I met her last week and I already miss her! I like to watch her being silly. She has this undeterred focus while eating and playing. The weekend is almost here and can’t wait to play with her again!

Well, trust me its been a journey to overcome the fear of dogs.

I never had a pet during my childhood because we used to constantly move due to the nature of my father’s job. He was in the Indian Navy. By the time I would get to settle in the new place, get used to the school, friends, and best friends for life we would have had to pack our bags again! I cannot blame my parents for not having a dog in such circumstances.

It was not until when I started working in the US that my encounters with the dogs started again.

Before that, I was a student back in India and my relationship with dogs could be described as fight or flight. I can still vividly remember an incident where I was chased by a street dog and I made a run like never before! I always used to avoid roads that had dogs (even when they were the behind gates) that is how much I was scared.

Though most the dogs in the US are so well behaved and groomed, I could not undo my fear. Whenever a dog would come near me wagging its tail I would scream so loud that poor creature used to get scared. I was practicing social distancing with dogs even before I was aware of this 2020’s buzz word.

Well, things changed when I became friends with people who loved dogs and owned a dog. This was a game-changer. So whenever I wanted to hang out with my friends I was forced to hang out with their dog as well. This did not go very well initially. Whenever I would meet their dog, I would isolate myself to an area where the dog was not allowed to enter. Over time even though I was scared, I secretly wanted to pet the dog but I was scared. I was stuck in this vicious cycle for quite sometime.

Maya was a pup when I met her. Very playful and very energetic. I wanted to pet her and play with her like others but I was scared. After several meetups, I braved to put my hand over her head to pet her. Phew! This was a major milestone. Slowly I was getting used to being around her. Another major hurdle I had to overcome was to deal with her greetings! I didn’t know how to deal with her love and affectionate energy. It took me a very long time to get used to her style of greeting but once I got used to it playing with her came naturally.

We went on a couple of hikes before the Pandemic hit the world. She loves to be ahead of pack and gets super excited to see other dogs on the way. Big dogs doesn’t scare her at all, so every now and then she gives us free life lessons :D. These days I try to meet her over the weekends.

It has been one hell of a journey for me to overcome the fear of dogs. Thanks to Maya for being so gentle and playful in this whole process. Now she is a teenager and tends to play with guys more. So every time I meet her these days, my mission is to win her over to play with me!

Sometimes I do think of getting a dog of my own but I guess there is still a long way to go for that (Like fostering etc. and right now I’d like to have a Border Collie but it keeps changing!).

In a nutshell, if you are someone who is scared of dogs but secretly wants to let go of some fear someday, you need to give yourself a LOT of time. It can accelerate if you have friends who already have a dog or loves dogs. Once you overcome, they are the best ones to be around. Sometimes when I am low, I look forward to meeting Maya to see her oblivion towards life and world problems. There is some sort of comfort to see them being silly, friendly and living in the moment :)

Thank you, Maya for being so friendly and kudos to her parents - Aparna & Neville to let me play with her :).