My love for dogs is well documented (Farewell Harvard!), but I must admit that no dog meant more to me than Bagheera. In a way, it is odd that it would be the case. She was really my 2005 girlfriend’s dog.
I grew up with Ucla, an extraordinary yellow Labrador, and pined for a similar lab ever since. I knew it would be unfair to the dog to get him while living in a tiny apartment in NY while completely overworked from McKinsey or whatever startup I was running. I bided my time. Finally, post selling Zingy, I could afford to have a country house with a big garden and could indulge my childhood dream.
I wanted a yellow lab and my girlfriend wanted a female Rottweiler that had to be called Bagheera. We wisely compromised and got both. She looked for breeders, read books on how to select amongst all the puppies, while I was tasked with rolling around the mud and playing with them.
Bagheera was born March 4, 2005, two days after Harvard, my yellow lab, and joined our family 6 weeks after that, 1 week after Harvard’s arrival. While I immediately loved her wrinkly face and huge paws, it was not immediately clear at that time how exceptional she was. If anything, in the early days it felt like Harvard was the quicker learner. Only later did I realize that he was an insatiable glutton who would do anything for food. He only learned to reap savory rewards. His learning came to an abrupt halt when he realized it was way easier for him to use his guile, charm, good looks to steal much larger quantities of food than the paltry rewards I offered for learning new tricks.
What most people noticed when they first met her was her poise and grace. She was always calm and deliberate and affected a regal air of detachment. She knew her strength and modulated it to play with kids and babies. She never growled and always looked thoughtful. For all who met her, she singlehandedly rehabilitated the entire Rottweiler breed in one fell swoop. Rottweilers have a reputation as aggressive, dangerous dogs, but her calmness quickly won people over.
Her poise and intelligence meant that I ended up spending much more time with her than Harvard. In Sands Point, I taught her to go biking with me. With or without a leash, she would always run to the right of my bike, safe from traffic, always matching my speed, not distracted by other dogs or squirrels. It’s a feat I never managed with Harvard who would jump on me or start chasing after anything and everything, nearly killing us multiple times in the process. Likewise, in Cabarete, I rapidly had to stop bringing Harvard to Kite Club as I would invariably have to buy the meals of countless people he had stolen from. By contrast Bagheera would roam around, play with the kids and wait patiently for me on the beach. While I kited, she would always watch out for me, always excited for my return.
She slept next to me in bed every night, offering warmth, companionship and love. Harvard would get up at 6 am every day and immediately leave to continue his interminable quest for food, or worse would wake me up to ask for his breakfast. By contrast, Bagheera, while mostly waking up at the same time, would wait patiently in bed watching over me while I slept. When I woke up, she would shower me with kisses and would only leave the bed when I did.
She would also try to goad Harvard, who was much lazier and ran in his distinct bumbling way rather than with Bagheera’s elegant grace, into chasing after and playing with her.
Farewell Bagheera. Thanks for twelve and a half years of unconditional love and bliss. You will never be forgotten.
