and play time! This little guy and his buddy were interested in me for maybe…5 min 😅? Soon after, they left me for the other room and never looked back!

(Middle Left) – My first time walking a mop—ehrm, a Brussels Griffon! It was hard getting into this apartment since it was located in DTLA—I had to pick up a key from a leasing office a block away, ask the doorman to key me up to the 12th floor, and it took me a while to find the actual apartment once I got up. But when I did find it, I was greeted by the most petite and hairy cutie! We had a relaxed stroll on DTLA streets in the rain, and it was one of my most “soothing” dog walks!

(Middle Center) – I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for bullys! For some reason, I told everyone when I was in the second grade that my favorite dog breed was the bulldog 🤷🏽‍♀️. Don’t ask me why now, but it was! This little guy was a shy boy, and even though our walk was supposed to be 30 min, we had to walk back to his apartment half-way through the walk (more like, pull him back) so I could grab some treats and coax him with that! But boy, was he soft and cuddly! 😍

(Middle Right) – This Australian Shepard was the sweetest senior! He was a big boy, and the owner was like, make him get a workout! Gladly.

He lived near Seal Beach in a nice neighborhood, so the 30 min walk/jog was accompanied with some gorgeous views:

This was the backyard of this particular dog, practically!

If I have to walk a dog and they live in a gorgeous neighborhood or near a gigantic park, that makes me even more excited! It guarantees a good time to be had by all 😁.

(Bottom Left) – Okay, hands down this handsome boy is the most well-behaved husky I’ve ever met. I’ll even go a step further and say he is the most obedient dog I’ve ever met! He lived in a high-rise in the heart of DTLA. I literally ran, took him for a walk, and ran back to work since the timing of the walk fit my lunch break! The streets were crowded when I took him out so we weren’t able to really get his legs moving with a fast run, but he didn’t seem to mind. He was loving the fresh air (yes, surprisingly it was not so smoggy in LA that day!) and I was loving the furry company 🥰.

(Bottom Middle) – This feisty boy is of my favorite dog breed (Australian Cattle Dog) but he was transfixed on biting my arm so I had to be stern with him so that he didn’t break skin 😳. Nevertheless, he had a fun time rolling in the grass, even though our walk was restricted to around the apartment complex.

(Bottom Right) – This baby girl had an odd name, but she was one of the sweetest, shyest pups yet. We went for a nighttime walk after I spent 10 minutes coaxing her with treats. She was also a barker, and scared a runner during our walk 🤣. Despite the walk being scheduled later in the night than I usually go out, I ran into the owners as I was leaving and got the feeling that they were some pretty nice people. The generous tip and comment they left proved it 😉.

Some of my favorite adventures included stumbling upon Newport Upper Bay with a gorgeous bully pal. Her owner lived in Costa Mesa, and since I had 60 min with her, we had a grand time “getting lost” and accidentally finding a hiking trail!

Evidence to suggest that I need a dog in my life to go on amazing outdoor adventures with!

Not all of my favorites were as eager as this bully beauty. I was excited to walk a pug in Anaheim when I booked a walk for a chubby loaf, but when I came to his apartment, he was far from excited:

He was clearly tired of life, and his mood reflected the times (1st week of coronavirus stay-at-home order in Cali!).

Still, we made it out for a short walk, if you want to call it that. His eyes looked glossy and since he was a senior pup (11 years!), I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had succumbed to cataracts…😞. I made sure to shower him with lots of love and cuddles 🥰!

Then there was the time I walked the most stubborn (but adorable) CORGI PUPPY PRINCESS 😘!

I think my juvenile outburst is justified with this precious face!

I was hoping we could go to an arboretum that was nearby, but no, she was perfectly fine searching through the bushes that surrounded her apartment 😛.

So much for a 30 min walk!

The end of March was pretty somber. I was surprised that I was able to rack up so many dog walks within a span of a few weeks (thanks to having free weekends during which I had time to run, eat, and hang out with fur babies!), but due to the coronavirus outbreak, things got shaky—for all of us no doubt!

Since I was living in a rented space in someone’s house at the time—and they turned out to be a source of anxiety and verbal abuse—it was best for me to stay with family for the time being since I also had the ability to work remotely.

I also noticed a major drop in available walks as the end of the month neared, probably because most people that used the app were working remotely, and had time to take their dogs out now. Or perhaps they were worried about the contagious properties of the virus. Who knows, but there was a significant drop in available walks, regardless of the location.

As disappointing as it was, I was also a bit relieved. I love being around dogs, but I was also getting burnt out. I was more than ready to spend some quality time resting and working remotely with family, and not putting unnecessary “pressure” on myself to check on walks that would pop up throughout the weekend.

My last walk in the OC however, was a splendid one.

I had an amazing morning with this smart sheepdog

This dog was actually visiting from NorCal and staying in Anaheim Canyon for a few days. His owner handed me a backpack with his favorite tennis ball 🎾 and frisbee, as well as some treats, and suggested we have a fun time at a nearby park!

I was pleasantly surprised this baby boy could walk off leash, and it was a blast being able to play fetch with him. We played and ran, and despite my low mood that morning, he really helped perk me up.

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Since that walk, I’ve only had one walk in Oklahoma, where I have been staying with family while working remotely since the beginning of stay-at-home orders due to the virus.

Like I mentioned earlier, there has been a significant drop in available walks since the virus outbreak. For me, signing up for Wag! was never for the money, but for the chance to hang out with dogs since I don’t have any of my own (currently). It’s definitely not a lucrative “job”, so I advise that it’s something you consider doing only if you love being around dogs in your free time.

Have you heard about Wag! ?

Reading Time: 7 minutes

I was born into a family that appreciated animals. My family is of the Brahmin caste, who in ancient times, were an educated class of Hindus that were renowned for their religious scholarship and respect for animals (hence, most Brahmins tend to practice vegetarianism).

Growing up, we didn’t have pets right away. Although, cats always found us…regardless of if we wanted them 😂!

UK circa ’97. A British kitty found an admirer in my sister with the bowl-cut.

As my sister and I got older, I never expressed my deep desire to have a pet because I really didn’t have such a desire…yet. My sister became the “animal lover” of the family, and by 5 years old, she was set on becoming a veterinarian.

To “prove” her love for animals, she would always request animal figurines as gifts for birthdays, holidays, good grades (lol), etc. Clifford the Big Red Dog was her favorite book series/show in kindergarten. She begged my parents for us to get a dog.

It seemed like she fit the animal lover role perfectly, so why did I need to do anything?

On one fateful October day, a furry child came to our driveway, and won my sister over like the picture taken in the UK above. She was a neighbor’s cat, but she chose us each and every day after her initial meeting with us. Tiger kept visiting us each evening, and my sister and I were in awe of such a beautiful tabby choosing to hang out with us over her owners, haha!

Those neighbors coincidentally were planning to move, and knew about Tiger’s whereabouts and visits to our house. Tiger, who we renamed Baby (because she was our baby!), chose us as her new family. Our hearts couldn’t be any more full.

Baby and I when I was in middle school. Excuse my unibrow—but what do you expect from a second gen desi pre-teen girl 😂 #HairyGenes

Baby was our fiesty, sweet companion for many years. She saw me from third grade all the way through my first years in graduate school. She could snap a bite, rip off mouse heads and gift us with the body 😮, or sit elegantly in her “puff” (or loaf as most cat aficionados call it) on all sorts of things—blankets, math homework, ironing tables, etc.

She was our angel.

In 2015, my parents left California for Oklahoma, and Baby, who was an outdoor cat and well-adapted to northern Californian flora and fauna, had a crisis for the entire road trip. My sister remembers with horror the visceral growls Baby made—the vomiting, the fear radiating from her glass eyes—and how it was a mortifying experience she hopes to never have to repeat with a cat ever again.

We took Baby from the only home she’d ever known because we thought we were doing the right thing not to abandon her, but maybe we should have left her to roam free in the land she knew like the back of her paw. She did alright in Oklahoma for the first year and a half, but then developed a lung infection that only got worse with time…

Baby passed away in July 2017, and it was the first time I heard my Dad cry since his mother passed away 15 years earlier. My heart hurt over the phone when he made the phone call. Baby wasn’t “his” in the beginning, but as she grew older and as my sister and I moved on to college, she found a companion in my Dad, and he in her ❤.

I don’t care what anyone says, animals have an alluring power over us, and touch our souls in places that are hard to reach.

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Despite touting daily facts about animals, binge-watching Meerkat Manor, and consuming countless books about cat and dog care, I began to see changes in my sister when she reached the end of middle school. One day, she looked at her giant bucket of animal figurines and said, “I think I’m going to donate these.”

I was in shock…my baby sister? Self-proclaimed animal lover…was giving up on, animals? She assured us all nothing was changing, but as she finished high school and entered college, her heart wasn’t set on veterinary medicine anymore. Her reasons were non-animal related from what she expressed to us, but it saddened me to see this change in her.

And surprisingly, as she drifted away from her overflowing fascination with animals, mine started to grow…

I think my desire to be near animals grew in the later years of my PhD training. The long days and nights feeling alone must have gotten to me after the adrenaline of work began to fade away as I got closer to graduation. I used to share with my Dad that only animals could make me smile at that point. Scrolling through Instagram, I would end up sharing the cutest videos of cats playing patty-cake or dogs cuddling with their owners. He suggested that I should seek out an animal shelter to volunteer at in my free time. Perhaps that would help me de-stress and relax, as well have a good excuse to hang out with fur babies since I didn’t have any of my own!

I started volunteering at a shelter in Huntington Beach in the fall of 2019. I came in thinking I was a cat/small dog person, and while I felt comfortable around large dogs, I didn’t think I was qualified enough to work with them compared to other volunteers.

Plus, many of the volunteers that came on weekends were set on walking the larger dogs, leaving the smaller guys neglected. I didn’t mind spending time with them…I enjoyed the company of stout chihuahuas, stubborn terriers, and mop look-alike poodle mixes. My favorites were the ones that yearned to run, and were ready to get into step with me once I picked up the pace.

I was all smiles with Happy, a fluffy Samoyed with quite a BORK!

And whenever a dog was relaxed enough to roll around on the grass and expose it’s belly, my heart rejoiced. I always obliged to give a darling doggeh a belly rub!

Wilbur is literally a tiger dog! I only walked him once but he got comfortable quick, hence the exposed belly <3 !

I realized that I actually am a big dog person after seeing that, while some of the small dogs I worked with liked to run, the bigger dogs needed it and appreciated it a ton! In the following months, I developed a penchant for shiba inus, cattle dogs, and of course huskies!

Quincy was the smallest husky I’ve ever seen. And he had the biggest paws!

But the dog I bonded with the most was a husky named Jax.

All he needed was someone to run with him, understand that he needed to release his pent-up anxiety, and that he would not be a prisoner forever. I’m glad that I was able to run with him during my shifts at the shelter…he needed it for his sanity.

I’m frustrated that the Game of Thrones hype around wolf-like dogs (huskies) spurred on the adoption of so many dogs of this active lifestyle breed, and that people who naively took on the responsibilities of handling this type of dog gave up so easily. Huskies are loving, loyal, beautiful dogs, but they need mental stimulation, daily exercise, and humans that understand that. Jax was known as “uncontrollable” and “too hyper” at the shelter by the workers and volunteers, and I’m honored that I was able to excavate Jax’s true personality…even if it cost me arm scratches, sore glutes from sprints around the park, and mud-soaked sweatpants!

Anything for the one you love, I guess?

When I’m in a comfortable position with my career and truly have a place of my own, I’d love to have pets to cherish and adore! It would be a dream to have a sanctuary of some sort, where I can let cats, dogs, pigs, cows, racoons, capybaras, possums, pangolins, ducks, chickens, and so many more creatures that have captured my heart run free.

This guy was at the shelter too! Such a cutie pie.

My friends laugh when I share this daydream of mine with them, but only animals have the power to make me smile my brightest. It’s impossible not to love creatures so loving and innocent…

And to think that the actions of humanity can impact the lives of other species in a positive or negative way? It’s scary that we have so much influence over the lives of creatures that don’t have a voice.

To me, I think we need to take this responsibility seriously, whether one “likes” animals or not.

Are you an animal lover?

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Since we are on the topic of animal love, I thought it’d be a good time to mention the recent work of a fellow SGD, Adi from Edison, NJ! I came across CheeseDosa, his short story collection after reading about his own experience with a heartwarming doggo in his post, My Shelter. I loved this story of a courageous dog melting hearts, so I reached out. We got to talking, and he mentioned his project CheeseDosa: a book of short stories he is making by hand and selling on Kickstarter. He’s also making it possible for 33% of the sale revenue (not just profits) to go towards the Orange County Humane Society (where I met Jax and all my beautiful dog friends) if you back the project using the link above.

I’m all for supporting voices of color, especially those that share my background and experiences, and getting those voices out into the world. I highly recommend checking out his project and blog via the links above!

A Month with Wag!

For the Love of Animals