A Tribute to the Best Dog Ever

This afternoon, our sweet Kulfi passed away peacefully. He was thirteen years old, but didn’t look a day over five. He was in the car, and quietly put his head down, and passed on. He was doing one of his favorite things, taking a car ride. He loved car rides. He just wanted to go along with you. 

The first night we brought him home, he was so small, so fluffy, and when he slept he curled up into a little ball - like a little vanilla ice cream scoop. We decided to name him Kulfi, which means ice cream in Hindi. We didn’t quite know him yet, but he seemed sweet. He lived up to his name. 

Over the next few years, he developed quite a personality. He was such a happy, quirky, funny dog. People think I’m crazy when I say this, but I swear, Kulfi had a genuine smile. But he would give us the sad face sometimes too, whenever he heard keys jingling. But if he heard, “Kulfi, you want to come?” he would smile again. He also smiled when we asked, “Want a cookie?” But who doesn’t smile when cookies are offered?

He never quite learned how to play fetch. We would throw a stick or a sock, and he would pick it up and run around the house until he realized we were tired of chasing him - then he would drop it and let us throw it again. He quit obedience school. Not because he couldn’t master the material - I just think he thought he was better than that. 

He also loved to sleep. We found him several times lying on his back, legs sprawled out, snoring away. But this didn’t mean he wasn’t quick on his feet. All you had to do was yell, “CAT!!” and he would dart from one end to the house to the back doors and start barking away. Kulfi was not fond of cats.  He wasn’t fond of vegetables either. He used to pick them out of his dog food and leave them on the floor.

Kulfi was also not fond of suitcases. We eventually learned to quietly load the car so he wouldn’t see that one of us was leaving. But when we came back home from wherever we were - college, traveling, work, he would run up and down the house in celebration. As he got older, he couldn’t get as excited, but he still wagged his tail enough to show how happy he was. Even when I would come home late at night after a long night in the library - he would be the only one awake, sleepily crawling out of his bed to say hello to me. 

It is so funny how his small little acts added up to so much, and filled our hearts with so much love. It’s not an exaggeration to say that he changed our lives. For me, he changed the way I think about animals. He’s a big reason I became vegetarian and interested in law - to help animals not as fortunate as he was. 

He was nothing short of the best dog ever. We will miss him immensely. 

Thank you Kulfi, for everything. 

Kulfi Mungara

1997 - 2011