Sangameshwaran V. Gnanavel (Part 1)

One time when I was filling in security questions for some random password recovery, my father confessed that Sangu, my childhood dog, wasn't actually my first pet. He told me that when I was a wee little toddler-thing growing up in India, he brought home a little brown puppy -- Brownie. I don't remember any dog named Brownie in my life, but more concerning than that, if what he said was true, I apparently sucked at coming up with decent dog names. Naturally, I asked my dad to tell me more and about what happened to the puppy. He said, "that dog hated you" and then he told me why...

I pretty much used him as a stuffed animal and would carry him around by the tail and hug the crap outa him - literally. Brownie misunderstood my love-language, and that's totally not my problem. But I'm very fortunate that 8 years after that, my parents did allow me to get another dog -- as long as I promised to not carry it around the by the tail, to take care of it, to finish all my homework. and to keep my room clean. My dad literally drew up a contract of demands and said I had to sign it if I wanted a pet and I did so happily, with absolutely no intention of complying to those last 2 conditions!

A couple weeks before my 10th birthday, back in June 2003, the four of us went to the Kanahwa County Humane Society. After we got there and checked in with the lady at the front desk, I heard my parents quietly say to her, " we are just here to look, we don't plan on adopting today."

We walked down a narrow hallway that smelled and sounded like a zoo with various genres of barks, whines, and growls. The door to the left was the puppies and the door to the right was the adult dogs. I chose the door on the left.

As I entered, my overstimulated brain had a hard time processing all the puppies up at the gates jumping and barking. I focused instead on the little golden-colored pup with the white chest and foot socks, that was curled up at the back of the last kennel. He must've decided to take a nap after working hard on his abstract art project all over the floor (puppies don't paint with paint). I admired this pup's complete lack of fucks to give.

Sangu and I in early 2004. My best friend.

I pointed to him, and the lady released him and his chocolate-colored brother from their kennel. His sibling bolted out of the cage and ran around the room like a nutcase. My little dude woke up with a yawn, a stretch, and wagged his cute little tail as he ran to my feet and proceeded to lick my toes. I giggled at the feeling and picked him up - NOT by the tail this time - and told my mommy that this was the puppy for our family. Shockingly, she responded with a: "no way, we are not getting a dog, I just brought you here so you can play with them, not bring them home! I't's either the dog or me in the house."

A week later, on June 28, 2003 after Tae Kwon Do class, Krishna and I were unsuspecting as my parents came by as usual to pick us up. We both climbed into the old-ass Jeep my parents bought from an auction once. Immediately, a nasty smell stung our nostrils, accompanied by precious whimpers and "woofs" that came from the trunk of the vehicle. I'm not sure whether my eyes were watering because of the smell or because of the sheer amount of joy I felt... My brother and I shot up from our seats and ran to the back of our Jeep. Inside my green laundry tub, was the sweet little golden puppy that I had held in my arms the week before! Except this time I couldn't pick him up at all, because the car ride gave him explosive shits and he was covered in it. He really was the perfect puppy for our family!

The only pic I could find of him this small! Back in 2003

After all of us took a bath that night, my mom and I sat down at the dining table and thought about a name for him. I came up with incredible names like Fluffy and Goldy, of course. But my mother told me that I should name him something special. So I thought about a movie I had seen at the time, my favorite movie even today - Anbe Sivam. I decided to name him Sangu, the same name Kamal Hasan's character gives his dog in that movie. My mother then declared him Sangameshvaran Venkatachalapathi Gnanavel -- and he became a forever a part of our family and our lives. To be continued...