On Losing Happiness

Psychology defines happiness as mental or emotional state of well-being .If you ask people, what does happiness mean to them, to which you will most probably get different answers. As obviously, happiness comes in all sizes and all shapes. Happiness could be acquired through buying new clothes, eating your favourite food, going to the much awaited vacation trips and these are all diverse, just like the individuals in the world. Happiness is acquired through countless stimuli, whether they are material or emotional. One cannot give a general definition for happiness, due to the fact that each person has their own perception of what happiness is. 

My theory of happiness is, just sitting and watching animals doing their usual actions, seeing them having food, pets going with their owners for a walk, birds chirping and making day more beautiful and basically every time animal centric.

All I am famous for my family, relatives and friends - as an animal lover, to which I say that “animal lovers are a special breed of human, generous of spirit, full of empathy perhaps a little prone to sentimentality and heart as big as a cloudless sky.”

Whenever I used to post pictures on social networking sites, people asked me, do you have pet? To which I proudly used to reply that ‘I have two pet dogs’. For as long as I can remember I have loved animals, but love towards them increased when I got home, one of my pet dog named ‘Duggu’ whom I lost recently. He symbolized a child, sibling, best friend and long-term companion to me. Dogs live an average of 13 years, enough time to truly enter and live in your heart. They become a part of your family and daily life. My morning routine never was complete without playing to fetch or going on a walk with him and nights ended with a peck to him. Though when I visited home last time, he was not well and when I took him to the veterinarian, he told that lung, kidney infection and minute fever was the cause of him being unwell. But I had never expected that this time home would seem so lonely to me. He had taught me how to love a specie that cannot express their thoughts and was actually the most loved pet in my locality.

When you lose someone close to you, the seemingly endless barrage of "it'll get better" clichés begins to wear on you almost as much as the grief. I am nowadays also recommended to buy the same breed dog and name it the same so as to recover the loss of my pet, but how can I adopt a new dog when I cannot even gather the guts to scroll in my camera album which is all full of his pictures. His love is just the same as the first love which can't be replaced, as for our first love we might replace it but we never get that same person and never do the memories fade away but are kept beautifully in heart. For I know, he is somewhere chilling in dog’s heaven. 

A pet is truly a gift that can change your life and bring you monumental happiness and gratitude. Pets teach you responsibility, patience, kindness, discipline, playfulness and, most importantly, unconditional love. Even if your dog chews your couch, scratches your doors, and manages to eat every sock you own, you still figure out a way to share your home and heart with your companion. For overcoming my pain of his loss, I have joined an animal shelter where I can give love to other animals and keep his memory alive, seems to me the healthiest way to get through the grief.  

"When tomorrow starts without me, don't think we're far apart. 

For every time you think of me, I'm here inside your heart."