Pathankot: Trekker whose body was guarded by dog wouldn’t stay sans his pet even for a minute

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Pathankot, February 8

Whenever Abhinandan Gupta, 32, would be with his friends in his rented accommodation at Bir, where he had been staying for the last six years, he would often tell them to remember one thing—“If you want someone to love you forever, buy a dog, feed it and keep it around. Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail”.

Dog back at Abhinandan’s Bir house

Just to ensure that Alpha does not fall sick or develop any solitude problem, he has been shifted to Abhinandan’s home in Bir where some of his friends are staying.

Abhinandan’s Gurugram-based brother, Anshuman Gupta, said his brother had a special affinity for dogs ever since he was in New Public School, Sector-18, Chandigarh. He had brought many of them and Alpha, a German Shepherd who stood guard for 48 hours in snow just to ensure that wild animals of Bir Billing were kept at bay from his master’s body, was his latest acquisition.

“Alpha was just four days old when Abhi, spotted him and brought him home. Thereafter, life for him revolved around Alpha, trekking and paragliding. Alpha was four years old when his master left him. Post the tragedy, the pet had stopped eating and drinking but for the last two days he’s back to his normal self,” said Anshuman.

“It seems Alpha is still trying to figure out what has happened. Dogs do speak but only to those who know how to listen to them. Abhi was one of those people who understood his pet’s language. Whenever my brother would have to go for an outing, the first thing he did was to hug Alpha for hours on his return. In his own special language, which had bonded the animal and his master for four years, Abhinandan would talk to him. Only when his day’s quota of talking was fulfilled would Abhi and Alpha go to sleep. When the body was kept at the hospital mortuary, Alpha wept as if something from out of this world had hit him,” said Anshuman.

Just to ensure that Alpha does not fall sick , he has been shifted to Abhinandan’s home in Bir where some of his friends are staying.

Abhinandan would teach the nuances of paragliding to youngsters and would also help them in trekking. Abhinandan and his colleague went missing on February 5 before cops found their bodies from a gorge on February 6.

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