🚶 Started walking at 5:30 in the morning and a stray dog now waits for me at the gate

I started morning walks in the first week of September, mostly because my doctor said my sugar was borderline. The plan was thirty minutes around the colony park, before the traffic wakes up and the milk vans arrive. First week I quit on day three because my legs hurt and it was still dark outside. Second week I made it to day six, and after that I stopped counting. On the ninth day a thin brown dog started following me from our gate to the park entrance. I ignored him, then I felt bad and shared half of a Marie biscuit I had in my pocket. That was my mistake, because he has waited at the gate every morning since that day. He walks two steps behind me, never ahead, and he stops when I stop at the tea stall. My husband laughs and says I have adopted a dog without paying for the vaccines. The tea stall owner now keeps a small steel plate for him and charges me nothing for the milk. Two weeks ago I did not go out because of rain, and the dog was standing at the gate, wet. I felt so guilty that I put on my raincoat and walked anyway, in slippers. My sugar number came down by eleven points at the last check, which surprised the doctor and me. I would like to say it was the walking, but the dog gets some of the credit. Without him I would have stayed in bed on at least half of those mornings. He does not care about my pace, my breathing or the fact that I wear mismatched socks. Yesterday he was not at the gate for the first time, and I stood there like a fool. I walked the whole route slowly, looking behind me every few steps, and the park felt too quiet. He was sitting outside the tea stall when I got back, chewing on something he had found. He looked up, wagged once, and went back to chewing. I think we are fine.

Careful with feeding him biscuits every day, because Marie is mostly sugar and not great for a dog. Our vet in Banjara Hills told us plain boiled rice with a little egg is much better. Also think about getting him vaccinated, since you are now his main person. My mother did that with a stray near our gate and it cost only 300 rupees.

Slippers in the rain for a dog is the part I keep smiling about. I used to walk at the Gachibowli stadium track and a one eared cat sat on the same bench daily. When the cat vanished for a week, I felt oddly lost and almost phoned the guard.

Eleven points down in a few weeks is a proper result, so do not give it all to the dog.