Dog'motion at dawn matters!

Me, Myself and My Pawed Pal — Story 1

 - Featuring Duster

It started at 4:03 am. Not with a bark.  

With a sigh. That long, deliberate, "I am here and I too have thoughts and feelings" kind of sigh! 

Duster is 12 now. My daughter named him when she was in middle school.  

She said he would "dust off" any hard feeling the moment she walked through the door.  

Bad test, fight with friend, long day — didn’t matter. Duster was there, tail first.

He came to us from a shelter when he was 1. Never mated. Never fathered. Just... us, his family and loving pet parents.

  

Three meals with the family. Two walks. Biscuit after. Bed by 8pm.  

We have a routine. Or rather, we thought we did.

For the last 3-4 days his body clock has shifted. 6:15am walk was fine for years. Now 4am feels right to him.

Was it hunger? Was it anxiety? Was it something medical?  

I checked. Water: full. Dinner: over. Biscuit: already earned yesterday.  

My hands were already reaching for the leash while my mind was still asking questions.

We went.  

45 minutes. Chennai pre-dawn. The air was still cool. Duster sniffed everything like he was reading yesterday’s newspaper. Did his business. Met the early aunties & uncles, his street friends foes (community cats) et al. Came back home, had his biscuit, drank water, and slid under the bed.

One leg out. Face on the cool tile. The official job-done posture 😌.

And there I was, sitting on the floor next to him, wondering.

"Should he have mated once? Should he have had pups? Did I miss something?"  

That thought has a way of creeping in at 4am and continued after 530 am! 

I remembered what the vet said. I remembered what he has now.  

A home. Predictability. Someone who notices when his sigh comes early.  

"Even a dog's life takes its own turn," I told myself.

Maybe Duster’s turn wasn’t about fathering a litter.  

Maybe his turn was about dusting off hard days for a middle-school girl,  

and now, dusting off 4am anxieties for a grown-up pet parent.

I watched him melt into the floor. All that pleading energy, now just peace.  

And I realized I had two choices in that moment:  

A) Keep spiraling about the "what ifs"  

B) Accept the "what is" and rest with him

 C) Share "What it is" as short stoies for fellow pet parents

I chose B, first.  

The next 15 minutes were quiet. No phone. No scrolling. Just the sound of Duster breathing and the fan.  

I learnt something again. Not new, but worth re-learning:  

Pause. Check the need. Then let the want go.

Then Option C. I reached for my OnePlus Nord and qwerty typed away till my little fingers hurt, holding the phone. Jammed the idea with Meta and defined the plot, twist and the first story - this one! 

Pet parents, if you’re reading this at 4am — you’re not alone.

Sometimes the pleading is not a problem. Sometimes it’s just a schedule change.  

Sometimes it’s just age.

Check. Walk. Feed. Water.  

Then let them teach you how to rest. Sometimes, all we need need is to Sit . Stand . Heel!

- Keats Passiondurai

29th July 2026

—  

My other blogs 

I see. I write. I share

Being Passion Inspired