Man’s best friend: A photographer encounters lonely stray dogs on Goa’s beaches during the pandemic

The other day, a wet black dog with a red collar appeared on our balcony.

It was the season of Ganesh, Goa had lit up in festive thanks. For weeks the firecrackers sounded against the dark night. The dogs were running. Every morning the village WhatsApp group would show us dogs lost and dogs found, dispersed from their homes and the hearts that had held them. We posted her picture. Black pelt, a muzzle of white. WhatsApp, Facebook, the redundant electric pillars and the red walls of the post office. No one came. No one claimed. She slept on the bench in the balcony for many nights but now she has a small black bed inside the house that perfectly matches her coat. She is used to us now. She is happy to see us when we come home. She fell sick too. Some kind of fever, the vet said. Now she is better but I see it in her sad eyes sometimes. The family she left behind, who must be thinking of her, worried sick.

— Prayaag Akbar.

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